David Crockett
From Sergeant Nuñez of the Mexican Army; Ben, Negro cook for Santa Anna; Susanna Dickinson, survivor of the battle of the Alamo:
Sergeant Félix Nuñez of the Mexican Army saw a tall American of rather dark complexion who had on a long buckskin coat and a round cap without any bill, made of fox skin with the long tail hanging down his back…Of the many soldiers who took deliberate aim at him and fired, not one ever hit him. But, he never missed a shot. He killed at least eight of our men, besides wounding several others. This being observed by a lieutenant who had come in over the wall, he sprang at him and dealt him a deadly blow with his sword, just above the right eye, which felled him to the ground, and in an instant he was pierced by not less than 20 bayonets.
Ben, Capt. Juan Almonte's Negro servant, who cooked for Gen. Santa Anna while they were staying in the Músquiz house, remembered Congressman Crockett from his days as a steward on ships back east. He identified Crockett’s body to Santa Anna.
Mrs. Dickinson recognized Col. Crockett lying dead and mutilated between the church and the two-story barrack building, and even remembers seeing his peculiar cap lying by his side.
- 12. Wallace O. Chariton, Exploring the Alamo Legends (Plano: Wordware Publishing, Inc., 1990), p. 57; Walter Lord, A Time to Stand: The Epic of the Alamo (1961; reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1978), pp. 161-162.
- 13. Chester C. Newell, History of the Revolution in Texas (New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1838; reprint, New York, Arno Press, 1973), p. 89.
- 14. J.M. Morphis, History of Texas from Its Discovery and Settlement (New York: United States Publishing Company, 1875), p. 177.
