I remember reading about the account that was written by Mexican Lt. Colonel José Enrique de la Peña years ago, possibly in Smithsonian or American Heritage. Boy did that ever kick up a shit storm.
That vibrant pile of old paper, which some claim is a forgery, purports to be the diary of José Enrique de la Peña, a lieutenant colonel with the Mexican army who fought with Santa Anna at the Alamo. In it he wrote that Davy Crockett surrendered to the Mexicans rather than fighting to the death, as legend insists. He describes Crockett as a “naturalist” who had “undertaken to explore the country and who, finding himself in Béjar at the very moment of surprise, had taken refuge in the Alamo, fearing that his status as a foreigner might not be respected.” But these excuses did him no good. After surrendering, de la Peña says, Crockett and a handful of other defenders who had also surrendered were taken to Santa Anna, who had them executed immediately.
The diary wasn’t published in English until 1975. In 1978 Dan Kilgore, a former president of the Texas State Historical Association, used it as the basis for his book How Did Davy Die? This slight volume caused much huffing and puffing because it blasphemed Davy’s legend.
The last word (for now) on Davy Crockett.
www.texasmonthly.com
