NOTES
Prologue 1 David Crockett,
A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee: A Facsimile Edition with Annotations and an Introduction by James A. Shackford and Stanley J. Folmsbee (Knoxville, 1973), 11.
Chapter 1: Origins
Direct Crockett quotes in this chapter are taken from his Narrative, unless otherwise noted.
1 There remains ongoing discussion regarding Crockett’s heritage, including the possibility that he is the descendant of a French Huguenot named Antoine de Crocketagne, who immigrated to England, then Ireland, in the seventeenth century. For a detailed discussion of this uncertain lineage, see James A. Shackford,
David Crockett: The Man and the Legend (Chapel Hill, NC, 1956), 293n. Also see Crockett,
Narrative, 14; Stanley J. Folmsbee and Anna Grace Catron, “The Early Career of David Crockett,”
East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications 28 (1956): 59-60; William C. Davis,
Three Roads to the Alamo (New York, 1998), 9; and Robert V. Remini,
Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars (New York, 2001), 11.
2 Quoted in Folmsbee and Catron, “Early Career,” 59.
3 Richard Boyd Hauck,
Crockett: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, CT, 1982), 9.
4 Ibid, 9. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 3-5.
5 Davis,
Three Roads, 10. Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 9. Folmsbee and Catron, “Early Career,” 59-60.
6 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 4.
7 Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 9. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 5.
8 Davis,
Three Roads, 12. Mark Derr,
The Frontiersman: The Real Life and the Many Legends of Davy Crockett (New York, 1993), 40. Folmsbee and Catron, “Early Career,” 60.
9 Derr,
Frontiersman, 40-41.
10 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 7.
12 Derr,
Frontiersman, 41.
13 Ibid. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 6.
14 Davis,
Three Roads, 13.
15 Folmsbee and Catron, “Early Career,” 61-62. Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 11.
16 Crockett,
Narrative, 22.
17 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 6.
18 Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 12. H. W. Brands,
The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (New York, 2000), 20.
19 Crockett,
Narrative, 23.
20 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 8-9. Davis,
Three Roads, 16.
21 Crockett,
Narrative, 24.
22 Davis,
Three Roads, 16-17. Joseph J. Arpad,
David Crockett: An Original Legendary Eccentricity and Early American Character (Duke University, 1968), 171-72. Folmsbee and Catron, “Early Career,” 62.
23 Derr,
Frontiersman, 46. Davis,
Three Roads, 17.
24 Crockett,
Narrative, 29.
Chapter 2: Runaway
Direct Crockett quotes in this chapter are taken from his Narrative, unless otherwise noted.
1 Arpad,
Original Legendary, 130.
2 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 10.
3 Crockett,
Narrative, 35.
11 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 10-11.
12 Crockett,
Narrative, 41.
15 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 11. Crockett,
Narrative, 42.
16 Crockett,
Narrative, 43.
17 Crockett appears to have dropped a year in his narrative, claiming that he was “almost fifteen” at this point, when actually he would have been nearly sixteen. See Crockett’s
Narrative, 43, 22n. See also Shackford,
Man and Legend, 11 and 294n.
Chapter 3: The Dutiful Son Becomes a Man
Direct Crockett quotes in this chapter are taken from his Narrative, unless otherwise noted.
1 Crockett,
Narrative, 45.
6 Stanley Folmsbee, in his marginal annotations of Crockett ’s
Narrative, points out in note 12 on page 49 that Crockett exaggerates his ignorance for political reasons. Time and again, Crockett illustrates that he was an incredibly adaptable, sharp, and inquisitive learner and astute student of human nature. His later letters show that he significantly increased his early education over time, and especially his writing skill, almost exclusively through self-study.
7 Marriage License and Bond Book 1792-1840 (Jefferson County, TN). Crockett,
Narrative, 49-50, 14n.
8 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 13. Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 14.
9 Crockett,
Narrative, 62, 10n. Folmsbee notes the many references to Crockett’s presence when wolf scalps were brought in, recorded, and purchased, in
Lawrence County Minutes 1818-1823. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 39, 298n.
10 Crockett,
Narrative, 65, 16n.
11 Ibid, 67. Folmsbee and Catron. “Early Career,” 63n. Two days have passed between the Finley altercation and the actual performance of the ceremony.
12 Crockett,
Narrative, 68.
13 Ibid, 20n. Folmsbee and Catron. “Early Career,” 64.
14 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 295n.
15 Davis,
Three Roads, 25.
16 Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 17.
Chapter 4: “My Dander Was Up”
Direct Crockett quotes in this chapter are taken from his Narrative, unless otherwise noted.
1 Davis,
Three Roads, 25.
2 Robert V. Remini,
Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars (New York, 2001), 5-6.
3 Davis,
Three Roads, 25. Derr,
Frontiersman, 59-60.
4 Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 19. Remini,
Indian Wars, 50. John Sugden,
Tecumseh: A Life (New York, 1997), 352.
5 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 18-19.
6 Remini,
Indian Wars, 6.
8 Ibid, 1. Sugden,
Tecumseh: A Life, 237.
9 H. S. Halbert and T. S. Ball,
The Creek War of 1813 and 1814 (Tuscaloosa, AL, Alabama Press, 1895), 156-57. The actual number dead was 275, not the 500 or “half a thousand” quoted by Halbert and Ball.
10 Remini,
Indian Wars, 6.
11 Crockett,
Narrative, 72.
13 Andrew Burstein,
The Passions of Andrew Jackson (New York, 2003), 94-97.
14 Remini,
Indian Wars, 15.
15 Crockett,
Narrative, 74.
16 Folmsbee and Catron, “Early Career,” 64.
17 Crockett,
Narrative, 75.
18 The account of this expedition is drawn primarily from Crockett’s
Narrative, 71-82, and Halbert and Ball,
Creek War, 266-78.
19 Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 21-22.
20 Remini,
Indian Wars, 61.
22 Ibid, 60. John Buchanan,
Jackson’s Way: Andrew Jackson and the People of the Western Waters (New York, 2001), 203. S. Putnam Waldo,
Memoirs of Andrew Jackson (Hartford, CT, 1820), 1-69.
23 Quoted in Remini,
Indian Wars, 64.
24 Crockett,
Narrative, 90.
25 Halbert and Ball,
Creek War, 269-70.
26 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 26.
27 Ibid. Halbert and Ball,
Creek War, 270.
28 Crockett,
Narrative, 94.
29 Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 25. John Reid and John Henry Eaton,
Life of Andrew Jackson (Tuscaloosa, AL, 1974), 89-91. Folmsbee and Catron, “Early Career,” 64.
30 Remini,
Indian Wars, 70.
31 Burstein,
Passions of Andrew Jackson, 102. James Parton,
The Life of Andrew Jackson (New York, 1862), vol. 1, 463.
32 Crockett,
Narrative, 96, 31n.
33 Remini,
Indian Wars, 74.
Chapter 5: “Mounted Gunman”
Direct Crockett quotes in this chapter are taken from his Narrative, unless otherwise noted.
1 Remini,
Indian Wars, 75.
2 Responding to the severity of his fighting tactics in battles such as Horseshoe Bend, and his unyielding nature as a negotiator, the Indians nicknamed Jackson “Sharp Knife” or “Pointed Arrow.”
3 Remini,
Indian Wars, 75.
4 Ibid. A detailed description of the “Holy Ground” is provided in Halbert and Ball,
Creek War, 246-49.
5 Quoted in Remini,
Indian Wars, 75.
7 Buchanan,
Jackson’s Way, 287-88.
8 Ibid, 77. Sean Michael O’Brien,
In Bitterness and Tears: Andrew Jackson’s Destruction of the Creeks and Seminoles (Westport, CT, 2003), 146.
9 James L. Haley,
Sam Houston (Norman, OK, 2002), 15.
10 Ibid, 15. Buchanan,
Jackson’s Way, 289.
11 Haley,
Sam Houston, 15.
12 Quoted in Burstein,
Passions of Andrew Jackson, 105. Parton,
Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 1, 512-20.
13 O’Brien,
Bitterness and Tears, 150.
14 Ibid. Buchanan,
Jackson’s Way, 291.
15 Quoted in O’Brien,
Bitterness and Tears, 150. Frank Owsley, Jr.
Struggle for the Gulf Borderlands: The Creek War and the Battle of New Orleans (Gainsvillle, FL, 1981), 81-82.
16 On August 9, 1814, Jackson imposed the Treaty of Fort Jackson on the Creek Nation. On September 14 to October 4, 1816, he signed a provisional treaty with the Cherokees, and on September 20, 1816, he signed a treaty with the Chickasaws. There would be a string of such subjugations and treaty signings through 1820, the treaty with the Choctaws.
17 Remini,
Indian Wars, 81.
18 The Florida expedition is largely based on Crockett,
Narrative, 101-13. Halbert and Ball,
Creek War, 143-76, 280-84, also offers an extensive and detailed account of the entire campaign.
19 Folmsbee and Catron, “Early Career,” 70.
20 The expedition into the swamps of the Escambia River is based largely on Crockett,
Narrative, 115-24.
21 Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 26-27. Halbert and Ball,
Creek War, 280.
22 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 30.
23 Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 27.
24 Though Crockett calls it “The old expression,” the origin of the phrase is actually attributed to him in more than one place. See the
Dictionary of American English, Charles E. Funk,
A Hog on Ice and Other Expressions (New York, 1948), 36, and Folmsbee annotation,
Narrative, 118.
25 It is unclear why the men would not eat the horses, which, even in their emaciated condition, would have offered a good deal of meat. Taboo against the practice may have prevented them from consuming their own mounts.
26 See Crockett,
Narrative, 124, 17n, for a discussion of the discrepancy in his rank. Also, Folmsbee and Catron, “Early Career,” 71n.
27 Davis,
Three Roads, 34.
Chapter 6: Trials on the Homefront
Direct Crockett quotes in this chapter are taken from his Narrative, unless otherwise noted.
1 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 33. Davis,
Three Roads, 63, 600n.
3 Davis,
Three Roads, 64. Folmsbee and Catron, “Early Career,” 71. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 34.
4 Derr,
Frontiersman, 79-80.
5 Ibid, 79. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 281-82. Descriptions of David Crockett’s physical appearance are few and not wholly consistent or reliable. Many are based on one or more of the portraits painted of him, and none of those was done before his entry into Congress. See Shackford,
Man and Legend, appendix 4, 281-91, for an in-depth analysis. There are numerous references to Crockett ’s “rosy cheeks,” including his own comment in page 59 of his
Narrative, and in his letter to James Blackburn of February 5, 1828, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville.
6 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 34-35. Derr,
Frontiersman, 80.
7 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 35; Jessie A. Henderson, “Unmarked Historic Spots of Franklin County,”
East Tennessee Historical Magazine, second series, 3 (January 1935): 117-18.
8 Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 30.
9 Crockett,
Narrative, 132.
11 American State Papers, Indian Affairs (Washington, DC, 1832-1834). See Shackford,
Man and Legend, 37, and Folmsbee annotations in Crockett,
Narrative, 132-33.
12 Torrence,
Crockett, 12; Crockett,
Narrative, 127, 8n.
13 Robert M. Torrence and Robert L. Whittenburg,
Colonel Davy Crockett, a Genealogy (Washington, DC, 1956), 12.
14 Ibid, 89. Derr,
Frontiersman, 89.
15 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 38.
16 Crockett,
Narrative, 135. Folmsbee notes in annotation 25 that Crockett exaggerates here, and that his judgments needed entire court approval.
17 Davis,
Three Roads, 68.
18 Arpad,
Original Legendary, 135-39. Davis,
Three Roads, 68.
19 Derr,
Frontiersman, 92.
20 Quoted in Derr,
Frontiersman, 93.
21 Crockett,
Narrative, 141.
Chapter 7: “The Gentleman from the Cane”
Direct Crockett quotes in this chapter are taken from his Narrative, unless otherwise noted.
1 See Crockett,
Narrative, 143, annotation 11, and Davis,
Three Roads, 73 and 601n. Crockett milks this story and uses it on more than one occasion.
2 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 47.
3 Derr,
Frontiersman, 97.
4 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 47.
5 Ibid, 48-49. Folmsbee and Catron, “Early Career,” 72.
6 Davis,
Three Roads, 78.
7 Ibid. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 52-53. Folmsbee and Catron, “Early Career,” 73.
8 The origin of this story is the book
Life and Adventures of Colonel David Crockett of West Tennessee, ghostwritten by Matthew St. Clair Clarke. (Cincinnati, 1833). See also Shackford,
Man and Legend, 52-53, and Folmsbee and Catron, “Early Career,” 73.
9 Crockett,
Narrative, 145.
10 Quoted in Davis,
Three Roads, 76, 601n. Also see John Jacobs to editor of
Morristown Gazette, November 22, 1884, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville. Derr,
Frontiersman, 93, 276n.
11 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 48.
12 Davis,
Three Roads, 72.
13 Crockett,
Narrative, 147, 1n.
14 Norma Hayes Bagnall,
On Shaky Ground: The New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-1812 (Columbia, MO, 1996), 28-40. Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 34.
15 Ibid. Hauck provides an interesting discussion on multiple meanings of the terms “canebrake” and “haricane.”
16 The account of Crockett’s trip upriver to McLemore’s Bluff is drawn primarily from Crockett ’s
Narrative, 147-54.
17 Derr,
Frontiersman, 108.
18 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 55.
19 Ibid, 55-56. Shackford describes the exact minutiae of these judgments. See also Derr,
Frontiersman, 104.
20 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 58.
22 Journal of the House of Representatives, Second Session, Fourteenth General Assembly, 1822, p. 129. Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 57.
25 The “Christmas guns” anecdote is based on Crockett,
Narrative, 159-60.
26 Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 35. Richard Slotkin,
Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600-1860 (Middletown, CT, 1973), 555-56.
27 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 63.
28 Crockett,
Narrative, 166-67.
30 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 64, 300n. Shackford points out in a note that the most accurate authentication for this story comes from a contemporary of Crockett’s, one Colonel Robert I. Chester. For Chester’s rendition of the story, see H. S. Turner, “Andrew Jackson and David Crockett: Reminiscences of Colonel Chester,”
Magazine of American History 27 (May 1892): 385-87.
31 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 64. Davis,
Three Roads, 603n. Davis offers an interesting note that clarifies the traditional ordering of stump speeches, observing that the men often alternated, in which case Crockett may not have had to ask to go first. Also see Turner, “Reminiscences of Colonel Chester,” 385-87.
32 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 66.
34 Ibid. Derr,
Frontiersman, 117-18; Davis,
Three Roads, 87.
35 Parton,
Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 1, 136, quoted in Burstein,
Passions of Andrew Jackson, 27.
36 Davis,
Three Roads, 88.
37 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 69; Davis,
Three Roads, 88.
38 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 69.
39 Folmsbee and Catron, “Early Career,” 78-83.
40 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 70-71, quoting
National Banner and Nashville Whig, September 27, 1824.
Chapter 8: “Neck or Nothing”
Direct Crockett quotes in this chapter are taken from his Narrative, unless otherwise noted.
1 Stanley J. Folmsbee and Anna Grace Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,”
East Tennessee Historical Society Publications 28 (1957), 40-41.
2 Circular of 1824, Tennessee Historical Society, Nashville.
3 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 40.
4 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 73-74. Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 39.
5 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 41.
6 Crockett,
Narrative, 173, 20n.
7 This bear hunting anecdote is based on Crockett,
Narrative, 185-91.
8 See Shackford,
Man and Legend, 77 and 301n, for testimonials of Crockett’s expertise as a hunter and marksman.
9 Derr,
Frontiersman, 134.
10 Crockett ’s rescue and his fortuitous arrival in Memphis is recorded in James D. Davis,
History of the City of Memphis (Memphis, 1873), 146-50. Crockett,
Narrative, 195-200.
11 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 79.
12 Derr,
Frontiersman, 136.
13 Crockett,
Narrative, 201-2.
14 Derr,
Frontiersman, 139.
15 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 81-83.
16 Davis,
History of Memphis, 150-51, 176. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 83, 302n.
17 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 83.
18 Derr,
Frontiersman, 140.
19 Crockett,
Narrative, 204.
20 Stanley, J. Folmsbee, and Anna Grace Catron, “David Crockett and West Tennessee,”
West Tennessee Historical Society Papers 28 (1974): 9n, from election returns of 1827.
Chapter 9: Political Reality
1 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett Congressman,” 44. Davis,
Three Roads, 123. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 84-86.
2 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 84. Derr,
Frontiersman, 143.
3 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 84-85.
4 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 86 and 303n. For a complete account of this duel, see James A. Shackford, “David Crockett and North Carolina,”
North Carolina Historical Review, 28: 298-315. Also see J. R. Hicklin, “The Carson-Vance Duel,”
The State [North Carolina], 6 (December 10, 1938): 9.
5 Davis,
Three Roads, 126, 609n. Arpad,
Original Legendary, 188.
6 David Crockett to James Blackburn, February 5, 1828, Tennessee State Library and Archives.
7 Davis,
Three Roads, 126.
8 Derr,
Frontiersman, 144.
9 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 88.
10 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 89 and 303n.
11 Derr,
Frontiersman, 144-45. James Sterling Young,
The Washington Community: 1800-1828 (New York, 1966): 98-107.
12 Derr,
Frontiersman, 145.
Jackson [Tennessee]
Gazette, January 31, 1829.
13 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 88. Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 43.
14 Derr,
Frontiersman, 142.
15 Crockett to James L. Totten, February 11, 1828, Crockett Papers, Special Collections, University of Tennessee.
16 Letter from Crockett to Mr. Seal, March 11, 1828, Crockett Papers, Special Collection, University of Texas. Quoted in Davis,
Three Roads. 17 Quoted in Davis,
Three Roads, 129. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett, Congressman,” 45. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 89.
18 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 89. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 45.
19 Derr,
Frontiersman, 147-48. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 45. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 87-89, 303n.
20 Duff Green Papers. Southern Historical Collection of the University of North Carolina.
21 Josephine Seaton,
William Winston Seaton of the National Intelligencer: A Biographical Sketch. (Boston, 1871), 184. Derr,
Frontiersman, 152.
22 Derr,
Frontiersman, 123.
23 Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 42. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 47.
24 Ibid, 47-48. Derr,
Frontiersman, 150. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 90-91.
25 Quoted in Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 48. Derr,
Frontiersman, 150.
Register of Debates in Congress, vol. 4, part 2 (Washington, DC, 1827-1828): 2,519.
26 Register of Debates in Congress, vol. 4, part 2: 2,519.
27 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 91.
28 Derr,
Frontiersman, 151.
29 Davis,
Three Roads, 133-34. Derr,
Frontiersman, 153. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett and West Tennessee,” 11, 11n.
30 Derr,
Frontiersman, 153. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett, Congressman,” 48-49.
31 Jackson [Tennessee]
Gazette, January 31, 1829.
32 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 125.
33 Nashville Republican, March 18, 1828. Quoted in Davis,
Three Roads, 122. Derr,
Frontiersman, 146.
34 Register of Debates in Congress, vol. 5: 162.
35 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 55-56. Derr,
Frontiersman, 155.
36 Letter from James K. Polk to Davison McMillen, January 16, 1829, in Herbert Weaver, ed.,
Correspondence of James K. Polk, vol. 1, 1817-1832 (Nashville, 1969), 229-231, 231n.
38 Register of Debates in Congress, vol 5: 210.
39 Davis,
Three Roads, 139.
40 Letter from James K. Polk to Davison McMillen, January 16, 1829, in Weaver,
Correspondence of James K. Polk, vol. 1, 230.
41 David Crockett in
Jackson [Tennessee]
Gazette, March 14, 21, 28, 1829.
42 Crockett to George Patton, January 27, 1829, Miscellaneous Collection, Tennessee Historical Society.
43 Quoted in Burstein,
Passions of Andrew Jackson, 173.
Chapter 10: Crockett’s Declaration of Independence
1 Davis,
Three Roads, 165. Promissory note, February 24, 1829, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum Research Center, Canyon, TX.
2 Jackson [Tennessee]
Gazette, March 7, 1829. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett and West Tennessee,” 14.
3 Derr,
Frontiersman, 162. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett and West Tennessee,” 14n, quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 125.
4 Davis,
History of Memphis, 110-11.
6 J. M. Keating,
History of the City of Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee (Syracuse, 1880), 175-76.
7 Haley,
Sam Houston, 60; Crockett to Gales & Seaton, April 18, 1829, Personal Miscellaneous Papers, New York Public Library.
8 Davis,
Three Roads, 168.
9 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett and West Tennessee,” 14. Derr,
Frontiersman, 163.
10 Arpad,
Original Legendary 131 and 193-96. Davis,
Three Roads, 169.
11 Catherine L. Albanese, “Citizen Crockett: Myth, History, and Nature Religion.”
Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 61 (1978): 89-90.
12 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 101.
13 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 102.
Register of Debates in Congress, 7: 391.
14 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 103.
15 Derr,
Frontiersman, 168.
16 Crockett to Hugh Nelson, January 24, 1830, Tennessee Historical Society, Miscellaneous Collection, Tennessee State Library and Archives.
17 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 62.
18 Register of Debates in Congress, vol. 6: 583.
19 Ibid, 716-17. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 60-61.
22 Davis,
Three Roads, 174. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 110.
23 Remini,
Indian Wars, 115.
25 Ibid, 237. Davis,
Three Roads, 176. Burstein,
Passions of Andrew Jackson, 186-88.
26 Remini,
Indian Wars, 234.
27 Ibid, 234. Burstein,
Passions of Andrew Jackson, 187.
28 Quoted in Remini,
Indian Wars, 232.
29 Quoted in Remini,
Indian Wars, 236.
30 Crockett,
Narrative, 206.
31 Remini,
Indian Wars, 237.
32 Crockett,
Narrative, 206.
33 Speeches on the Passage of the Bill for the Removal of the Indians Delivered in the Congress of the United States (Boston: 1830). There is controversy over whether the speech was ever actually given—and whether Crockett was the sole author of the speech. But it was published in the above citation under “A Sketch of the Remarks of Hon. David Crockett.” For discussion, see Shackford,
Man and Legend, 116, 304n, and Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett” Congressman,” 63-64.
34 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 64.
35 Arpad,
Original Legendary, 33-34. Davis,
Three Roads, 177.
36 Alexis de Tocqueville,
Journey to America, trans. by George Lawrence (Garden City, NY, 1971), 267-68. As a nobleman and French political dignitary, Tocqueville unsurprisingly argued against universal suffrage, remarking with incredulity that the people of Tennessee would have sent as their representative in Congress a man with “no education,” who “could read only with difficulty, had no property, no fixed dwelling, but spent his time hunting, selling game for a living, and spending his whole life in the woods.” Tocqueville was equally unimpressed with Sam Houston and perplexed that someone who had “risen from his own exertions” would be elected governor of a state. Toqueville ’s aristocratic mind could not comprehend how on earth voters would “wish to be represented by people of their own sort.”
37 Arpad,
Original Legendary 35-37, 48-49, 73, 193. M. J. Heale, “The Role of the Frontier in Jacksonian Politics: David Crockett and the Myth of the Self-Made Man,”
Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 4 (October 1973): 406.
38 Davis,
Three Roads, 178.
39 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 118.
40 Davis,
Three Roads, 179.
41 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 112.
42 Jackson [Tennessee]
Gazette, March 27, 1830.
43 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 130.
44 Burstein,
Passions of Andrew Jackson, 173-74.
45 Derr,
Frontiersman, 178.
46 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 105-6. David Crockett ’s Circular to the Citizens of the Ninth Congressional District of the State of Tennessee, February 28, 1831. A copy resides in the McClung Collection, Lawson McGhee Library, Knoxville, TN.
47 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 107.
48 Quoted in Davis,
Three Roads, 181. Jackson to Samuel J. Hays, April 1831, quoted in Emma Inman Williams,
Historic Madison: The Story of Jackson, and Madison County, Tennessee (Jackson, TN, 1946), 403.
49 Davis,
Three Roads, 182. Crockett to Michael Sprigg, May 5, 1830 [1831], Philpott Collection, catalog item no. 222.
50 Heale, “Frontier in Jacksonian Politics,” 406.
52 Weakley County [Tennessee] Court Minutes, 1827-1835, vol. 1, 279. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 136. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett, Congressman,” 67.
53 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 136.
54 Derr,
Frontiersman, 182. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 139-41, 151. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 69.
55 Derr,
Frontiersman, 183.
56 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 132-33. This incident is based, according to Shackford, on an anecdote “with substantial basis in fact” characterizing a discrepancy between Crockett and Fitzgerald in Paris, Tennessee, in the summer of 1831.
57 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 133.
58 Crockett to James Davidson, August 18, 1831. Crockett Biographical File, Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, San Antonio, quoted in Davis,
Three Roads, 185.
59 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 67.
Chapter 11: “Nimrod Wildfire” and “The Lion of the West”
1 Albanese, “Citizen Crockett,” 88-90. Arpad,
Original Legendary, 3-4. Slotkin,
Mythology of the American Frontier, 414-15.
2 Quoted in Arpad,
Original Legendary, 85.
3 James K. Paulding to John Wesley Jarvis, n.d. [1829-1830], Ralph M. Alderman, ed.,
The Letters of James Kirke Paulding (Madison, WI: 1962), 113.
4 Derr,
Frontiersman, 189.
5 Quoted in Arpad,
Original Legendary, 37. James Kirke Paulding,
The Lion of the West, ed. James N. Tidwell (Stanford, CA, 1954).
6 Arpad,
Original Legendary, 112.
7 Alderman,
Letters of James Kirke Paulding, 113.
8 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 254. Arpad,
Original Legendary, 112-13.
9 Albanese, “Citizen Crockett,” 90-91. Arpad,
Original Legendary, 48, 73-74.
10 Derr,
Frontiersman, 185.
11 David Crockett letter to Richard Smith, January 7, 1832, Connaroe Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 67.
12 Derr,
Frontiersman, 186. Letter to Doctor Jones, August 22, 1831, Jones Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 67. Davis,
Three Roads, 310.
13 Davis,
Three Roads, 313, 670n. Crockett to Daniel Webster, December 18, 1832,
American Book Prices Current 1987-1991, Index (Washington, CT, 1992) 167-68.
14 Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 68.
15 Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 66-67. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 27, 296n.
16 Arpad,
Original Legendary, 182. Adam Huntsman to William Harris,
Southern Statesman [Jackson, TN], June 20, 1833.
17 Burstein,
Passions of Andrew Jackson, 188.
18 Ibid, 194. Parton,
Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 3, 447.
19 Burstein,
Passions of Andrew Jackson, 200-1.
20 Crockett,
Narrative, 210.
21 V. L. Parrington,
Main Currents in America Thought: The Romantic Revolution in America (New York, 1927), vol. 2, 166.
22 Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 3-4. The authorship of this work has long been in question. Before Shackford’s 1956 biography, the work was thought to have been written by James Strange French of Virginia. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 258-64, makes a strong case for Mathew St. Clair Clarke. This case is echoed by Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, as cited above.
23 Crockett,
Narrative, 3-4.
24 Parrington,
Main Currents (New York, 1927), vol. 2, 166.
25 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 258.
27 Arpad,
Original Legendary, 179. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 158.
28 Quoted in Arpad,
Original Legendary, 181. Alan Nevins, ed.,
The Diary of John Quincy Adams, 1794-1845, New York, 1928), 444-45.
29 Heale, “Self-Made Man,” 405.
30 Paul Andrew Hutton,
A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of Tennessee (Lincoln, NE, 1987), xxi. Arpad,
Original Legendary, 33-38. Davis,
Three Roads, 317. Heale, “Self-Made Man,” 406.
31 Davis,
Three Roads, 317, 671n. Letter from David Crockett to Carey & Hart, January 8, 1835, David Crockett Vertical File, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore.
32 Ralph C. H. Catterall,
The Second Bank of the United States (Chicago, 1902).
33 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 147.
The Congressional Globe, vol. 1: 37. See Shackford, 307n.
34 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 147.
35 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 69. Crockett to Nicholas Biddle, January 2, 1832, Nicholas Biddle Papers. Crockett to Richard Smith, January 7, 1832, Conarroe Autograph Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
36 Crockett,
Narrative, 172.
39 Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 47. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 255-6.
Spirit of the Times, Batavia, NY, December 21, 1833. Also in Arpad,
Original Legendary, 113.
40 Letter to Carey & Hart, February 23, 1834, in the Boston Public Library. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 267-68, 315n.
42 Crockett,
Narrative, 8-9.
43 Quoted in Walter Blair, “Six Davy Crocketts,”
Southwest Review 25 (July 1940): 457.
Chapter 12: A Bestseller and a Book Tour
1 Davis,
Three Roads, 324.
2 Hutton,
Life of David Crockett, vi. Broadside reproduced in Hutton,
Life of David Crockett, vi, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
3 Blair, “Six Davy Crocketts,” 457.
4 Arpad,
Original Legendary, Shackford,
Man and Legend, 310.
5 Davis,
Three Roads, 323.
6 Parrington,
Main Currents in American Thought, vol. 2: 165.
7 Arpad,
Original Legendary, 195. Parrington,
Main Currents in American Thought, vol. 2: 170-71.
8 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 148, 307n. It appears that the original letter has been lost.
9 Arpad,
Original Legendary, 193-96.
10 Derr,
Frontiersman, 203.
11 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 148. Arpad,
Original Legendary, 185.
12 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 148.
13 Arpad,
Original Legendary, 187-88.
14 Letter to William T. Yeatman, June 15, 1834. quoted in Davis,
History of Memphis, 155.
15 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 154. Derr,
Frontiersman, 203.
16 Haley,
Sam Houston, 101. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 308n.
17 Haley,
Sam Houston, 101. Brands,
Lone Star Nation, 235.
18 Quoted in Haley,
Sam Houston, 438n. Sam Houston to John H. Houston, 31 July 1833, in Amelia Williams and Eugene C. Barker, eds.
Writings of Sam Houston (Austin, TX, 1938-1943), vol. 5: 5-6.
19 Arpad,
Original Legendary, 187. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 154, 307n.
20 Arpad,
Original Legendary, 187.
21 Derr,
Frontiersman, 205.
22 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 157.
25 Crockett to Carey & Hart, May 27, 1834. Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection, New York Public Library. Quoted in Davis,
Three Roads, 390 and 688n.
26 Derr,
Frontiersman, 206. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 158.
27 Quoted in Davis,
Three Roads, 391. Helen Chapman to Emily Blair, May 1, 1834, William W. Chapman Papers. Center for American History, Austin, TX.
28 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” no. 28 (1957): 69-71.
29 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 158.
31 Derr,
Frontiersman, 207; Hamlin Garland,
The Autobiography of David Crockett (New York, 1923), 149.
32 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 159. The book tour is summarized in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 156-61.
34 Ibid, 161.
Niles [Washington, DC]
Weekly Register, ed. H. Niles, 4b: 252.
35 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 161.
36 Quoted in Curtis Carroll Davis, “A Legend at Full-Length: Mr. Chapman Paints Colonel Crockett—and Tells About It,”
American Antiquarian Society (October 1959), 165.
39 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 167. Davis,
Three Roads, 392.
40 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 163, 309n. Letter to William Hack, June 9, 1834, Miscellaneous Collection, Tennessee Historical Society. Also in
American Historical Magazine, 2, 2 (April 1897): 179-80.
41 Register of Debates in Congress, 10: 4,586-88.
42 From Chapman, quoted in Davis, “Mr. Chapman Paints Colonel Crockett,” 173.
43 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 164.
44 Davis,
History of Memphis, 155.
Chapter 13: “That Fickle, Flirting Goddess” Fame
1 Davis, “Mr. Chapman Paints Colonel Crockett,” 171.
2 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 167.
3 Jim Cooper, “A Study of Some David Crockett Firearms,”
East Tennessee Historical Society Papers 8 (1966): 66. Shackford 309-310n.
Attakapas Gazette [St. Martinville, LA], June 12, 1834. Davis,
Three Roads, 393.
4 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 168. For an in-depth discussion of Crockett’s numerous rifles, see Cooper, “Crockett Firearms,” 62-69.
5 Quoted in Robert V. Remini,
Daniel Webster: The Man and His Times (New York, 1997), 420.
6 Remini,
Daniel Webster, 9.
7 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett and West Tennessee,” 20.
8 Ibid. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 168.
9 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 168. David Crockett,
An Account of Col. Crockett’s Tour to the North and Down East, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Four (Philadelphia, 1835).
10 Crockett presumably nicknamed this new gun “Pretty Betsey” to differentiate it from his favored “Betsey.” See Shackford,
Man and Legends, 169. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett and West Tennessee,” 20n. Cooper, “Crockett Firearms,” 66.
11 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 169.
12 Quoted by W. Frederick Worner, “David Crockett in Columbia,”
Lancaster County Historical Society Papers 27: 177.
13 Letter from Crockett to Nicholas Biddle, October 7, 1834, Nicholas Biddle Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
14 Quoted in Derr,
Frontiersman, 214. Nicholas Biddle to David Crockett, December 13, 1834, in
President’s Letter Book, 279, Library of Congress.
15 Letter from Crockett to Carey & Hart, December 8, 1834, in Houghton Library, Harvard University. Davis,
Three Roads, 395. Derr,
Frontiersman, 214.
16 Letter from Crockett to Nicholas Biddle, December 16, 1834. Nicholas Biddle Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
17 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 173.
18 Crockett to Carey & Hart, December 21, 1834, Rosenbach Museum and Library.
19 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 174. Crockett to John P. Ash, December 27, 1834, University of the South Archives.
20 Quoted in Derr,
Frontiersman, 219; Letter from Crockett to Carey & Hart, January 8, 1835, Crockett Vertical File, Maryland Historical Society, and Manuscript Department, New-York Historical Society.
21 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 184-86. Crockett to Carey & Hart, January 22, 1835, Rosenbach Museum and Library.
22 Derr,
Frontiersman, 218.
23 Crockett to John P. Ash, December 27, 1834, University of the South.
24 Quoted in Davis,
Three Roads, 397. Crockett to Charles Schultz, December 25, 1834, Gilder-Lehrman Collection, Pierpont Morgan Library.
25 Arpad,
Original Legendary, 192-93.
27 Davis,
Three Roads, 396.
28 Crockett to John P. Ash, December 27, 1834.
29 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 183.
30 Davis,
Three Roads, 399.
31 Crockett to John P. Ash, December 27, 1834.
32 Adam Huntsman to James Polk, January 1, 1835, quoted in Weaver and Hall,
Correspondence of James K. Polk, vol. 3, 1835-1836 (Nashville, 1975), 3.
33 Congressional Debates 11: 1,191-92.
34 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 193.
35 Crockett,
Col. Crockett’s Tour, 173.
36 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 196.
37 Davis,
Three Roads, 402. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 196.
38 Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett: Congressman,” 75. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 200-2.
39 Derr,
Frontiersman, 221. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 119, 188-89.
40 David Crockett,
The Life of Martin Van Buren (New York, 1835), 80-81.
41 Davis,
Three Roads, 403-5. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett and West Tennessee,” 23.
42 Davis,
History of Memphis, 151-52.
43 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 204.
44 Crockett to Carey and Hart, July 8, 1835, quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 204.
45 Crockett to Carey and Hart, August 11, 1835, Crockett Vertical File, Maryland Historical Society.
46 Shackford 206-9. Davis,
Three Roads, 407. In the end, nothing came of these charges.
47 William Armour to James K. Polk, September 7, 1835, in Weaver and Hall,
Correspondence of James K. Polk, vol. 3, 286.
48 Joel R. Smith to James K. Polk, August 9, 1835, in ibid, 261.
49 Quoted in Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 24.
Charleston Courier, August 31, 1835.
Chapter 14: Lone Star on the Horizon
1 Landon Y. Jones,
William Clark and the Shaping of the West (New York, 2004), 109-12. Derr,
Frontiersman, 229.
2 Brands,
Lone Star Nation, 24.
3 Ibid, 24-25. William C. Davis,
Lone Star Rising (New York, 2004), 57.
4 Davis,
Lone Star Rising, 89. Derr,
Frontiersman, 229.
5 Stephen L. Hardin,
Texian Iliad (Austin, 1994), 5.
8 Ibid. Brands,
Lone Star Nation, 220-21.
9 Brands,
Lone Star Nation, 224.
10 Randy Roberts and James S. Olson,
A Line in the Sand (New York, 2001), 91.
11 Brazos,
The Life of Robert Hall, Reprint. (Austin, 1992), 19. Davis,
Three Roads, 408, 692n. Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 91.
12 Cooper, “Crockett Firearms,” 67.
13 Crockett to George Patton, October 31, 1835, in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 210.
15 Quoted in Haley,
Sam Houston, page 110,
Red River Herald, October 7, 1835.
16 Quoted in Haley,
Sam Houston, 109. Houston to Isaac Parker, 5 October 1835, in Williams and Barker,
Writings of Sam Houston, vol. 1, 302.
17 Quoted in Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 28. Atlas Jones to Calvin Jones, November 13, 1835, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (SHC-UNC).
18 Davis,
Three Roads, 409.
19 Quoted in Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 29.
20 Calvin Jones to Edmund Jarvis, December 2, 1835, Jones Papers SHC-UNC. Also quoted in Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 29, and Davis,
Three Roads, 409.
21 Davis,
History of Memphis, 141.
27 Hardin,
Texian Illiad, 118. Stephen L. Hardin, “Gallery: David Crockett,”
Military Illustrated 23 (February-March, 1990): 28-30.
28 Bernard DeVoto,
Mark Twain’s America (Boston, 1932), 3-4.
29 Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 36.
30 William F. Pope,
Early Days in Arkansas (Little Rock, 1895), 183-84. Also quoted in Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 42.
31 Pope,
Early Days in Arkansas, 185. Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 44-46.
Arkansas Gazette, November 17, 1835.
32 Arkansas Gazette, November 17, 1835. Quoted in Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 44.
33 Quoted in Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 50. Vance Randolph,
We Always Lie to Strangers: Tall Tales from the Ozarks (Westport, CT, 1951), 160.
34 David Crockett,
Davy Crockett’s Own Story, as Written by Himself (New York, 1955), 255-58.
35 New York Sun, January 12, 1836.
Arkansas Gazette, May 15, 1955. Also in Davis,
Three Roads, 411.
36 Arkansas Gazette, November 17, 1835. Also in Gary S. Zaboly, “Crockett Goes to Texas: A Newspaper Chronology,”
Journal of the Alamo Battlefield Association 1 (Summer, 1995): 7-8.
37 Derr,
Frontiersman, 227. Davis,
Three Roads, 412. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett in Texas,”
East Tennessee Historical Society Publications 30 (1958), 50-51.
38 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 214. Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 77.
39 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 214, republished in
Niles Register, L, 432-33, for August 27, 1836, from the Jackson, Tennessee,
Truth Teller. 40 Quoted in Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 71. Pat B. Clark,
The History of Clarksville and Old Red River Country, Texas (Dallas, 1937), 5.
41 Claude V. Hall, “Early Days in the Red River Country,”
Bulletin of East Texas State Teacher’s College, 14: 49-70.
42 Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 70-71. Davis,
Three Roads, 412.
43 Crockett to Wiley and Margaret Flowers, January 9, 1836, quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 214-15.
44 Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 72-73.
45 Davis,
Three Roads, 413.
46 Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 94.
47 Derr,
Frontiersman, 227.
48 Davis,
Three Roads, 413, 694n. Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 122.
49 Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 100.
50 Ibid, 101. James Gaines to James W. Robinson, January 9, 1836, in William C. Binkley,
Official Correspondence of the Texan Revolution, 1835-1836, 2 vols. (New York, 1936).
51 Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 100;
Galveston [Texas]
News, January 9, 1898.
52 Morning Courier and New York Enquirer, March 26, 1836.
53 Crockett to Margaret and Wiley Flowers, January 9, 1836. Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 216.
54 The shrewd and perceptive historian William C. Davis makes an observation that no other researcher, including Shackford, has: simply that the discrepancy in the date of the letter may be the result of Crockett having written it in at least two sittings over a few-day period. See Davis,
Three Roads, 695n.
55 Shackford,
Man and Legend, 217-19.
56 Crockett to Margaret and Wiley Flowers, January 9, 1836.
Chapter 15: “Victory or Death”
1 Houston to Jackson, February 13, 1833, in Williams and Barker,
Writings of Sam Houston, vol. 1, 274-76.
2 Statement of Enlistments, January 14, 1836, in John H. Jenkins,
Papers of the Texas Revolution 1835-1836 (Austin, TX, 1973), vol. 4, 13. Amelia Williams, “A Critical Study of the Siege of the Alamo and the Personnel of Its Defenders, Chapter IV,”
Southern Historical Quarterly 37 (January 1934): 167. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett in Texas,” 54.
3 Committee of Vigilance and Safety, January 18, 1836, in Jenkins,
Papers of the Texas Revolution, vol. 4, 66. Quoted in Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 130.
4 Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 130.
5 Ibid, 130, 247n. Audited Military Claims, Republic of Texas, Texas State Library and Archives, Austin. Also in Davis,
Three Roads, 416. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 222.
6 Crockett to Flowers, January 9, 1836, Asbury Papers. Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 216.
7 Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 139. From Herbert Simms Kimble Letter, September 5, 1836, William Irving Lewis File, Daughters of the Texas Revolution Library, San Antonio.
8 Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 139.
10 Derr,
Frontiersman, 228.
11 Marques James,
The Raven (Indianapolis, 1929), 224.
12 James C. Neill to Sam Houston, January 14, 1836, in Binkley,
Official Correspondence, vol. 1, 295. Davis,
Lone Star Rising, 205.
13 Davis,
Lone Star Rising, 205.
14 Brands,
Lone Star Nation, 338. Davis,
Lone Star Rising, 205.
15 John M. Swisher,
The Swisher Memoirs (San Antonio, 1932): 18-19.
20 Davis,
Lone Star Rising, 209-10. Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 22-23.
21 Hardin, “Gallery: David Crockett,” 30-31.
22 Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 161.
24 Davis,
Three Roads, 524; see his note on arrival dates, 717-718n. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett in Texas,” 60. Also see Todd Hansen,
The Alamo Reader (Mechanicsburg, PA, 2003), 504-6.
25 Antonio Menchacha,
Memoirs (San Antonio, 1937), 22.
San Antonio Daily Express, February 12, 1905. Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 504-5.
26 Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 167.
27 Davis,
Three Roads, 516.
28 Quoted in Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 171, from John Sutherland,
The Fall of the Alamo (San Antonio, 1936) 11-12. Davis cites a shorter version, and Cobia points out some discrepancies, including Lindley, in the Sutherland source.
29 Quoted in Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 173. Davis,
Three Roads, 516, 718-719n. Sutherland,
Fall of the Alamo, 11-12. Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 140.
30 Quoted in Jeff Long,
Duel of Eagles (New York, 1990), 132.
31 Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 175.
32 Long,
Duel of Eagles, 132. Menchacha,
Memoirs, 22-23.
34 Quoted in Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 111. James Bowie to Henry Smith, February 2, 1836, in Jenkins, ed.,
Papers of the Texas Revolution, 4: 236-38.
35 Walter Lord,
A Time to Stand (New York, 1961), 84.
36 Long,
Duel of Eagles, 31.
37 Davis,
Three Roads, 519, 719n. Sutherland,
Fall of the Alamo, 11. Long,
Duel of Eagles, 131.
38 Long,
Duel of Eagles, 126. Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 673.
39 Quoted in Long,
Duel of Eagles, 127; John Baugh, letter to Henry Smith, February 13, 1836, in Jenkins,
Papers of the Texas Revolution, #2076. Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 674.
40 William B. Travis, letter to Henry Smith, in Jenkins,
Papers of the Texas Revolution, #2094. Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 22-23.
41 Long,
Duel of Eagles, 127.
42 William B. Travis and James Bowie to Henry Smith, February 14, 1836, in Jenkins,
Papers of the Texas Revolution, #2094; Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 24-25.
43 Quoted in Lord,
A Time to Stand, 85, 232n. Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 25.
44 Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 120.
45 Long,
Duel of Eagles, 149.
46 Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 120.
47 Jose Enrique de la Pena,
With Santa Anna in Texas (College Station, TX, 1975), 27.
49 Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 119.
50 Quoted in Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 142.
51 Long,
Duel of Eagles, 156. Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 121.
52 Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 121.
53 Quoted in Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 143. Also quoted in Long,
Duel of Eagles, 157.
54 Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 144. Lord,
A Time to Stand, 94. Sutherland,
Fall of the Alamo, 18-19.
55 Long,
Duel of Eagles, 158. Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 122.
56 Long,
Duel of Eagles, 158; Lord,
A Time to Stand, 94.
57 Quoted in Long,
Duel of Eagles, 158. Vincente Filisola,
The History of the War in Texas (Austin, 1985-1987), vol. 2, 150. Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 144.
58 Quoted in Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 144.
59 Quoted in Lord,
A Time to Stand, 97. Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 121.
60 Quoted in Long,
Duel of Eagles, 159, and Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 31-32. William B. Travis and James Bowie letter to James Fannin, February 23, 1836, in Jenkins,
Papers of the Texas Revolution, #2161.
61 Quoted in Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 193. Sutherland,
Fall of the Alamo, 20.
63 Davis,
Three Roads, 536. Samuel E. Asbury, “The Private Journal of Juan Nepomuceno Almonte,”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly 48 (July 1944): 10-32. Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 124.
64 Sutherland, in Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 146-47.
65 Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 127. Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 124.
66 Long,
Duel of Eagles, 162-163. Lord,
A Time to Stand, 102.
67 Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 124-25.
68 Quoted in Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 125. Jose Batres to James Bowie, February 23, 1836, in Jenkins,
Papers of the Texas Revolution 4: 44. Lord,
A Time to Stand, 102.
69 Davis,
Three Roads, 537.
70 Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 125-26.
71 Davis,
Three Roads, 537. Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 126.
72 William Travis to the People of Texas, February 24, 1836, Army Papers, Record Group 401, Texas State Library and Archives, Austin. Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 32.
73 Brands,
Lone Star Nation, 356.
Chapter 16: Smoke from a Funeral Pyre
1 Davis,
Three Roads, 541. Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 196-98.
2 William Travis to Sam Houston, quoted in Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 197. Also quoted in Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 34.
3 Long,
Duel of Eagles, 190. Davis,
Three Roads, 542.
4 Quoted in Long,
Duel of Eagles, 191. Lord,
A Time To Stand, 109. Letter from William Travis to Sam Houston. Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 34.
5 Brands,
Lone Star Nation, 357.
7 Ibid, 358. Long,
Duel of Eagles, 200.
8 Joseph Field,
Three Years in Texas (Boston, 1836), 17. Asbury, “Almonte Journal,” 19. Davis,
Three Roads, 545. Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 686.
9 Brands,
Lone Star Nation, 359.
10 Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 133.
11 Ibid, 133-34. Lord,
A Time to Stand, 117; Albert A. Nofi,
The Alamo and the Texas War of Independence (Conshohocken, PA, 1992), 68-70, 74. Harden,
Texian Illiad, 133-34.
12 Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 134. Asbury, “Almonte Journal,” 19, March 1, 1836.
13 Quoted in Thomas Ricks Lindley, “Drawing Truthful Deductions,”
Journal of the Alamo Battlefield Association I (September, 1995): 31-33.
14 Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 134.
15 Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 148-49. It was actually the arrival of General Antonio Gaona’s First Brigade and Cavalry Regiment.
16 Lord,
A Time To Stand, 137. Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 149. Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 683, 716-17.
17 Quoted in Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 601, Robert McAlpin Williamson letter to William B. Travis, March 1, 1836.
18 Quoted in Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 35-36.
19 Quoted in Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 35-36. William Travis to President of the Convention, March 3, 1836,
San Felipe Telegraph and
Texas Register, March 12, 1836.
22 Travis to David Ayers, March 3, 1836,
Texas Monument [La Grange, TX, newspaper], March 31, 1852. Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 38.
23 Long,
Duel of Eagles, 209.
24 Davis,
Three Roads, 556.
25 Quoted in Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 208. J. M. Morphis,
History of Texas (New York, 1875), 175. There exists some compelling speculation and evidence that Crockett may have gone outside the Alamo on a mission to gather reinforcements during the siege. See Thomas Ricks Lindley,
Alamo Traces (Plano, TX, 2003), 140-42. Cobia,
Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 203-13.
26 Brands,
Lone Star Nation, 365.
27 Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, “Manifesto,” in
The Mexican Side of the Texas Revolution, translated by Carlos Castaneda (Dallas, 1928), 13.
28 Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Military Order, March 3, 1836,
United States Magazine and Democratic Review (October, 1838): 143, quoted in Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 336-37.
29 De la Pena,
With Santa Anna in Texas, 43-44. Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 335.
30 Davis,
Three Roads, 556.
31 Ibid, 557. Brands,
Lone Star Nation, 369.
32 Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 138.
33 Ibid. De la Pena,
With Santa Anna in Texas, 46. Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 160.
34 Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 159. De la Pena,
With Santa Anna in Texas, 47.
35 De la Pena,
With Santa Anna in Texas, 46-47. Long,
Duel of Eagles, 241. Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 161.
36 De la Pena,
With Santa Anna in Texas, 47.
37 Davis,
Three Roads, 559. Lord,
A Time to Stand, 155; Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 162.
38 Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 139.
39 Davis,
Three Roads, 560, 732-33n. Joe, Travis’s slave, quoted in
Alamo Reader, 77-82. Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 139. Bruce Winders,
Sacrified at the Alamo: Tragedy and Triumph in the Texas Revolution (Abilene, TX, 2004), 126.
40 Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 146.
41 Lord,
A Time to Stand, 156-57.
42 Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 146. De la Pena,
With Santa Anna in Texas, 48-50.
43 De la Pena,
With Santa Anna in Texas, 48-49.
44 Davis,
Three Roads, 562. Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 147. Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 165-68. Lord,
A Time to Stand, 161.
45 Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 168. Davis,
Three Roads, 562.
46 Quoted in Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 147. Pohl and Hardin, “Military History of the Texas Revolution,” 294, 296. Glaser, “Victory and Death,” in Schoelwer with Glaser,
Alamo Images, 85.
47 Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 168. Sutherland,
Fall of the Alamo, 40. Davis,
Three Roads, 561, 734n. Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 148. Long,
Duel of Eagles, 253.
48 Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 148. De la Pena,
With Santa Anna in Texas, 53. Filisola,
History of the War in Texas, 2, 179.
49 De la Pena,
With Santa Anna in Texas, 53. The exact nature of Crockett ’s death remains unknown, mired in speculation and multiple supposed firsthand “eyewitness” accounts, and the controversy and debate surrounding his demise at the Alamo, like Crockett’s own legend, will likely never die. Thousands and thousands of pages and a number of books are devoted to that subject alone. The bibliography at the end of this work delineates most of the significant texts and authors who have participated in the ongoing discussion.
50 Davis,
Lone Star Rising, 234-35.
51 Brands,
Lone Star Nation, 389.
52 Ibid, 394-97. Davis,
Lone Star Rising, 237-38.
53 Hardin,
Texian Iliad, 173-74. Davis,
Lone Star Rising, 238. De la Pena,
With Santa Anna in Texas, 88-90.
54 Brands,
Lone Star Nation, 451.
56 Quoted in Brands,
Lone Star Nation, 453-54.
57 Lord,
A Time to Stand, 193-96. Davis,
Lone Star Rising, 269-71. Brands,
Lone Star Nation, 450-55.
58 Derr,
Frontiersman, 253.
59 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 235,
Niles Weekly Register, L, 121-22, April 16, 1836. Lists of slain at Alamo do not include Jesse Benton.
60 Quoted in Shackford,
Man and Legend, 236.
61 Mary Daggett Lake, “David Crockett’s Widow, the Pioneer Wife and Mother Who Was Widowed by the Fall of the Alamo,”
Texas Monthly 2 (December 1928): 703-8; Shackford,
Man and Legend, 236.
62 Lake, “David Crockett ’s Widow” 706.
63 Derr,
Frontiersman, 251. Shackford,
Man and Legend, 239.
64 De la Pena,
With Santa Anna in Texas, 52.
65 Davis,
Three Roads, 566, 739n. Long,
Duel of Eagles, 266, 387n. Pablo Diaz,
Tejano Accounts, 44, 76. Hanson,
Alamo Reader, 527-32.
66 Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 530. Long,
Duel of Eagles, 266. Davis,
Three Roads, 566. Pablo Diaz, “The Alamo Bones,”
San Antonio Express, July 1, 1906.
67 Quoted in Hansen,
Alamo Reader, 530-31, and Long,
Duel of Eagles, 266. Interview by Charles M. Barnes.
Epilogue
1 Gary L. Foreman,
Crockett: The Gentleman from the Cane (Dallas, 1986), 57.
2 John Seelye,
“On to the Alamo”: Colonel Crockett’s Exploits and Adventures in Texas (New York, 2003), xi. Crockett,
Narrative, xviii-xix.
3 Seelye,
“On to the Alamo,” xi. Crockett,
Narrative, xix. Foreman,
Gentleman from the Cane, 57.
4 Arpad,
Original Legendary, 187-88.
6 Foreman,
Gentleman from the Cane, 57. Seelye,
“On to the Alamo,” xii.
7 Michael A. Lofaro,
Davy Crockett: The Man, the Legend, the Legacy 1786-1986 (Knoxville, TN, 1985), 106-7.
8 Quoted in Lofaro,
Crockett: The Man, 111, from Isaac Goldberg and Hubert Heffner, eds.,
America’s Lost Plays (Bloomington, IN, 1963), vol. 4.
9 Lofaro,
Crockett: The Man, 112.
11 Seelye,
“On to the Alamo,” xii.
12 Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 240.
13 Derr,
Frontiersman, 23-24. See also Richard Boyd Hauck, “Making It All Up,” in Lofaro,
Crockett: The Man, 116-18.
14 Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 243-44. Paul F. Anderson,
The Davy Crockett Craze: A Look at the 1950s Phenomenon and the Davy Crockett Collectibles (Hillside, IL, 1996), 49. For a detailed consideration of the 1950s Crockett craze and merchandising, also see Margaret Jane King, “The Davy Crockett Craze: A Case Study in Popular Culture” (Ph.D dissertation, University of Hawaii, 1976).
15 Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 244. Anderson,
The Davy Crockett Craze, 87-160. King, “The Davy Crockett Craze,” 8-17.
16 Gordon Wood,
The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin (New York, 2004) 176. Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 244.
17 Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 245.
18 Ibid. Anderson,
The Davy Crockett Craze, 49-73. Final sales figures are not yet in for merchandise attendant to
Spider-Man and
Spider-Man 2, so the wiry web shooter may one day outstrip Crockett.
20 Derr,
Frontiersman, 268.
22 Hauck,
Bio-Bibliography, 95.
23 Ibid, 95-96. See also Roberts and Olson,
A Line in the Sand, 257-76, and Hauck, “Making It All Up,” in Lofaro,
Crockett: The Man, 118-20.
24 Wood,
Benjamin Franklin, 2.