The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-05-15
REMEMBER THE ALAMO

the call to deeds three-quarters OF a
century ago. In 1898 the cry was
Remember the Maine!" S1ngulariy
both of the only calls to American
soldiery as stirs to valor We're in con.
dicts with Spanish foemen. But should
there now be recourse. to arms with
Mexicans there will be no cry for
vengeance. no urge for stern visiting
of condign punishment. 1t will be
merely the trouncing of an impertl-
nent and impudent leader of faction
which has maintained by might a
more or less incomplete hold on the
machinery of government, but whose
constitutional right to executive po-
sition we do not recognize. Whether
in the course of administering cor
receive to Mr.. H.erta and his faction
there shall occur any incident which
shall rouse the American people and
evolve third rallying imperative is
held behind the swaying curtain of
the future 1t is to be hoped not.
| 1t is difficult when one looks about
in this goth century to imagine the
repetition of such scenes as those
which attended the successful revolt
of Texas against the rule of Mexico.
That is, SO long as one stays this
side of the Rio ~Grande del Norte. But
once across "the river" and it is not
difficult to believe that Santa Anna
is even now abroad, that as it was in
the old days west of the Sabine in the
New Philippines as the Spaniards
called Texas, so it is today south of
the Rio Grande. Texas now is as
American as New England. Mexico
is as Mexican as when Iturbide
gathered his forces and compelled the
Spaniards to abandon the land Cortez
had conquered.
However matters may turn out, it
does no harm to recall the Alamo.
Had there been no Alamo we might
not have had a Mexican problem to-
day. Quin sabe? The story of the
Almo is stirring one, yet the tales
that drift north with the battle smoke
these days seem of a part and of a
time with the capture of the citadel
at San Antonio. And it does no harm,
may even help us to realize the
type of foe our military and naval
forces may face, to recall what hap
pened to the 1873 brave defenders of
the little fort just over the "San
'Ntone" river, opposite "San 'Ntone"
proper.
In December, 1885, General Cos, a
brother-in-law of Santa Anna, sur
rendered the Alamo to the Texans
who had set up an independent gov
eminent. The Mexicans determined
to recapture it. Colonel William Bar
rett Travis and handful of mer
were Joined on February e, 1896. bv
Colonel David Crockett, Colonel james
and their followers come from the
states to aid them. Colonel Bowie had
already made famous the bowie knife.
that deadly weapon fashioned by his
brother, Rein P. Bowie, from a black
smiths rasp. 1t had never been in
tended for use as weapon until the
noted Maddox-Wells duel at Matches
in 1927, when Bowie and the seconds
had been drawn into free-for-all con-
flict.
Sunday, March 6, 1886, Santa Anna
with 1000 men attacked the 1873 in the
ALAMO. After 1000 Mexicans had been
slain the defenders of the place num-
bered but six. "Jim" Bowie had been
shot to death when the Mexicans
broke into the hospital quarters where
he was i'll of fever. Santa Anna was
the godfather of Bowie's daughter,
and Bowie's body was the only one
which was decently buried, though
not allowed to be marked. But the six,
among them Travis and Crockett,
were induced to surrender on promise
their lives would be spared; this, at
least, is generally believed, for the
only survivors, a Mrs. Dickinson, her
baby. and a negro servant, were un-
able to give coherent account of the
slaughter. Santa Anna, however, re-
pudiated the promise of life an order
ed them shot. 'Davy" Crockett sprarg
toward the Mexican, waving his bowie
knife, but fell dead at Santa Annals
feet riddled with bullets.
"Thermopylae had three messen-
gers of defeat; the Alamo had none"
Thus, tersely, the memorial to the
1873 sums up the measure of their re-
sistance. It is impossible to appre-
bend any duplication of the Alamo,