Almaron Dickinson (1808 –
March 6, 1836) was a Texan soldier
and defender during the Battle of the Alamo
, fought during the Texas Revolution. Dickinson is best
known as having been the
artillery officer
of the small garrison, and for being the husband of one of the only
three non-Mexican survivors to live through the battle,
Susannah Dickinson, as well as the father
to infant daughter Angelina Elizabeth Dickinson, whose life was
also spared.
Early life and becoming a soldier
Dickinson
was born in the U.S. state of Tennessee
, learning the trade of blacksmithing. He later enlisted in the US
Army as a field artilleryman.
He and Susannah Dickinson married when she
was just 15, on May 24, 1829, and two years later the couple moved
to the Mexican province of Texas
, where they
became settlers in the Dewitt
Colony. Dickinson received a league of land along the
San Marcos River, where he started
a blacksmith shop, and partnered with George C. Kimble in a hat
factory. On December 14, 1834, Angelina Elizabeth was born, which
would be the couples only child together. Following a number of
Indian raids
on settlements, he took part in hunting down hostile Indians
shortly thereafter, with his band being led by fellow settler Bart
McClure.
In the
Fall of 1835, Dickinson served as one of
the defenders during the
Battle of
Gonzales, which marked the beginning of Texas' war for
independence. Dickinson was elected as First Lieutenant of
Artillery in December 1835.
He then joined a band of volunteers going to
defend San Antonio,
Texas
, and became an aide to General Edward
Burleson during the Siege of
Bexar, with a rank of Lieutenant in
the Texian Army. A few weeks
later, his home where Susannah and his daughter had remained was
looted by members of a Texas
Militia,
prompting her to join her husband in San Antonio. The family set up
residence in the Musquiz house, on the southwest corner of Portero
Street and the Main Plaza. However, when
Antonio López de Santa Anna
and his troops arrived on February 23, 1836, Dickinson moved his
family inside 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 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.
Climax of the battle and death
Dickinson survived the battle until its last day. In the early
morning hours of March 6, 1836, Santa Anna sent an assault force
which breeched the walls of the Alamo on their third charge. Capt.
Dickinson had hidden his wife and daughter inside the
chapel. By her own account afterward, near the end of
the battle Capt. Dickinson rushed into the chapel where she was
hiding, saying "Great God, Sue! The Mexicans are inside our walls!
All is lost! If they spare you, love our child." Capt. Dickinson
then returned to his post. By that time there was intense fighting
inside the garrison, which eventually became hand to hand. By
reliable Mexican accounts, Capt. Dickinson was one of the last
defenders
killed in action.
According to the Mexican Army accounts, the last of the Texans to
die were the eleven men manning the two 12-lb cannon in the chapel.
The entrance to the church had been barricaded with sandbags, which
the Texians were able to fire over. A shot from the 18-lb cannon
destroyed the barricades, and Mexican soldiers entered the building
after firing an initial musket volley. Dickinson's crew fired their
cannon from the apse into the Mexican soldiers at the door. With no
time to reload, the Texans, including Capt. Dickinson, Gregoria
Esparza, and
James Bonham, grabbed
rifles and fired before being bayoneted to death. Texian Robert
Evans was master of ordnance and had been tasked with keeping the
gunpowder from falling into Mexican hands. Wounded, he crawled
towards the powder magazine but was killed by a musket ball with
his torch only inches from the powder. If he had succeeded, the
blast would have destroyed the church, killing the women and
children hiding in the sacristy as well.
Capt. Dickinson's body was burned along with the other defenders
killed during the battle. His young
widow
Susannah, their daughter Angelina, and a freed former
slave to Col. Travis named Joe were spared. It is
generally accepted that over the course of the battle, the Mexican
forces lost an estimated 400 to 500 soldiers killed, while the
Texan defenders suffered a total loss of between 182 and 189. Capt.
Dickinson has since, along with many of the other defenders, become
a legend in Texas history for the heroic stand.
References
- p.630 Hansen, Todd The Alamo Reader: A Study in
History 2003 Stackpole Books
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