The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 1, July 1897 - April, 1898 Page: 48
334 p. : ill., ports., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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48 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
with one prime idea, to fight for their kindred, and the second-
ary consideration, if they should be on the winning side, of pros-
pective homes and rewards. Travis finely put these ideas, besides
other thoughts more glorious still, into words: "Take care of my
little boy. If the country should be saved, I may make him a splen-
did fortune; but if the country should be lost and I should perish,
he will have nothing but the proud recollection that he is the son
of a man who died for his country." The volunteers came, believ-
ing that the colonists stood shoulder to shoulder with an enthusi-
asm equal to their own. They were ignorant of the already mani-
fested local politics. Thus early in the day there were factions,
jealousies, and worse to follow, conspiracy, treason, disobedience,
and incapacity, an .evil distemper to which most of them were to
fall victims,-a shuffling faithlessness to which they were to be
sacrificed. These intrigues and dissensions, this want of unity of
purpose, began to discover itself to the new arrivals, and in short
order they were themselves affected. Fannin above everything
had entreated discipline, discipline he was not quick to exercise on
himself. It was a house divided against itself, and there is small
wonder that there came a crash. Alas, the sad lessons they were to
learn! Lessons by which they would never profit, but which were
destined to give the surviving elements a singleness of purpose,
the destruction, in succession, of the forces of Johnson and Grant,
King, Ward, and Fannin's own-and the sacrifice of the men in
the Alamo. In the halt between opinions, Travis and his men, in
the Alamo, touched the topmost note of heroism.
Yoakum says that Fannin was complaining much, "and with
justice, of the apathy of the Texans in not turning out more will-
ingly to meet the enemy at the frontier, and stated the fact that
he could not find a half-dozen Texans in his ranks;" while Hous-
ton had said of the volunteers, "Better material never was in
ranks." Captain Burr H. Duval strongly states, on March 9th, that
not one Texan had "yet made his appearance at this post" (Goliad).
But I will here give in full that letter to his father, which I have
the privilege of making public for the first time. I recommend it
for study, for it throws an interesting side-light on the unfortunate
state of affairs:
[The following is a copy of a letter written by Burr H. Duval to
his father, William P. Duval, Governor of Florida, dated March
9th, 1836, eighteen days prior to his death at the Goliad massacre,
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 1, July 1897 - April, 1898, periodical, 1897/1898; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101009/m1/60/?rotate=270: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.