I'm Tony Dean. And today we'll be calling history to speak with James buoy. He'll be answering our call on March 5th, 1836. The day before the Alamo was attacked, where buoy will die in his cot. This was not how one would expect buoys life to end this man fearlessly ran to the front of every battle, overcoming 10 to one odds more times than he could count. When the powerful leaders of this time, like Sam Houston needed something done. James Bowie was the man they called.
And yet at this time when the odds are heavily against him, he's so sick. He can't get out of bed. Inside the Elmo with him as Colonel William, Travis, who is in charge of the defense. Also the incredibly interesting David Crockett, who we recorded several episodes ago and outside the Fort is the unrelenting Santa Ana, who you can also listen to. In a previous episode, it is fascinating to get this story from several different perspectives. So I encourage you to listen to them as well.
James buoys life was not about this one battle though, or the knife that was named after him buoy and his brothers were about adventure and exploration. Occasionally find himself caught in the middle of a situation like the legendary sandbar duel, where you stabbed in the long and shot multiple times yet after the newspaper reported that he was not going to make it, he beat the odds. Again, you'll hear about that fight in this episode.
In the next episode, he'll talk about his questionable slave smuggling with pirate, John Laffite and his hundreds of fraudulent land deals that left authorities trying to unravel his mess long after his death. Many of the laws that we follow now exist because Bowie broke them first. In his prime, you couldn't outfight him. You couldn't outsmart him and you definitely couldn't kill him. Well, at least until tomorrow.
Ladies and gentlemen, fellow history, lovers, and wielders of butcher knives everywhere. I give you James buoy. Hello. Is that you, Mr. Bowie? With whom am I conversing? my name is Tony Dean, and I'm talking to you from the future in the 21st century. The device that you're holding in your hand is called a smartphone, and it allows us to speak as if we were standing five feet from one another.
It also allows me to share a record of our conversation with people around the world in my time, which is why I'm contacting you, because in my time, sir, you are seen as a hero, and yet it is hard to decipher some of the facts from the fiction of your life. So I was hoping that I could ask you some questions today, but before I do, I understand this is a very strange introduction. Are there any questions that I could answer for you first? I am overwhelmed, sir.
It would take me time to even think of all the questions I might ask you, but let us proceed. If I was you, I would probably feel the same way. The technology of our time is quite a bit different than it is in your time. But, speaking of, , where you are in your time right now, I understand the situation you're in right now is dire. Aren't you in the Alamo right now? Yes, sir. Lying in my cot in my room but my room is in the south wall near the gate. But please understand I am not sleeping.
I am not well. Indeed, I have been very ill since the second day of the siege. That was February 24th. And today, I believe, Is March 5th. We have been holding out against Santana's army for 12 days, I believe. But what disconcerts me at the moment, sir, is. It's the quiet the previous days of the siege. Santana's guns have been blazing day and if, if his guns were silent, his bands were playing, he was most determined to keep us awake throughout this entire time.
But at this moment, there is no sound. No. No Mexican artillery. No, no bands playing. It's just very quiet. And I am somewhat unnerved. I'm not sure why. But anyway it's probably a very good time for you to be talking to me. It would be most difficult for us to be sharing our thoughts if those guns were blazing constantly.
, I think in wartime, this is, at least in our time, this is a common strategy for people to try to keep the the people inside of a sieged area, , awake and to put them under some amount of stress. And if it's been 12 days of you not sleeping, , could that possibly have something to do with the reason that you're sick and cot right now? No, sir. I fell ill. Like I said, the second day I had been ill before this, it was getting worse and worse.
And then on that morning of that second day, I awakened and I knew that I would not be able to get out of bed by myself. At the time I had my quarters on the West wall, , in a The house there, and was most concerned that I might be contagious. That was a frightful thought because I could defeat our army without Santana even attacking. So I asked to be relocated to this room, where I was away from the garrison. And, I have laid here throughout the rest of the siege.
Yeah. Well, you definitely don't sound well, that's for sure. think that even at this time where you're not feeling well to make that decision , to pull yourself away from the men . is very forward thinking and very much the way that I think that you have led throughout your life, , I guess what I'm wondering is, this has to be driving you crazy that you have to be separated from the men. It seems like you would want to be on the front lines here. Yes, sir. And I fear.
Your analysis earlier was probably correct. am most fearful that this silence was intended to lure my army into a deep slumber, a well deserved sleep, but this is not the time to be asleep. I fear, , that Santana is preparing his assault most imminently, and I just hope our garrison is awake enough to But we know. I know. . Colonel Travis. knows I passed command to him when I became ill. We have no chance, sir. We are doomed. You already know the answer to this.
I can only speculate, but I am most certain this battle will not end well. Do you know that when he arrived on February 23rd, the first thing Santana did was raise a blood red flag to the very top of the bell tower of the San Fernando Church. That's the highest point in the town across the river from us. So we would all be able to see that flag. And we knew its significance, no quarter, sir, there would be no prisoners taken. We would all be slain. So why would you do that?
Why would he raise this red flag in the hopes that it would create fear so that you wouldn't fight as well or that you would give up under the understanding that anybody fights is 100 percent for sure going to die. Is that it? Well, I believe those of us who are. Are familiar with Santana's history. He is not inclined towards taking prisoners. Anyway, they just get in the way a year or so ago.
He attacked the town of Zacatecas in the province of the same name, and he killed most of the men and turned his army loose on the town and the survivors, the women. We heard that more than 1, 500 men were killed. Now, , I saw that red flag and I sent my aide Mr. Jameson, Greenby Jameson, out to meet. With a courier from Santana's army, they met on a little bridge. And I wanted to make sure that basically what was intended and was there any alternative?
And the response was that the only hope we could possibly have would be to put ourselves at the disposal of the Mexican army. And I believe I know what that disposal would be. There would be no hope for us, whether we surrendered or whether we stood and fight. Are you saying that they would just execute you if you were to surrender? Yes, sir. I fear that is the case. Wow. No it is better that we make this effort to fight because, let me try and explain this situation.
This revolution, our revolution began back in October and now here it is, March. And of course you were not here to see this. Those of us who were here. Had only to gaze up into the night sky and see this bright streak of light up there. And some of us knew that it forebode disaster. Some people would call it a comet. But it was very bright and my mother, who provided most of my education when I was a young man, she told me about such things these comets.
Did, do you know that King Harold of England saw such a thing? Prior to his defeat to William of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings, I believe that was 1066 and here it has returned and it does spell disaster. I have no doubt of that. The only question is disaster for whom? , I fear we are the most eminent ones. santana had put down rebellions in northern Mexico, rebellions because, sir, he had overthrown our constitution, our Mexican constitution.
He had declared himself a dictator, the Napoleon of the West, he proclaimed himself. And the good people of Mexico had enjoyed their brief period of freedom. And that's why the rebellions occurred on our border. And. And when he put those down, he knew that. We would rebel next. And of course we would.
The majority of the population of this province are Anglos, or colonists from the United States, from most of the states have come here , because the land was very cheap and we had a constitution that promised freedom. And then Santana rose up and he sent troops in ahead of himself. To disarm the town of Gonzales, which was only 80 miles east of San Antonio de Beja. We typically just call it Beja.
Uh, It's the biggest town in Texas, but almost entirely Hispanic and most of the Mexican government, such as it is are there, there are soldiers, they're soldados. And this company from Behar had ridden to Gonzales to claim this cannon, and the men there had refused to surrender the cannon. They fired at it, fired at the soldados, and they retreated back to Behar.
It was nothing more than a skirmish, sir, but we were proclaiming it the Lexington of Texas, and you must understand, we're only a generation or two removed from the American Revolution. Our fathers and grandfathers fought for freedom there. Those of us who came here, I'm not about to live under a dictator. No, we would fight just like the Hispanics below us had fought. And so we captured the town of Goliad from a Mexican garrison.
And then. With General Austin in command, we advanced on San Antonio de Behar, and there were several battles during our advance, in which I was the commander, I'm usually not braggadocious, but we won, outnumbered, but we won, and the soldados withdrew within the town. And we laid siege to it. Even though we were outnumbered, our army laid siege to the town of San Antonio de Behar. And then, at the beginning of December, we launched an attack on that town.
And after four days of brutal fighting, they surrendered. The Mexican army there surrendered. And We paroled them below the border under promise never again to raise arms against us. So I suspect that wasn't true at all, because I believe General Coase, who commanded that force, is with the army besieging us right now. Some say he's a brother in law to Santa Anna. I don't know. Well, let me ask you something about Santa Anna specifically. What is his reputation right now?
Obviously he doesn't take prisoners because he's put the red flag up, but is he a villain? Is he one of the good guys is he fighting for the independence of his country as you're fighting for the independence of I how has he seen? I have no doubt that many of the soldados in his army believe that they are fighting to preserve Mexico, because initially Mr. Alston felt very strongly about this. We wanted to help the other Mexican population to overthrow Santa Ana and restore the constitution.
But more recently, sir, the sentiment has swung hard towards independence. We want to make Texas an independent nation. Let me explain this. . Are you familiar with General Sam Houston? I am, yes, most definitely. The man was a a Brigadier General of the local militia in Tennessee, and governor there.
There was talk he might be president, he, and others, including Young Travis, who commands our garrison, now he's only 26 years old have both been strong, loud voices, crying out for Texas independence, and even as we are here, there is a convention occurring at the little town of Washington on the Brazos River, 150 miles to the northeast of here. And there they are deciding, are we an independent nation or not?
And my hope is they have already declared for independence because that would give us the cause for which we are willing to fight and probably destined to die. But our hope right now, and I feel we have somewhat accomplished this. We have delayed Santa Ana's invasion for 12 days, sir. And that has bought that convention. to do whatever they are doing.
We just have no way of knowing, but it is our belief that they were going to declare for independence to create a brand new nation, sir, the Republic of Texas. , so you have the United States right now, and then you have Mexico. And at this moment, is Texas part of Mexico? Yes, sir. We are not a separate Mexican province. , we were joined with the province of Coahuila. And so the province is called Coahuila y Tejas and that was one of our objections.
We had hoped to get the Mexican government to separate us. We had been a separate province earlier, but for whatever reason. And maybe it was an apprehension about the number of colonists that flooded into this region. I believe that there were only like 3000. Tejanos residing in this great vast area and the Comanche Indians were dominating it.
So the Mexican government opened it to immigration and colonization, hoping that Anglos could come in and resolve the Indian problem and help settle this province. And I believe to some extent we have accomplished that, but Mr. Alston was largely in charge of supervising the immigrations. And he was so very strict about allowing specific people in, people who would acknowledge and honor the Mexican constitution, declare themselves Mexican citizens.
Their constitution was patterned very much after ours. One exception, , Mexico is a Catholic nation and everyone had to become a Catholic citizen, which may have riled a few. So when you move to Texas, you have to become a Catholic? Those are the rules? Yes, sir. Absolutely. Did you do that? To become a Mexican citizen. Yes, sir, I did. And are you a Mex I know you were born in the United States, but are you a Mexican citizen right now, or are you a citizen of the United States?
Yes. I'm a Mexican citizen, sir. , I came to Texas, and not long after my arrival, I married the daughter of one of the most prominent gentlemen in Bexar, Don Juan Bermundi. I married his daughter, Ursula, and we married there in the San Fernando church, beneath , where that red flag now waves, but Ursula died. Only a few years later of that terrible cholera epidemic , that swept through the southern United States and into Texas and on down into Mexico, she died, her whole family perished.
They had gone to Monclova, up in the mountains, they're thinking they might be safer. That was not the case. Did you have any children with Ursula? There is a possibility, sir. I believe Ursula was pregnant when she and her family went down to Monclova. And I believe she had a son there. I believe this because the report of the priest, and understand the priest was so harried there, so many people die. All the time and I'm trying to administer last rights and keep the records.
I believe they said that the report reported that along those who died was the infant son of uh, Mindy and Mr. Better Mindy probably did not have a infant son. Both he and his wife were well past that time. I believe that was my son, but he died with his mother. I never saw my son. Wow. You've been married before. , is that right? , before Ursula? No, sir. Oh you had, I was engaged to miss Cecilia Wells back when I was living in Louisiana.
Her family the Wells family lived in Alexandria and we were engaged, but she died before the wedding ever happened. . The Wells family were very close friends of mine. And it was because of them that I was involved in an affair you may have heard described as the Sandbar fight. I have heard about the Sandbar fight. And I was going to ask you about this definitely because , it doesn't sound like this originally started as a dispute that you even had. Is that right? That is true, sir.
I was living near Alexandria, and there were two major political factions fighting for control of the town. And when I say fighting, there were duels, and there were altercations that were not honorable as duels are. And this one, began as a duel between Samuel Wells III and one of the gentlemen on the Opposing faction, but they were not hostile. Personally, it began really as so many duels do over the honor of a woman.
But all of the other men involved saw this as an opportunity to promote this hostility and create another duel. And so, a duel was established, and Mr. Wells was one of the principals. And, since dueling is illegal in almost every state, it's necessary to go to an adjoining state to fight your duel and then come back. And so, in fact, did you know the term cross the river was a euphemism for fighting a duel? We're going to cross the river.
You're going to go somewhere where it's legal to fight duel, is what they're saying. No, it's not legal, sir. It's illegal there. The citizens of Mississippi would cross the river and fight duels in Vidalia, Louisiana. And we had to cross the river. No one's going to cross into different state lines and come arrest you, so. , if you go back to your home state you're secure. There's no federal law against it. It's just state laws.
, it was determined that our dual would be fought on the first sandbar on the Mississippi river above the town of Natchez. And I went just as a witness witnesses were important. So because a dual was considered honorable and could only be fought between gentlemen.
Why, if someone challenged you to a duel, sir, and you felt they were not worthy, they were not a gentleman, you would be within your rights to say no. But if a gentleman challenged you, sir, and you are a gentleman, then you are obligated to accept. And then you ask your second to negotiate all the terms. And when the time comes, you and your second, and each of you will have a physician, that's in case you're.
Wounded, but not too seriously, not fatally, and that's all that's allowed on the field. The witnesses have to stay back and can only watch. But if someone cheats, then it's within our rights as witnesses to take our own action. But there was no cheating on this duel, sir. Twice, the two principals faced each other. And on the command, they fired shots at each other. Both times they missed, neither were experienced duelists.
And they shook hands and agreed to go to the other camp to have some libation and celebrate, celebrate that there was no bloodshed. But there was so much animosity between we, the witnesses, we were members of these political factions. And as we came out on this field, Angry words were exchanged, and guns appeared, and in that initial volley, I was hit by a pistol ball. I was not Incapacitated. I rose up and began chasing the gentleman who had fired at me.
He threw his pistol, and it hit me in the head. A big bloody gash appeared, and I collapsed on the ground. And then, members of the other side were coming out, and There was one man there with whom a tremendous animosity existed between us. His name was Major Norris Wright. He saw I was down, and he approached me with his pistol leveled. And uh, Mr. McWhorter, he was the second with Mr. Wells. He gave me a pistol!
Major Wright and I exchanged shots, and I think we were both hit, but he stayed on his feet, and I was trying to rise to mine, but I could not get there. And then, Major Norris Wright pulled a sword cane, and he advanced on me, and so did two of his friends, and I had nothing at this point to defend myself with, except This big hunting knife that I always carry, not much more than a butcher knife, sir, a large butcher knife, but I used it as best I could.
I was stabbed several times, but when Major Wright plunged his sword into my chest, I drove that knife up into his and twisted it to cut the heart strings. He collapsed on top of me. Our blood mingling in the sand beneath us. So you have his sword cane going through your body right now. You're on the ground and then you take this knife, which I think this knife has a name in our time. I think they call it the Bowie knife. And , you take this knife and you basically cut his insides out.
And that's how the battle ends, with both of you having your blades inside of each other? There were multiple shots from other people, but incredibly, as the fight wound down, only two men had been killed, and a few others wounded, but I was the most serious casualty. In fact, the doctors, well, according to the Natchez newspaper that covered it, The Natchez Aerial, it reported that, I saw it sir, it said Mr. Blank Bui is not expected to recover from his wounds.
Sir, they did not even know my first name. But let me tell you something, within a short time that story spread, and I emerged as the hero. Maybe that's not altogether fair. Maybe the heroes were the peacemakers trying to stop the fighting there. But anyway, so that, that battle that duel at the sandbar, which wasn't even your duel was the beginning of your notoriety. Yes, sir. It was indeed. And my knife, as you pointed out, achieved a legendary status of its own. , and yes, sir.
, even back then they began calling it a Bowie knife. Although some of the designs I've seen that they call Bowie knives bore no resemblance to that knife. So your knife looks more like a butcher knife, and the knife that they call the Bowie knife, or they call it the Bowie knife or the Bowie knife, . . I've heard it pronounced Bowie knife and Bowie knife, but our family name, sir, is Bowie. Right.
So, but that knife that ended up being sold all over the world and , you can still buy it today, is different than this knife that you used, which you're saying looked more like a butcher knife, . Any. Large knife could be called a Bowie knife. It was a Frontier Bragg. This is a Bowie knife, not unlike, sir, the term Arkansas toothpick. That was just a Frontier Bragg attached to any large knife, no specific pattern, not then. Not in my day. So who was making these knives?
I mean, you were pretty adept in business. You were involved in all kinds of different businesses. Did you decide to capitalize on this and start making Bowie knives? No, sir. No, sir, I did not. My older brother, Reason, became somewhat enamored of what had happened. He had several very nice knives built that knives that he would give to people especially those of influence who might later help him.
Like myself, he had grown up in the backwoods and we had hunted wild cattle with just our hunting knives and a rope. We'd rope them and gallop up and slash their throats. And that was a lot more dangerous, but a lot more exciting than just hunting them with a rifle. And we enjoyed the excitement. But reasons, eyesight began failing and I fear he is probably very nearly blind now, but he did acquire knives by very skilled makers.
Our early knives were just made by blacksmiths that lived on our plantations. And they were nothing to look at, but well, they could save your life in a situation. Yeah. They got the job done. In your lifetime, you were a land speculator, and I understand that you were involved in the slave trade, and I think that you were involved with selling lumber at some point? Oh, yes, sir. , it seems that you were very involved in business and made a lot of money throughout your life.
, why wouldn't you capitalize on this Bowie knife and this legend from the Sandbar fight that was created? I was not enamored by that, sir. This may surprise you, I don't consider myself a violent man. Do you know that Major Norris Wright was the only man I can ever remember killing with a knife? In fact, I don't think my brother reason or I ever fought in a duel. I don't consider the sandball fight to be a duel. We weren't part of the duel. We were the medley that happened in the aftermath.
I have fought in battles but that's fighting in a war, and that's different. never occurred to me to promote my knife. Reasons eyesight failed him. several years after that, it was going bad very fast and I was already in Texas, but I came back to Louisiana and I picked him up and we went by boat around up to the northeastern United States to several of the states, the New York and. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania looking for eye doctors that might be able to help Reason's eyesight.
And I believe we were in Philadelphia when we met a man named Shively. I believe his primary business was , surgical tools. . But he also made some cutlery on the side and he had a Bowie knife or two in his shop and Reason became very attracted to it. I think he must have ordered one from Mr. Shively because the knife that Shively made for Reason was very similar to Reason's hunting knife. There was no guard, just a straight back to the knife.
But where Reason's knife and mine had simple wood handles Mr. Shively, Made the blade so perfectly clean and smooth and mounted it with horn handles and silver bolsters engraved. Ah, it was a thing of beauty.
So everybody's making money off this knife trade in your name other than you and I'm surprised to hear you say that you've never killed a man with a knife before Besides that story that you had just explained about the sandbar battle But are you like there are some people that think that you're this big knife fighter. Are you not a knife fighter? Is that not your expertise?
Even I have read somewhere that this one knife that's being sold as a Bowie knife was designed by me to incorporate features that would make it a more effective killing weapon. I find that outlandish. I have never designed such a knife, and if you're in a bad pickle, whatever you have, sir, will work. And, indeed, my butcher knife worked very well on the sandbar. But, no, I would never label myself a knife fighter. , I fought in a lot of battles. And, very often, I've been outnumbered.
And, very often, we have triumphed, despite the fact that we were outnumbered. That's something I wanted to ask you about, because it appears that of the different battles that you were in, whether they were wars or skirmishes. I read one time that there was a time where you were searching for some sort of silver mine and you ended up fighting. Some native Americans and and you were severely outnumbered and lost hardly any men. Why is it that you end up in these battles and you win them?
When the odds are so stacked against you. Oh, the San Shaba Indian fight. Yes, sir. That was after I had come to Texas and married Ursula, but we had heard very enticing stories about. Los Angeles silver mines being located up. The Sanbar River and the Spanish had built a mission up there and a presidio, a fort to protect it. But they were separated some distance.
The priests never wanted the presidios too close to the missions because Presidio soldado were very often attracted to the Indian ladies, and that could cause a lot of conflict. So the priest always insisted that the Presidios be some distance away. On this occasion, it did not work out well for the mission because Comanche Indians, a great number, attacked And there are only a few soldados actually stationed there.
And most of the, I think all three priests and a number of others were killed, but a few survived. They managed to survive in a house that would burn it down. And then in the darkness they managed to slip out and escape. Even though the mission was destroyed and never restored the Spanish kept their Presidio there for another dozen years or so. strengthening it. And there was a lot of talk. Why would they keep that Presidio there unless they were protecting something?
And many have speculated that they had built a mine and were hiding silver ingots there inside the mine, a mine rich in silver, or that's the story, sir. But Mr. Austin believed it. He had some maps made up, which were Included the site of the Lost Silver Mines up on the Sansevier River. You keep saying Mr. Austin. Are you talking about I forget his first name. Stephen Fuller Austin, sir. Okay, you're talking, you are talking about Stephen Austin. Okay, got it. Keep going.
Yeah, Mr. Austin, he was a man of peace. He's the one who, as I said before, supervised those who came to Texas, making sure that they were good quality people, and that they would obey the Mexican laws and not cause trouble. But he was also trying to get people to come to Texas. Is that why he was making the maps? Yes. Yes, sir. Anything to bring more colonists into Texas. So Stephen Austin's maps propaganda to bring people to Texas? That was certainly one of their intentions.
Did you ever find the mine? I left Behar with myself, eight other men, and two servant boys. And we ran into a small party of rather friendly Comanches. Fortunately, one of our number, Mr. Caiaphas Ham, who was a friend of mine from Louisiana, he'd come to Texas with me, but he'd become an agent for the Comanche Indians, and he had a good relationship with them, and they warned us that there was a war party of Caddos and Tawakanas. That were looking for blood.
And they knew that we were out there and they were determined to find us. Well, we told these Comanches, we appreciated their warning very much. They were taking horses back into Bay hard to trade them. We continued on. And after several days, we had seen no sign of Indians and we were getting close to the the abandoned Presidio up in the San Seba country. And we woke up from our Kaplan morning by a creek there and there the Indians were, and for other reason.
Attempted to negotiate peace with them, but they opened fire. As I said, our total number was 11 and two of those were boys. And there must've been 150 warriors and they kept coming at us, but we kept driving them back. scariest moment was they set fire to the grass that we were behind trees along the Creek there along the Creek bank, but this fire, the wind was blowing it towards us and.
You must realize our weapons required black powder to be loaded individually, and then the ball put in, and we carried flasks or powder horns, and if we're in a fire, those things could explode. so, our only problem was, Chance of survival was to put, those down and go out and fight down the flames with our blankets. And we were not very successful, but then the wind turned and the flames receded. And we went back into the trees and held off numerous more attacks.
They tried to circle behind us and they did manage to kill one of our men and wound a few more, but we drove them off and darkness fell. We could hear the Indians crying out, moaning for their dead, and during the night they removed as many bodies as they could. But come the next morning, they had pretty much withdrawn. We ventured out carefully from our underbrush and we counted 50 blood spots in the grass. We had lost one dead and three wounded.
It was an incredible victory, but we stayed there a few more days. We gave up on our desire to hunt for lost silver mines. And when we felt it was absolutely safe, we headed back to Bayhawk. Now, the thing is, sir, those Comanche Indians had gone into town and told the citizens there our party of men would certainly be massacred by this large war party of Indians. And so, even my wife, Ursula, was wearing widow's black. We rode in at nightfall, and we were nothing to look at.
We were tired, and our clothes were We're haggard and dirty and, but we were celebrated as though we had risen from the dead, sir. And in some people's mind, I guess we had. Well, that's quite a story. Those seem like the kind of odds that you're against right now at the Alamo. Yes, sir. But the problem is I was at my strength then and here I am so weak. I'm not sure I can even get out of this bed. Do you think that if you could get out of that bed, that you may have some impact on that battle?
And possibly women? We number, I'm not even sure, 200 men perhaps, give or take, and Santana's army, this is only the vanguard out there, and they are 2500 strong. Now, we can't do anything now but fight and die, but that we are determined to do, because we have bought time, precious time for Texas. If. We had determined to leave this place they call the Alamo early on.
Maybe then we could have done so, but we couldn't because we needed time for Sam Houston to get those jackanapes at Washington to declare for independence. And you may not know this, but , the Alamo was a Mexican mission, a Spanish mission originally called the Alamo. San Antonio de Valero and later it was secularized and a company of soldados from below the border from a little town called Alamo de Paras were stationed there. And so the old mission took their name.
It became known as the Alamo but it was never built as a fort. , I told you about the massacre of the San Seban mission. After that, all of the missions in San Antonio had walls built to protect them. They were meant to protect us from Indians firing arrows. stone walls, but the mortar was not always the best by any means. And the heights vary. But the main problem we have, sir, those walls enclose more than three acres of land. This mission turned fortress is huge. We have 200 men.
The other major reason we needed to defend this place was because It had the largest collection of artillery west of the Mississippi. Which mostly we had captured from General Coast when we had taken San Antonio. But we couldn't give this up to the Mexicans. Now Sam Houston, he is a friend of mine. We don't agree on everything, but we were both in Goliad. And Houston decided that he felt we should abandon the town of San Antonio and the mission, the Alamo, and pull the cannons back to the east.
, and he sent me to San Antonio de Beja to accomplish this. But I arrived there and realized we did not have teams of mules, oxen, enough to pull these artillery pieces out of there. And besides that, these people In Bexar, they needed our protection too, but what I would have thought made little impression, but Governor Henry Smith did not agree with Sam Houston.
I remember Houston wrote Smith a letter and said, , if you agree, sir, I will order Bowie to pull the artillery back and abandon that place. But instead, Governor Smith sent reinforcements there. When I arrived, there was hardly more than 100 men garrisoning that place. And I arrived with 30 more men. And then the next reinforcements arrived sent by Governor Smith. That was Lieutenant Colonel William Barrett Travis, the young lawyer.
Then another group arrived later and they included the very famous David Crockett of Tennessee. You know, he served in the Congress for Tennessee. Yeah. But he had lost his last election because he had opposed President Jackson's Indian removal plan, which led to that horrible trail of tears. And it wasn't a good idea to oppose president Jackson.
And so Crockett lost his last election and I'll wager even you have heard about his famous quote when he was leaving Tennessee and as he was passing through Arkansas. And as he came to Texas, every town he stopped, he made a speech declaring that since his constituents had failed to reelect him, why, they could go to hell and he was going to Texas. I don't think very many people get stabbed in the lung and live.
And yet somehow throughout his life, buoy had this way of beating the odds over and over. It is so hard to separate the legend from the truth, because in reality, both were larger than life and difficult to believe. . And that is exactly what makes Jim buoys legacy. So memorable.
In the next episode, Buddha is going to talk about his relationship with John Lafitte, the pirate, his ingenious, and highly illegal slave smuggling scheme and how he sold pieces of the Louisiana purchase that he didn't known. That would eventually be known as buoy grants. I'm glad you're enjoying the podcast. If you haven't yet subscribed now, and we'll see you with the next episode of the calling history podcast with part two of James buoy.