Almaron Dickinson - Battle of The Alamo

Battle of The Alamo

Dickinson by this time had the rank of Captain, and was in command of the Alamo garrisons artillery of twenty one cannon. Some accounts list Dickinson with a rank of Lieutenant at the Alamo, but it is believed he was promoted around that time. Lieutenant Colonel William Travis, commander of the garrison, commanded Dickinson and others considered to be regular troops, as well as several bands of volunteers, led by frontiersmen Jim Bowie and Davey Crockett, with a total of between 180 and 250 defenders, historians knowing for certain only that it was not lower than or higher than those two figures, with most believing the number to have been 182. One of the dispatches sent out by Travis gave the figure of 150, and at least 32 others are known to have arrived after that. Antonio Ruiz, the Mayor of San Antonio at the time, said that after the battle the Mexican soldiers burned 182 Alamo defender bodies, and that tends to be the accepted number of how many defenders the garrison had. Santa Anna had under his command between 5,000 and 6,000 Mexican troops. From the time of his arrival, a siege began.

A Mexican bombardment continued through the morning of February 25, 1836. At approximately 10 a.m., about 200–300 Mexican soldiers, primarily cazadores from the Matamoros Battalion, crossed the San Antonio river and took cover in abandoned shacks approximately 90 yards (82 m) to 100 yards (91 m) from the Alamo walls. The Mexican soldiers were intending to use the huts as cover to erect another artillery battery, although many Texians assumed that they were actually launching an assault on the fort. Travis called for volunteers to burn the huts, despite the fact that it was broad daylight and they would be within musket range of the Mexican soldiers. Charles Despallier, Robert Brown, James Rose and a few others volunteered for the mission.

To provide cover, Capt. Dickinson and his men fired their 8-lb cannons, filled with grapeshot and canister, at the Mexican soldiers in the huts. Crockett and his men fired rifles, while other Texians reloaded extra weapons for them. Within two hours, the battle was over. As soon as the Texians saw flames erupting from the huts they threw open the Alamo gate, and the Texians re-entered the Alamo, unscathed, although Rose was almost captured by a Mexican officer. The Mexican soldiers retreated, after two of their soldiers were killed and four wounded, while several Texians had been mildly scratched by flying rock.

After learning that James Fannin was not going to the Alamo as reinforcements, and that there would likely be no other reinforcements, a group of 25 men set out from Gonzales at 2 pm on Saturday, February 27. The party would number 32 upon its arrival at the Alamo, and were led by Albert Martin and George Kimbell, the latter of which had been Almaron Dickinson's business partner. As they approached the Alamo in the early morning hours of March 1, a rider appeared in front of them and asked, in English, if they wished to go into the fort. When they said yes, he turned and told them to follow him. When one of the men became suspicious, the rider bolted away. The volunteers were afraid they had been discovered and galloped towards the Alamo. In the darkness, the Texians thought this was a party of Mexican soldiers and fired, wounding one of the volunteers. They finally managed to convince the defenders to open the gates.

At some point, either on March 3 or March 4, 1836, Col. Travis, seeing that their situation was hopeless and their fate set, called the troops of his garrison together. He informed them of the situation, and gave the soldiers the opportunity to either stay or to go at that point. Only one man, Moses Rose, chose to flee, with the rest choosing to remain and fight to the death. Rose would forever, up until present day, be remembered as the "Coward of the Alamo", while Dickinson and the rest of the defenders would achieve immortality as heroes.