The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 5, July 1901 - April, 1902 Page: 2

2 Texas -Historical A ssociation Quarterly.
It should be remembered that I learned the facts, though second-
hand, from Rose himself. He recited them to my parents, who,
in turn, recited them to me.
I must admit that, after years of reflection, I arrived at the
opinion that in my first writing on this subject as published in
Richardson's Texas Almanac for 1873 I erred in stating Rose's
service in the French army; and I wish to explain how I did so.
My father was then afflicted with deafness, and was very liable to
misunderstand many things that were told to him. Learning that
Rose had served in Napoleon Bonaparte's army, he understood him
to say that he had served under that general in Italy, as well as in
Russia, and so I then stated; but my mother, whose hearing was
unimpaired, did not hear him say that he had served in Italy,
though she did hear him say that he had served in the inva-
sion of Russia, and on the retreat from Moscow. On later reflec-
tion, I infer that my father was mistaken regarding the service in
Italy. Remembering his habits, I now believe that Rose told him
something which he had learned of the Italian campaign, and my
father inferred that he had served in it also. I also believe that I
would have done better to omit Rose's estimate of the number of
slain Mexicans that he saw near the Alamo, when he looked down
upon them from the top of the wall. Of course, being horrified at
the hopeless condition of the garrison, as Travis had just explained
it, he saw what appeared to him a great number, and he had no
leisure even to think of counting them. He only said that they
seemed to be so many. The rest of his statement was all repeated
to me by my mother, and I vouch for its correctness. In my
account of this escape in Mrs. Pennybacker's History for Schools,
I have made the needed corrections, and I affirm that I believe my
entire statement in that excellent little book to be correct.
Now, were I to admit Rose's entire statement to be false, yet I
would contend that no person is now able to disprove it. The
Alamo was not in 1836, as now, in the heart of the city of San
Antonio, but a considerable distance from it. The town then cov-
ered about one-half of the peninsula formed by the horseshoelike
bend of the San Antonio river; and that the west end of it was
farthest from the fort, while the east end, next the fort, was unin-
habited and covered by a dense mesquite thicket, which obstructed
the view between the town and the fort. The view between the