"In 1835, David Crockett's political career crumbled and he left Tennessee in search of a new homestead in Texas. But signs of war with Mexico brought him to San Antonio de Bexar, where he died in a defiant determination to live up to his legend. This singular gesture outstripped everything his bureaucratic promoters did to extend his reputation for fearlessness and integrity, leaving the final and most decisive act of legend entirely his own." This work takes you from his ancestral beginnings to his birth and early adventures; to the Creek War; to his sadness and Congress - all the way to the Alamo and beyond... It also answers two compelling questions: When did "Davy" start calling himself David? And did he surrender at the Alamo?...Also learn: How David's first wife, Polly, died... Who suggested Travis and Bowie as co-commanders of the Alamo... How many defenders really died in the final assault. And much more... Illustrated with period paintings, maps and photographs.

In 1835, David Crockett's political career crumbled and he left Tennessee in search of a new homestead in Texas. But signs of war with Mexico brought him to San Antonio de Bexar, where he died in a defiant determination to live up to his legend. This singular gesture outstripped everything his bureaucratic promoters did to extend his reputation for fearlessness and integrity, leaving the final and most decisive act of legend entirely his own. This work takes you from his ancestral beginnings to his birth and early adventures; to the Creek War; to his sadness and Congress - all the way to the Alamo and beyond...It also answers two compelling questions: When did Davy start calling himself David? And did he surrender at the Alamo?...Also learn: How David's first wife, Polly, died...Who suggested Travis and Bowie as co-commanders of the Alamo...How many defenders really died in the final assault. And much more...Illustrated with period paintings, maps and photographs.

The 1813 storming of Fort Mims by Creek Indians brought to light the careers of Andrew Jackson, David Crockett and Sam Houston. All three fought the Creeks and each would have his part to play two decades later when the Alamo was stormed during the fight for Texan independence from Mexico. President Jackson was the first head of state to recognize the fledgling Republic of Texas. Colonel Crockett would be enshrined as a folk hero for his stand at the Alamo. General Houston won Texan independence at San Jacinto in 1836. This book tells the stories of the two landmark battles--at Fort Mims and the Alamo--and the interwoven lives of Jackson, Crockett and Houston, three of the most fascinating men in American history.

In 1835, David Crockett's political career crumbled and he left Tennessee in search of a new homestead in Texas. But signs of war with Mexico brought him to San Antonio de Bexar, where he died in a defiant determination to live up to his legend. This singular gesture outstripped everything his bureaucratic promoters did to extend his reputation for fearlessness and integrity, leaving the final and most decisive act of legend entirely his own.

Although The Alamo fell in the early morning of March 6, 1836, the death of the Alamo defenders has come to symbolize courage and sacrifice for the cause of liberty. The memories of James Bowie, Davy Crockett, and William B. Travis are as powerful today as when the Texan Army routed Santa Anna to the cry "Remember the Alamo!" This book is more than a tribute to those who fell defending the mission. It is a thoroughly researched, vividly illustrated, objective description of the circumstances building up to and leading from that stand. By using contemporary writings, this history describes the political and military organizations of both sides, the weapons and equipment available to them, and the enduringly famous personalities involved, creating a vivid picture of this dramatic battle and the period in which it was fought.

"Make room for Colonel Crockett!" said the usher at the White House, one evening, when the famous Congressman from the backwoods presented himself with a number of other callers. "Colonel Crockett makes room for himself!" was the exclamation of the Member as he strode into the room. The incident is typical of the man. Gifted by nature with an exhaustless fund of humor, born to privation, hardship and labor, trained, not in the school of books, but in the severer one of experience, he exhibited true manliness, honesty and bravery in all his words and actions. Colonel Crockett lacked the refinements which a truer education would have given him: he said and did things which cannot be held up as models for the youth of to-day; but a profound sense of justice and of devotion to right permeated his entire life. Rough and uncultured though he was, his career contains much that is commendable and worthy of imitation. His moral heroism was displayed in his defiance of the vast powers of President Jackson when political ruin was the almost inevitable consequence. Of no man can it more truly be said that he preferred being right to being President. His personal daring was shown on many a battle-field; in the dim woods, when, singlehanded, he encountered the savage bear; in the swamps, when struggling against malaria, starvation, and the wily Creek warrior; when coursing on his mustang over the Texan prairie and pursued by the fierce Comanche; and when, day after day and night after night, he loaded and fired his deadly rifle from within the sulphurous walls of the Alamo, while Santa Anna and his hosts closed about him and his fellow-patriots in a circle of flame and fire, and when, panting, begrimed and bloody, he stood with the handful of survivors until he saw, like a lightning-flash, the treachery of the Mexican dictator, and, making a last desperate rush, with his drawn bowie-knife, he perished when within a pace of the traitor. Not a defender lived to tell the story of the sublime defence of the Alamo. Neither ancient nor modern history affords a grander exhibition of heroism than was shown on that crimson day when the blood of the Spartan band became the seed from which sprang Texan independence. Who has ever stood with bared head, and read without a quicker heart-throb, those words chiseled in the cenotaph in the Texan capital, and since destroyed by fire ?- "THERMOPYL HAD ITS MESSENGER OF DEFEAT: THE ALAMO HAD NONE !"

The Wild West and the frontier have long held a special place in the narrative of American history, and of all the legends and folk heroes who lived in the 19th century, none became as famous as Davy Crockett, "The King of the Wild Frontier". Crockett had the distinction of being a living legend in his own life. Known as a hardscrabble frontiersman who could spin a good yarn but who also took a no-nonsense approach that brought him from the backwoods of Tennessee to the halls of Congress. Though he served during the presidency of another Westerner, Andrew Jackson, Crockett was very much his own man, and he was distrustful of other politicians, a sentiment that has only endured him further to subsequent generations of Americans. Crockett was famous in his lifetime, but it was his death in Texas that made him an American legend. Though there is still some mystery and controversy surrounding exactly what transpired at the Battle of the Alamo, the deaths of Crockett, Travis, Bowie and the rest of the defenders at the hands of Santa Anna's Mexican soldiers became a symbol of sacrifice and defiance, and the battle itself became a rallying cry throughout the rest of Texas' War for Independence. Naturally, it also cemented Crockett's legacy as well.

In Sleuthing the Alamo, historian James E. Crisp draws back the curtain on years of mythmaking to reveal some surprising truths about the Texas Revolution--truths often obscured by both racism and "political correctness," as history has been hijacked by combatants in the culture wars of the past two centuries. Beginning with a very personal prologue recalling both the pride and the prejudices that he encountered in the Texas of his youth, Crisp traces his path to the discovery of documents distorted, censored, and ignored--documents which reveal long-silenced voices from the Texan past. In each of four chapters focusing on specific documentary "finds," Crisp uncovers the clues that led to these archival discoveries. Along the way, the cast of characters expands to include: a prominent historian who tried to walk away from his first book; an unlikely teenaged "speechwriter" for General Sam Houston; three eyewitnesses to the death of Davy Crockett at the Alamo; a desperate inmate of Mexico City's Inquisition Prison, whose scribbled memoir of the war in Texas is now listed in the Guiness Book of World Records; and the stealthy slasher of the most famous historical painting in Texas. In his afterword, Crisp explores the evidence behind the mythic "Yellow Rose of Texas" and examines some of the powerful forces at work in silencing the very voices from the past that we most need to hear today. Here then is an engaging first-person account of historical detective work, illuminating the methods of the serious historian--and the motives of those who prefer glorious myth to unflattering truth.