travis by peter cole of replicants

Travis, an American of English descent, was born in August,1,1809 in Saluda County, South Carolina, to Mark and Jemima Travis. Records differ as to whether his date of birth was the first or ninth of August, but his youngest brother James C. Travis, who was in possession of the Travis family Bible at the time of his statement, indicated that he was born on the first. When he was nine, his uncle Alexander Travis, a prominent Baptist preacher, called on his family to move to the town of Sparta in Conecuh County, Alabama, where he received much of his education. He later enrolled in a school in nearbyClaiborne, where he eventually worked as an assistant teacher.

Travis then became an attorney and, at age 19, married one of his former students, 16-year-old Rosanna Cato (1812–1848), on October 26, 1828. The couple stayed in Claiborne and had a son, Charles Edward, in 1829.Travis began publication of a newspaper that same year, the Claiborne Herald. He became a Mason, joining the Alabama Lodge No.3 – Free and Accepted Masons, and later joined the Alabama militia as adjutant of the Twenty-sixth Regiment, Eighth Brigade, and Fourth Division.

His marriage soon failed for unknown reasons. Some historian have speculated that he was recruited by the United States government as a Spy and Filibuster agent, and was sent to Texas in order to organize and prepare the province for revolution Thus, a break-up of the marriage and business was necessitated. Regardless, Travis fled Alabama in early 1831 to start over in Texas, leaving behind his wife, son, and unborn daughterTheir son was placed with Travis's friend, David Ayres, so that he would be closer to his father. Intriguingly, Travis never remarried in Texas nor did his wife divorce Travis for another five years. In the meantime, Travis regularly visited Alabama, met with his wife and son in New Orleans, Louisiana above Crockett by peter cole of replicants and made a trip to Washington D.C.. However, with war approaching in Texas, Travis and Rosanna were officially divorced by the Marion County courts on January 9, 1836, by Act no. 115. A single letter was received by Rosanna from Travis in February in which Travis encouraged Rosanna to re-marry, expressing his belief that he would not survive the upcoming conflict. Rosanna married Samuel G. Cloud in Monroeville, Alabama, on February 14, 1836. However, they both died of Yellow Fever during an epidemic which afflicted the state in 1848.In May 1831, upon his arrival in Mexican Texas, a part of northern Mexico at the time, Travis purchased land from Stephen F. Austin and began a law practice in Anahuac. In keeping with his suspected role as a spy for the US, he played a role in the growing friction between American settlers and the Mexican government, agitating not only for the protection of their rights as Mexicans, but increasingly and openly discussing the possibility of secession as a means of defending their liberty. Thus, he was quickly recognized as one of the leaders of the War Party, a group of militants opposed to Mexican rule. He became a pivotal figure in the Anahuac Disturbances, during which Mexico City's increasingly arbitrary and authoritarian rule led to a series of assemblies by Texans, with subsequent civil disturbances and outbreaks of violence precipitating the war.The Anahuac Disturbances were uprisings of settlers in and around Anahuac, Texas in 1832 and 1835 which helped to precipitate the Texas Revolution. This eventually led to the territory's secession from Mexico and the founding of theRepublic of Texas. Anahuac was located on the east side of the Trinity River near the north shore of Galveston Bay, which placed it astride the trade route between Mexico and Louisiana, and from there to the rest of the United States. In new attempts to curtail smuggling and enforce customs tariffs from the coastal settlements, Mexico placed a garrison there after 1830. American settlers came into conflict with Mexican military officers, and rose up against them. They increased political activity and residents of numerous communities declared support for the federalists, who were revolting against the central government.below conte

While the assemblies began debating how best to defend their Mexican rights, a similar series of outbreaks of demonstrations, assemblies, and civil strife throughout Mexico led to a massive crackdown throughout the country by a new military junta led by Antonio López de Santa Anna. Several Mexican states in the south declared independence in response. Santa Ana immediately declared a state of martial law and ordered the execution of anyone involved in the uprising. In reply, a number of Texas militia units surrounded various arsenals and armories into which Mexican central authorities had confiscated the local militia's weapons.

This led in October 1835 to the Battle of Gonzales in which Texas militia engaged Mexican army regulars quartered in the town and guarding the arsenal. In November, Travis played a small role in the Siege of Bexar, during which several militia units from across the state surrounded the main Mexican position at the Alamo, forced the Mexican army to leave, and secured large numbers of weapons, ammunition and supplies. Subsequently, on December 19, Travis was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel of the Legion of Cavalry and became the chief recruiting officer for a new regular Texan army. His command was to consist of 384 men and officers, divided into six companies. Despite his rank, Travis had to recruit the men who were to serve under his command, but he had difficulty in finding willing colonists to enlist as regulars, because the majority wished to remain in their local militia units. "Volunteers can no longer be had or relied upon", he wrote to acting governor Henry Smith.Smith ordered Travis to raise a company of professional soldiers to reinforce the Texans at the Alamo Mission in San Antonio. Travis considered disobeying his orders, writing to Smith: "I am willing, nay anxious, to go to the defense of Bexar, but sir, I am unwilling to risk my reputation ... by going off into the enemy's country with such little means, so few men, and with them so badly equipped."

On February 3 Travis arrived in San Antonio with eighteen regulars as reinforcements. On February 12, as the next highest ranking officer, Travis became the official commander of the Alamo garrison. He took command of the regular soldiers from Col. James C. Neill, of the Texan army. Neill had to leave to care for his ill family, but he promised to be back in twenty days. Meanwhile, the surrounding militia units were asked to volunteer to serve under the regulars. In turn, James Bowie (1795–1836), a noted frontiersmen, soldier, duelist, and notable of the community would command the volunteers as Travis commanded the regulars.

As the Texans organized their militia, large elements of volunteers from elsewhere in the United States, were activated in preparation for the rebellion and secession. Most of these units came from Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, all states from which leading men of the liberty movement, and secret Fillibuster program originated. The most notable of these were led by former Congressmen and noted pioneer Davy Crocket, who arrived with a platoon of battle hardened scouts and frontiersmen at the Alamo.

Meanwhile, the Mexican army, under dictator/General Antonio López de Santa Anna, had begun its rapid descent on the Mexican demonstrators, destroying most of the liberty movement in Mexico City and Puebla, before moving onto the secessionists in other states. His word that all resistors would be executed was carried out methodically as tens of thousands of resisting Mexican state militia were executed upon defeat and capture. However, he delivered various letters northward expressing his particular hatred toward the Americans in Texas, whom he promised would be genocided as his mentor General José Joaquín de Arredondo had done decades earlier. His movement northward was swift and caught the Texans unaware in early February. By the second week of February, Mexican regulars were scouting the Alamo and by February 22 began investing the small fort.

The Mexicans began their attack on the mission on February 23, 1836. In a brief letter to the alcade of Gonzales, Andrew Ponton, Travis wrote:

"The enemy in large force is in sight... We want men and provisions ... Send them to us. We have 150 men & are determined to defend the Alamo to the last."

This initial assault was quickly turned back by the well aimed fire of the small garrison. Armed with deadly rifles, and backed by hundreds of rifles and large amounts of ammunition, 2 out of three men each had at least eight rifles from which to fire, while another man rapidly reloaded the rifles. Additionally, the Texas position was supported by a number of artillery guns which lay waste the advancing Mexican column with shot, and silenced at long range a number of the Mexican artillery. As the Mexicans advanced, the Texans fired in volleys wiping out entire columns of the Mexicans and dealing the expeditionary army its first setback since Puebla. Reeling from this defeat, the Mexican army resorted to surrounding and laying siege to the fort. The army grew in size with the arrival of its main van.

Despite this initial success, the Texan position was dire. But, rather than quickly abandon his post, Travis saw the Alamo as a key fort in the initial defense policy outlined in his orders. As part of three large forts, the others being at Goliad and Gonzales, Travis considered his position vital to delaying the Mexican army, thereby allowing the Texan civilian population to escape, and for more militia further east to organize and be reinforced by American and European volunteers. Consequently, for the remaining several days, various small assaults, quick counter-strikes by the Texans, and several attempts to bring in small reinforcements, marked the siege.

However, the size of Santa Ana's army and its rapid advance northward, had caught the overall Texan position throughout the state unprepared. Worse, unbeknownst to Travis, the Goliad fort, arguably much better designed and fortified, had been abandoned and its garrison cut to pieces on the open ground because of faulty command and communications. Thus, rather than attempting to break out, and given the fog of war, Travis decided to wait out the siege and pin down the Mexican army until relieved. The force at Goliad had been ten times that of the Alamo. However, most of it had been captured and subsequently executed. Consequently, Travis had a doomed command and did not know why reinforcements were not arriving.

In a letter to the Texas Convention, dated March 3, Travis wrote: "...yet I am determined to perish in the defense of this place, and my bones shall reproach my country for her neglect."

As the Mexican army continued to grow in size, Travis began to admit his situation was grave. Thus, in Travis' last letter out of the Alamo, which reached the convention the same day on March 3 to David Ayres:

"Take care of my little boy. If the country should be saved, I may make him a splendid fortune; but if the country should be lost, and I should perish, he will have nothing but the proud recollection that he is the son of a man who died for his country."

With at least over five thousand crack Mexican soldiers surrounding the Alamo, all commanded by Generalissimo Santa Anna and flying a red flag whilst playing the El Degüello bugle call, Santa Anna signaled that no quarter would be given to the defenders.
El Degüello is a bugle call, notable in the US for its use as a march by Mexican Army buglers during the 1836 Siege and Battle of the Alamo."Toque a Degüello" was introduced to the Americas by the Spanish armies and was later adopted by the patriot armies fighting against them during the Spanish American wars of independence. It was widely used bySimon Bolivar's armies, notably during the Battle of Junin and the Battle of Ayacucho.^[
"Degüello" is the first-person singular present tense of "degollar", a verb that means "to cut the throat." More figuratively, it means "give no quarter."It "signifies the act of beheading or throat-cutting and in Spanish history became associated with the battle music, which, in different versions, meant complete destruction of the enemy without mercy." It is similar to the war cry "¡A degüello!"used by Cuban rebels in the 19th century to launch mounted charges against the Spanish infantry
 Recognizing the near impossibility of surviving the final assault, there is a legend that, one to three days before the final Mexican assault, Travis gathered all of the Alamo's defenders in the main plaza of the fort. Announcing that reinforcements would not be coming, Travis unsheathed his sword and drew a line in the dirt. He then told those men who were willing to stay and die with him to cross the line; those who wanted to leave could do so without shame. Most of the Alamo's defenders subsequently crossed the line, leaving only two men behind. One soldier, Bowie, was confined to a cot with typhoid, but asked to be carried across the line. The other was a French veteran of the Napoleonic Wars named Moses Rose. Rose, who later declared, "By God, I wasn't ready to die," scaled a wall that night and escaped, thus preserving the story of Travis's line in the sand. This account was told by Rose to numerous people later in his life.
Louis "Moses" Rose (1785? – 1850/1851?), also seen as Lewis Rose), known as the Coward of the Alamo, was according to Texas legend, the only man who chose to leave the besieged Alamo in 1836, rather than fight and die there. Some regard him as a coward for having left the Alamo prior to the final battle. He was illiterate and many believe that his tale was embellished by those who were writing on his behalf. Others take the view that Rose appropriately declined to sacrifice his life in a losing cause. Finally, some question the accuracy of this part of the legend.According to the most commonly told story, Rose was a French Jew, had been a lieutenant in the French army, and had served in Napoleon's invasion of Russia. In 1814, he was named to the Légion d'honneur (Legion of Honor) for heroism. He migrated to Nacogdoches, Texas, after Napoleon's fall, and lived in the then-Mexican territory until the age of 51, when the Texas Revolution erupted in 1835.The evidence for Rose's cowardice at the Alamo is thin. It is known that Louis Rose of Nacogdoches testified on behalf of the estates of five men who may have been at the Alamo.
 In each of these cases he made statements similar to “left him in the Alimo [sic] 3 March 1836”.In none of his testimony did Rose explicitly state that he was a member of the Alamo garrison, or that he had entered the Alamo and later escaped. In at least one case, the man on whose behalf he testified had not been at the Alamo, although he had the same name as one of the known Alamo defenders; in a second case, the man (Henry Teal), was later proved to have died after the battle's conclusion.

Popular legend holds that Rose was a member of Colonel James Bowie's forces and had fought during the siege of Bexar, and that he then joined Bowie in reinforcing the Alamo Mission in San Antonio de Bexar in late January 1836. The available records do not permit historians to confirm these accounts. Rose's name is not found on any muster rolls for the siege of Bexar. Neither a Louis nor a Moses Rose is listed on the muster rolls that James C. Neill compiled for the Alamo garrison on December 31, 1835, or February 1, 1836, although Bowie was listed on the latter document.

On the other hand, a man named “Rose” from Nacogdoches was listed as an Alamo victim in the March 14, 1836, issue of the Telegraph and Texas Register. This first attempt to name the men at the Alamo was compiled by John William Smith, one of the last couriers to leave the Alamo, and Gerald Navan, who probably also left the Alamo as a courier.Alamo survivor Susanna Dickinson testified in 1853 and again in 1857 that the only man named “Rose” of whom she knew in the Alamo was James Rose, who accompanied Davy Crockett and who had died.

Historian Thomas Ricks Lindley speculates that Louis “Moses” Rose had intended to fight at the Alamo and had joined volunteers who attempted to reinforce the Alamo on March 4. According to Lindley, while fifty or so of the volunteers successfully entered the Alamo complex, the remainder were driven away by Mexican troops. Rose may have been in the group that was repulsed, and either had seen some of his comrades enter the Alamo, or assumed that they had successfully enteredThe traditional account of the battle includes the following description of Rose's actions.

Some say Rose fled the Alamo the night of March 5, evading Mexican forces, and made his way to Grimes County, where he found rest and shelter at the homestead of one William P. Zuber. Rose made no attempt at hiding the true story of his journey, attributing his decision to a love for his family (including his children) and desire to fight another day rather than face a slaughter like those he had seen in previous failed battles. But Rose did not fight another day, but instead merely faded away from the revolution, eventually settling in Logansport, Louisiana.

Some historians have said that the story of the line in the sand was first told by Rose himself. Whether there ever was an actual line drawn in the sand is disputed, but the evidence does suggest that all Alamo defenders were at one point given a choice to stay or to go.When the legendary account is accepted, Louis Rose is generally portrayed as a coward, though he was 51 at the time, and had seen the cost of futile warfare in conflicts on two continents. This is largely due to the pride Texans take from the Battle of the Alamo, and a the contrast of Rose with the defenders who chose to stay and die. His alleged actions suffer further in comparison with the 32 volunteers who evaded the Mexican forces to join the garrison.

Some advocates for Rose have noted that others also left during the battle, notably Juan Seguin (who was sent to seek reinforcements and is considered an Alamo hero), and at least twelve others who left as couriers during a brief armistice. Others note that Seguin and the other couriers were ordered to leave as part of their duty, while Rose chose to abandon his comrades in order to save his own life. (In fact, Juan Seguin returned to the scene, though the Alamo had fallen by the time he arrived.)

Rose's reputation as a coward remained with him for the rest of his lifetime, and continues up to the present day. To those who accept the popular account, it matters little what Rose's motives were; more important is the fact that he left, by choice.

During the period just before the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the U.S., the Rose legend gained new currency when France opposed the invasion. Anti-French sentiment in the United States increased and Rose's legend was often invoked as an historical example of ostensibly French cowardice in the face of war, despite the unverified status of the popular account.

In the years following the fall of the Alamo, Rose was often contacted by relatives of men that died at the Alamo, to help verify their deaths, so that their survivors could settle land disputes or property claims. As noted above, on some lists of the participants in the Battle of the Alamo, Rose is not even listed; proponents of the legendary account believe this is so because Rose left before the climax of the battle. In 1927, relatives of Rose presented his musket to the Alamo Museum. According to legend, Rose himself, if asked, would often proclaim that he was, in fact, the "Coward of the Alamo".

The song, “Moses Rose of Texas”, which uses the tempo of the song “The Yellow Rose of Texas”, tells the popular story of Rose, saying in partThe 1952 film The Man from the Alamo, starring Glenn Ford, is loosely based on Rose's story, but Ford's character is not a coward. Instead he is selected to escape the Alamo to protect the families of the defenders from looters and bandits. The film's plot was criticized by some Texan traditionalist groups, such as the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

[edit]Lieutenant Louis Roze, The Yellow "Roze" of Texas“For the first thirty-eight years of the twentieth century,” wrote Thomas Ricks Lindley , “William P. Zuber’s story of Moses Rose’s alleged escape from the Alamo was an unsubstantiated tale accepted by few historians.” Then in 1939 came a thunderbolt: Texas archivist Robert B. Blake had uncovered land grant statements from the Nacogdoches County Courthouse containing elements that seemed to verify Zuber’s story. Because Blake appears to have believed him, he assumed that a Stephen and a Lewis or Louis Rose who, in their day, had signed testimony about Alamo defenders to the Board of Land Commissioners, were but one and same old Frenchman whose real name was Louis Rose. According to Blake, it was the very Rose described in the Texas Almanac for 1873, “Moses” becoming a nickname given to him by the Alamo defenders for his great age, 50 (Gordon C. Jenning, 56, was the oldest Alamo fighter at the time.)

In 1982, Steven G. Kellman, professor of comparative literature at the University of Texas at San Antonio, brought fresh grist to the mill by publishing a short study, “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” Kellman believed that the xeroxes of military documents he had obtained from the Services Historiques de la Défense in Vincennes, France, showed that “Moses, né Louis” was Lieutenant Louis Roze (haphazardly misspelled "Rose" on one of the copies he got), born in Laferée, Ardennes, on May 11, 1785.

Two different first names – Stephen and Lewis or Louis – plus a nickname, Moses – for the same man now explicitly identified by Professor Kellman as an officer in Napoleon’s army brought questions to historian Gerard Dôle's mind. His personal curiosity was all the keener because a Napoleonic veteran in his family, Capitaine Charles Gouget, had saved the life of a Lieutenant Louis Roze (note the different spelling) during the disastrous campaign of Spain. It is also important to note that his father René, Émile, Moïse (“Moses” in French) Dôle, was baptized “Moïse” in accordance with the wishes of his uncle Charles Dôle, whose godfather was Capitaine Gouget. Could Lieutenant Louis ROZE be the same ROSE who had been branded the “coward,” the “traitor of the Alamo,” or the “Yellow Rose” by some Texas historians? Dôle's quest for the truth soon began.

Gerard Dôle was determined to find out exactly who this good friend of Capitaine Charles Gouget actually was. In order to retrace the life of Louis Roze, he consulted Louis Roze's complete military records at the French Archives Historiques de la Défense in Vincennes, as well as the complete dossier on his Légion d’Honneur at the Archives Nationales in Paris. At the same time, his assistant Stéphane Vielle went to work collecting and studying various official documents concerning Lieutenant Louis Roze, born in Laferée, Ardennes, on May 11, 1785.

Upon completing their research, Dôle and Vielle understood that there had been a case of mistaken identity. There was no way Louis Roze, born in La Ferré, could have been the Louis Moses Rose of Nacogdoches and the Alamo, for a simple and obvious reason: the Louis Roze born in the Ardennes had never crossed the Atlantic.

Sifting through and scrutinizing the official records and documents of the various towns where Louis Roze resided, Stéphane Vielle finally did discover two documents mentioning his name as a witness to various events in civilian life which occurred during the period that interests us. On June 5, 1833, Louis Roze acted as a witness to the christening of the daughter of Paul Masure, notary in the town of Braine (Aisne). A few years later, on August 30, 1837, he was one of the witnesses on the death certificate of the wife of Paul Masure, then named as a former notary.

Louis Roze died on May 25, 1851 in Braine, and the certificate was signed and witnessed by his friend Paul Masure. The document again mentions that Roze was a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and native of Laferrée.

In light of this evidence, how could anyone believe that this exemplary officer, whose military career was spotless, whose beautiful penmanship and flourished signature can still be admired, might have donned the ragged clothing of a loner and a rambler, been branded as a cowardly deserter from a besieged fort ?

We shall therefore conclude with the formal assertion that Louis Roze (misspelled “Rose” by Dr. Kellman,) son of Pierre Roze and Marie Magdeleine Henaux, born May 11, 1785 à La Férée, never set foot in Texas or at the Alamo.

On March 6, 1836, following a thirteen-day siege, his army well prepared, and supported by heavy artillery and veteran combat engineers, Santa Anna ordered the largest assault yet on the Alamo at the predawn hours. Despite punishing fire, both from the well aimed rifle fire of the Alamo defenders and its superb but smaller artillery, the Mexicans slowly invested the forts walls, used ladders to climb over the wall’s tops and after desperate close quarter combat broke down the fort's outer defenses. After heavy fighting, which spread throughout the fort and into individual building and lasted into the early morning, Travis, Bowie, and most of the defenders were dead at the end of Battle of the Alamo. It is believed that David Crockett and James Bonham as well as at least ten others, mostly the Tennessee and Kentucky frontiersmen, had been severely wounded and subdued but survived. According to Mexican soldiers, these survivors were tortured and eventually executed. A total of around 188–250 Texans and unknown number of Mexicans, estimated in the thousands, were killed in the battle.

There are reports that Travis died early in the assault, of a single gunshot wound to the forehead while defending the north wall. Joe, a freed former slave to Travis, who was present during the final assault as a noncombatant, stated afterward that he saw Travis stand on the wall and fire into the attackers. He saw Travis shoot and kill a Mexican soldier climbing over the wall from a ladder, with Travis falling immediately afterward. This is the only dependable account of Travis' death.

When Santa Anna came into the fort he asked the alcalde of San Antonio, Francisco A. Ruiz, to identify the bodies of the rebel leaders to him. Ruiz later said that the body of Travis was found on a gun carriage on the north wall. Within a few hours of the final gunshots being fired, Santa Anna ordered a company of soldiers to gather wood and burn all the Texans' bodies. By five o'clock that evening, the bodies of Travis, Crockett, Bowie and Bonham, were burned along with the other rebels.

[edit]Travis's famous letter from the AlamoFellow citizens and compatriots;On February 24, 1836, during Santa Anna's siege of the Alamo, Travis wrote a letter addressed "To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World":

I am besieged, by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained a continual Bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours and have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken. I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily and will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country. Victory or Death.

William Barret Travis

Lt. Col. Comdt.

P.S. The Lord is on our side. When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn. We have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels and got into the walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves.

Travis

He gave this letter to courier John William Smith to deliver. The envelope that contained the letter was labeled "Victory or Death". The letter, while unable to bring aid to the garrison at the Alamo, did much to motivate the Texan army and helped to rally support in America for the cause of Texan independence. It also cemented Travis's status as a hero of the Texas Revolution.

[edit]As late as March 3, Travis had every bit of optimism oreinforcements with the arrival of messenger James Bonham. He carried a letter from Robert M. "Three-Legged Willie" Williamson, which stated that help was coming in the form of 60 volunteers from San Felipe, 300 volunteers (and four cannons) from James Fannin, and another contingent of 300 volunteers by March 1. ( ...For God's sake hold out until we can assist you...")The "line in the sand"What is not disputed about the Battle of the Alamo is that by March 3, 1836, Travis understood the situation his garrison faced, and it was more than bleak; in fact, the situation was hopeless. It is alleged that he called the troops of his garrison together either on that day or on March 4, 1836, and told them, "We must die. Our business is not to make a fruitless effort to save our lives, but to choose the manner of our death." With that, taking example from "the 13 of the Fame" act done by Francisco Pizarro a couple of centuries before, it is alleged he made a sweep with his sword and drew a line in the sand, asking all who would stay to cross it and those not willing not to cross it.

 dickinson was present during the siege and battle and confirmed that this did happen. But no reliable written accounts support this. Whether Travis actually did draw the line in the sand is still disputed. However, what is known, by Rose's own accounts, is that Travis did give the members of the garrison a choice of staying or going, and by Rose's own accounts only Rose chose the latterTravis' children

Charles Edward Travis (1829–1860) was raised by his mother and her second husband. He eventually joined volunteers to serve in the Mexican-American War. However, his parents died when he was nineteen and he moved to Texas, eventually winning a seat in the Texas legislature in 1853. In 1855, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a captain in a cavalry regiment (which was later renamed the 5th Cavalry Regiment (United States) commanded by Albert Sidney Johnston) but was discharged in May 1856 for "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman" following an allegation that he had cheated at cards.

He appealed the decision to no avail and then turned to studying law, earning a degree from Baylor University in 1859. He died of consumption (tuberculosis) within a year and is buried beside his sister.

Susan Isabella Travis was born in 1831, after Travis had departed for Texas. Although her paternity has been questioned, Travis did name her as his daughter in his will. In 1850 she married a planter from Chapell Hill, and they had one daughter.


The Last Command is a 1955 Trucolor film about Jim Bowie and the fall of the Alamo during the Texas War of Independence. Filmed by Republic Pictures, it was an unusually expensive undertaking for the low-budget studio.The film was originally set to be produced and directed by John Wayne but Wayne and Republic Pictures head Herbert Yates wanted Wayne to star, not produce or direct. Wayne left Republic to form Wayne-Fellows Productions. Five years later, Wayne would play Davy Crockett in, as well as direct, the three-hours-plus Todd-AO production The Alamo, released by United Artists that featured many elements of The Last Command in its screenplay.

Released during the Walt Disney Davy Crockett frenzy, the film follows Jim Bowie (Sterling Hayden) who was initially a friend to Generalissimo Antonio López de Santa Anna (J. Carroll Naish) but now sides with the Texians in their bid for independence.Max Steiner's theme song for The Last Command , "Jim Bowie", is sung by musical film star Gordon MacRae, who that year (1955) was starring in the smash hit film Oklahoma!, adapted from the famous Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.CastSterling Hayden – Jim Bowie

• Richard Carlson – William Barret Travis
• Arthur Hunnicutt – Davy Crockett
• Ernest Borgnine – Mike Radin
• J. Carrol Naish – General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana
• Anna Maria Alberghetti – Consuelo de Quesada   
• John Russell – Captain Almaron Dickinson
• Virginia Grey – Mrs. Dickinson (Susanna Dickinson)
• Jim Davis – Ben Evans
• Eduard Franz – Lorenzo de Zavala
• Otto Kruger – Stephen F. Austin
• Russell Simpson – The Parson
• Roy Roberts – Dr. Summerfield
• Slim Pickens – Abe
• Hugh Sanders – Sam Houston
• Ben Cooper – Jeb Lacey