Thursday, March 3rd, 1836: James Bonham returns, and General Gaona arrives.
At around 11 in the morning on March 3rd, James Butler Bonham returned to the Alamo after his long ride through the Texas colonies to raise reinforcements.
Bonham had left the Alamo around February 16th, riding first to Fannin at Goliad, then to San Felipe, then Washington-on-the-Brazos, and finally to Gonzales. Accounts say that he reached Gonzales on March 1st, the same day the Immortal 32 entered the Alamo. Learning that reinforcements had already left Gonzales, he rode back to the Alamo.
Tradition says Bonham returned with the bad news that help wasn’t coming. However, this isn’t wholly correct. On his return, Bonham delivered a letter to Travis from Major Robert “Three-legged Willie” Williamson, commander of the rangers at Gonzales. In this letter, Williamson wrote, “Sixty men have set out from this municipality (Gonzales), and in all human probability, they are with you at this date. Colonel Fannin, with three hundred men and four pieces of artillery, has been on the march toward Béjar some three days. Tonight we expect some three hundred reinforcements from Washington, Bastroj [sic], Brazoria, and San Felipe, and no time will be wasted in seeking their help for you.” Williamson closes his letter with, “For God’s sake, hold out until we can assist you.”
Williamson’s letter raised the spirits of Travis and the Alamo garrison. Already thirty-two of the sixty men Williamson had written about had arrived three days earlier. And they were still unaware that Fannin had abandoned his attempt. For the men of the Alamo, it seemed that reinforcements would soon be there. To celebrate, Travis allowed the firing of several cannon shots. But the defender’s celebration would be short-lived, as the grim reality of their situation sank in that afternoon.
At around four o’clock, loud cheering came from the town. General Gaona and his 1st Brigade finally arrived. This Brigade was composed of the Aldama, Toluca, and Zapadores battalions. However, when they first arrived, these men were of little use to Santa Anna. They were utterly exhausted after a forced five-day march of one hundred and twenty miles. With Gaona’s Brigade, the number of Mexican troops in Béxar was around 2,370.
With the arrival of these Mexican reinforcements, Travis thought it wise to send out another message to hurry up those coming to his aid. And to carry this, Travis again turned to his most reliable courier, John W. Smith.
Smith, with Dr. John Sutherland, had saved the Alamo garrison from being ambushed by the Dolores cavalry on the first day of the siege. Also, on February 23rd, Smith carried Travis’s first appeal for help to the colonies. Then, on March 1st, Smith returned to the Alamo with Albert Martin, leading the Immortal 32 into the fort. Now, for one last time, Smith rode out to get aid for his friends. But this time, Smith would not return to the Alamo before it fell. John W. Smith would become a prominent figure in the Texas Revolution and early Texas history and a mayor of San Antonio.
Many sources have Smith as being the last courier to leave the Alamo. But there is documentation of another. I’ll cover that in a later chapter.
Still Current 