Davy Crockett

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  • DAVY CROCKETT


    Born
    August 17, 1786(1786-08-17)
    Greene County, Tennessee


    Died
    March 6, 1836 (aged 49)
    Alamo Mission, San Antonio, Republic of Texas


    Political Party
    Anti-Jacksonian


    Spouse(s)
    Polly Finley (1806 - 1815) her death
    Elizabeth Patton (1815-1836) his death


    Occupation
    Pioneer, Soldier, Trapper, Explorer, State Assembly man,


    Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
    from Tennessee's 9th district
    In office 1827–1831


    Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
    from Tennessee's 12th district
    In office 1833–1835


    Mini-Biography
    Full Biography- Davy Crockett


    David Crockett was a celebrated 19th-century American folk hero,
    frontiersman, soldier and politician;
    referred to in popular culture as Davy Crockett
    and often by the epithet “King of the Wild Frontier.”
    He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives,
    served in the Texas Revolution, and died at the Battle of the Alamo.



    Crockett grew up in the hills and river valleys of East Tennessee,
    where he gained a reputation for hunting and storytelling.
    After rising to the rank of colonel in the Lawrence County,
    Tennessee militia, Crockett was elected to the Tennessee state legislature in 1821.
    In 1826, Crockett was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time.
    As a congressman, Crockett vehemently opposed
    many of the policies of President Andrew Jackson,
    most notably the Indian Removal Act. Crockett's
    opposition to Jackson's policies led to his defeat in the 1834 elections,
    prompting his angry departure to Texas shortly thereafter.
    In early 1836, Crockett joined the Texas Revolution
    and died at the Battle of the Alamo in March of the same year.



    The Fall Of The Alamo


    Crockett arrived at the Alamo on February 8.
    To the surprise of the men garrisoned in the Alamo, on February 23,
    a Mexican army, led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, arrived.
    The Mexican soldiers immediately initiated a siege.
    Santa Anna ordered his artillery to keep up a near-constant bombardment.
    The guns were moved closer to the Alamo each day, increasing their effectiveness.
    On February 25, 200–300 Mexican soldiers crossed
    the San Antonio River and took cover in abandoned shacks
    approximately 90 yards (82 m) to 100 yards (91 m) from the Alamo walls.
    The soldiers intended to use the huts as cover to establish another artillery position,
    although many Texians assumed that they actually
    were launching an assault on the fort.
    Several men volunteered to burn the huts.
    To provide cover, the Alamo cannons fired grapeshot at the Mexican soldiers,
    and Crockett and his men fired rifles, while other defenders reloaded
    extra weapons for them to use in maintaining a steady fire.
    Within two hours, the battle was over, and the Mexican soldiers retreated.
    Inside the Alamo, the stores of powder and shot were limited.
    On February 26, Travis ordered the artillery to stop returning fire
    so as to conserve precious ammunition.
    Crockett and his men were encouraged to keep shooting,
    as they were unusually effective.


    As the siege progressed, Alamo commander William Barret Travis
    sent many messages asking for reinforcements.
    Several messengers were sent to James Fannin, who commanded
    the only other official group of Texian soldiers.
    Fannin and several hundred Texians occupied Presidio La Bahia at Goliad.
    Although Fannin ultimately decided it was too risky to attempt to reinforce the Alamo,
    historian Thomas Ricks Lindley concludes that up to 50 of Fannin's men
    left his command to go to Bexar.
    These men would have reached Cibolo Creek, 35 miles (56 km) from the Alamo,
    on the afternoon of March 3.
    There they joined another group of men who also planned to join the garrison.


    That same night, outside the Alamo, there was a skirmish between
    Mexican and Texian troops. Several historians, including Walter Lord,
    speculated that the Texians were creating a diversion to allow their last courier,
    John Smith, to evade Mexican pickets.
    However, in 1876, Alamo survivor Susannah Dickinson said that Travis
    sent three men out shortly after dark on March 3,
    probably a response to the arrival of Mexican reinforcements.
    The three men, who included Crockett, Dickinson believed,
    were sent to find Fannin.
    Lindley stated that just before midnight, Crockett and one of the other men
    found the force of Texians waiting along Cibolo Creek,
    who had advanced to within 20 miles (32 km) of the Alamo.
    Just before daylight on March 4, part of the Texian force managed
    to break through the Mexican lines and enter the Alamo.
    A second group was driven across the prairie by Mexican cavalry.
    The Fall of the Alamo by Robert Jenkins Onderdonk depicts Davy Crockett
    in a charge at the Mexican troops who have breached the walls of the mission.


    The siege ended on March 6, when the Mexican army
    attacked while the defenders were sleeping.
    The daily bombardment by artillery had been suspended,
    perhaps a ploy to encourage the natural human reaction to a cessation of constant strain.
    But, the garrison awakened, the final fight began.
    Meanwhile, most of the noncombatants gathered in the church sacristy for safety.
    According to Susana Dickinson, before running to his post,
    Crockett paused briefly in the chapel to pray.
    When the Mexican soldiers breached the outer walls of the Alamo complex,
    most of the Texians fell back to the barracks and the chapel,
    as previously planned.
    Crockett and his men were too far from the barracks
    to be able to take shelter and were the last remaining group within the mission
    to be in the open.
    The men defended the low wall in front of the church,
    using their rifles as clubs and relying on knives, as action became too furious
    to allow reloading their weapons.
    After a volley of fire and a charge with bayonets, Mexican soldiers
    pushed the few remaining Texians back toward the church.
    The Battle of the Alamo lasted almost 90 minutes.


    Once all of the defenders were dead, Santa Anna
    ordered his men to take the bodies of the Texans
    to a nearby stand of trees where they were stacked together
    and wood piled on top of them.
    That evening, a fire was lit, and the bodies of the defenders were burned to ashes.
    A coffin in the San Fernando Cathedral purports to hold the ashes
    of the Alamo defenders.
    Historians believe it more likely that the ashes were buried near the Alamo.


    The ashes were left undisturbed until February 1837,
    when Juan Seguin and many members of his cavalry returned
    to Bexar to examine the remains.
    A local carpenter created a simple coffin, and ashes
    from the funeral pyres were placed inside.
    The names Travis, Crockett, and Bowie were inscribed on the lid.
    The box is thought to have been buried in a peach tree grove,
    but the spot was not marked and cannot now be identified.


    During his lifetime, Crockett became famous for larger-than-life exploits
    popularized by stage plays and almanacs.
    After his death he continued to be credited with brazen acts of mythical proportion,
    which continued into the 20th century with television and movie portrayals,
    and he grew to become one of the most well-known folk heroes in American history.



    Birthplace Stone


    Compiled and edited by ethanedwards
    Information and Photographs from Wikipedia

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 12 times, last by ethanedwards ().

  • Tom Lindley was a US Army criminal investigator long before he authored "Alamo Traces" in 1993. He applied his career learned investigative techniques to his Alamo research and made reasonable conclusions from the facts he meticulously unearthed.
    He footnotes every single step of the way and builds his conclusions one brick at a time.
    I've been an investigator for New York State for 36 years and can appreciate Lindley's approach.
    If anyone is interested in boning up on the real Crockett and Alamo, you could do worse than starting here, or William Davis' "Three Roads to the Alamo".
    Davis also did back-breaking investigative work, including gaining access to sequestered archives in Mexico City which indicate that lancers killed 68 Texicans outside the mission, which should be added to the 182 bodies stacked on pyres inside the mission. He concludes that it would be unreasonable for the Mexicans to drag those bodies into the courtyard and that that number was neglected in the official report. So there were more defenders than originally recognized.
    That would corroborate that additional reinforcements made it into the Alamo just before the final assault.
    There's much more information and detail in both works. Fascinating stuff.



    We deal in lead, friend.

  • Davy Crockett, "King of the Wild Frontier" A great song and Fess Parker was a great Crockett and then later, Daniel Boone. Fess was
    a gentle,easy going guy in his public personna. I have the 200 or so minute version of John Wayne's "Alamo".


    Bringing up old unused blogs.

    "A people that values their Privileges above it's Principles. Soon looses both." Dwight Eisenhower

  • Anyone remember the missing scenes in Walt Disney's Davy Crockett? I first saw this movie at the Allen Theater in Farmington NM back in 1955. I was eight years old.


    When Davy first meets Thimbleriig, Thimblerig talks Davy into playing "find the pea". After Thimblerig shuffels the thimbles Davy picks the MIDDLE thimble, and quickly lifts the thimbles to the right and left showing there is nothing under them, so the pea has to be under the middle thimble. Since Thimblerig did not be want to be considered a "cheat" he said Davy won and did not pick up the middle thimble.


    This scene is never shown anymore, yet it was in for quite a few years when this played on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.. Wonder why that is? Also, in the Alamo, when Jim Bowie is moved to a different room, one of the Latino Texans points to a statue of the Madonna and says she will protect Bowie. This scene also has disappeared.

  • I enhanced a piece a well-written piece about the Alamo some years ago and will see if I can find it when time permits and try to paste it here.

    Es Ist Verboten Mit Gefangenen In Einzelhaft Zu Sprechen..