Nearly all the Texians still alive were now inside the church and barracks. One small group of men managed to wheel a cannon around and fire on enemy troops inside the fort. Then a moment later these rebels were cut down by Mexican gunfire. Near the main gate, Jim Bowie lay on his cot. For probably the only time in his life, he hadn’t been able to join the fight.
The fort was overrun. The Texians didn’t even have time to reload their rifles. So they beat at soldiers with rifle butts, bayonets, axes, even the ramrods used to load the cannons. When all else failed, they used their bare fists to fight off the enemy. But there were too many.
Almeron Dickinson was still firing from the roof of the church. Now he jumped down and ran inside to the women and children. “Great God, Sue, the Mexicans are inside our walls,” he said to his wife, Susannah. “All is lost. If they spare you, save my child.” He kissed Susannah and the baby and ran out. Susannah never saw her husband again.
Did any of the men inside the Alamo escape from the fort?
Yes.
Were they fleeing to safety or hoping to fight the Mexicans another day?
That is not entirely clear.
About sixty-two men managed to slip out through the small wooden gate at the east end of the palisade. They ran toward the hills in the direction of the town of Gonzales. But Santa Anna had expected some rebels would try to get away. General Sesma had 375 soldiers on horseback waiting for them in a long curved line. They attacked the Texians with their lances and sabers. Within moments the escaping rebels were dead.
Back inside the fort, Mexican soldiers searched every room in the Alamo, shooting, stabbing, or clubbing the Texians to death. In the frenzy, Mexican soldiers killed each other by accident. Even the barracks cat was cornered and killed. “It’s not a cat!” the soldiers shouted. “It’s an American!”
At the church, Robert Evans raced toward the powder magazine. He meant to follow Travis’s orders to blow up the Alamo. But he was cut down before reaching the gunpowder. He died on the floor of the church, which was already slippery with blood.
The battle was over in about an hour and a half. The number of Mexican soldiers who died is uncertain. Accounts say between 400 and 600 men. All the Alamo defenders—about 183 men—were dead. Among the few survivors were Susannah Dickinson and her baby, an eleven-year-old boy named Enrique Esparza, and Travis’s slave, Joe.
As the sun rose, Santa Anna came through the main gate to view the battle scene—piles of twisted bodies and blood. Joe was ordered to point out William Travis, David Crockett, and Jim Bowie.
Legend has it that Santa Anna found Jim with a Bowie knife in one hand, a pistol in the other. All around him were the bodies of Mexican soldiers. Had Bowie killed them before being killed himself? It’s unlikely. However, this is certainly the way Jim Bowie would want to be remembered.
Santa Anna had achieved his victory. But one of his officers remarked about the bloody day, “With another victory like this one we may all end up in hell.”
Jim Bowie’s mother received the news of her son’s death bravely. She said that she was sure that “no wounds were found in his back.” (By that she meant that he had never tried to run away from the enemy.) Then she returned to her housework.
The news of David Crockett’s death was brought to his family in Tennessee. His wife, Elizabeth, had stood on the porch every night after David had left for the Alamo. With her hand shading her eyes, she’d look west, hoping for his return. Now she knew that was not going to happen. In 1838, David’s son Robert set off for Texas for the Crockett land claim. Years later Elizabeth made the trip as well. When she died, a monument was erected at her grave.
