"Alamo garrison command and organization" Topic

This is based on the list of known Texians killed at the Alamo found in Todish's ALAMO SOURCEBOOK. The list totals 185 men. If one accepts, as I do, the likelihood that the garrison really totaled about 240 men, then we have significant gaps in our knowledge. It is possible that a reinforcing group got into the Alamo near the end of the siege; one source suggested that Crockett had gone out and led them in. Nobody knows. The battle plays rather differently with 185 defenders versus 240. IF 50 or 60 reenforcements did get in, it is likely that they had their own officers and company organizations , which are also unknown. So what follows below is at best a skeleton or an outline of how the Alamo garrison might have been organized and commanded.

Garrison command and staff:

The garrison amounted to a battalion, and was staffed accordingly. LtCol Travis' subordinates included two majors (Evans, chief ordinance officer, and Jameson, chief engineer), two captains (Baugh, adjutant, and Blair, assistant ordinance officer), and two lieutenants (Melton, quartermaster, and Zanco, assistant ordinance officer). There was a full time surgeon (Pollard) and several physicians serving as privates in various companies. Sergeant Major Williamson was the senior NCO of the garrison.

In addition, there were several officers in the garrison who were not assigned to companies; several of them served as couriers but one assumes they had some responsible battle station when present. Lt Bonham is the most famous but there was also Captains Albert Martin and Robert White. There is some suggestion that White's company was a separate organization within the garrison.

The garrison was thus well provided with battalion-level officers, although of course it is much more difficult to command and control a force spread over the space of the Alamo compound, and particularly so against a night assault.

Artillery command:

Captain Carey's company of gunners (about 30 men) included a second captain (Dickinson) as well as two or three sergeants (one may have been an invalid) and two corporals. There were four major batteries (the chapel with three guns, the lunette with two guns, the northwest corner with two, and the north wall with three) plus the 18 pounder at the southwest corner. I assume that the Texians would have wanted an officer at each of those positions, and would guess further that the three ordinance officers would have doubled as battery commanders. The remaining single guns might have each had an NCOIC.

"Line" companies

The cavalry was organized into two companies, Seguin's and Forsyth's, but their combined strength was not much more than 20 men. Seguin had left as a courier and his men, probably fewer than 10, were led by two sergeants, Abamillo and Badillo. Forsyth's company had a full command roster (two lieutenants, a cornet, and two sergeants) but no more troopers than Seguin's. My GUESS is that the two companies were merged.

The remaining companies were Blazeby's (mostly composed of New Orleans Greys) and Bowie's and the Tennesseans and the Gonzales men. Blazeby had a lieutenant and two sergeants, Bowie was seconded by Captain Baker plus a lieutenant and a sergeant, the Tennesseans were led by Captain Harrison plus a lieutenant and High Private Crockett, and Lieutenant Kimball apparently commanded the Gonzales men by himself. These companies varied a bit in strength but averaged about 30 each.

I assume that each company had a sector to defend. The latest research, mostly incorporated into the Blue Moon 15mm model, indicates that long stretches of the wall had no firing positions, but the raised-palisade fortresses and nearby rooftops provided space from which an entire company could fight, and fight in several directions. My assumption, therefore, is that each company stayed fairly tightly deployed around its officers, rather than spaced out along the whole perimeter.

At any rate, I prefer to fight the March 6 assault this way. It never made sense to me that the garrison would be spread thinly along a too-long perimeter where commanders, particularly in the dark, could have almost no control over their men.

TR Lindley, in Alamo Traces, suggests that the "second reinforcement" came mainly form the NO Greys serving with Fannin plus a few more men from Gonzales. So if you go with that theory you could opt for a second Greys company and spread the rest out in other companies. I'd have to re-read the chapter to be more specific

Obviously there were about 18 guns of assorted calibres. Full gun crews would have consumed the entire garrison. So either the guns were fully manned and a few riflemen spread around, or the guns had only skeleton crews. certainly there were artillery positions all around the perimeter. It seems to me that the west wall was the only one that didn't have much in the way of infantry positions and its so close to the river that its the least likely to be attacked.

Whatever sector each company had to defend the O/Rs seemed to have been housed in the long barracks, While the officers were housed along the west wall. So aside form the sentries and gun piquets no one would have been where they were supposed to be. Officers and NCO's would have grabbed whoever was close to do what they thought best and since Travis was killed right off the bat overall coordination would have non-existent. I suggest that unless your doing a hypothetical daylight assault the company organization is meaniningless.

As to the guns, only 15 were actually on the perimeter, and I suspect that the multi-gun batteries had less than a full crew per gun. In the game I give the Texians 36 gunners, pretty close to what Carey's company had, and they'll give, for instance, the chapel battery with three guns only a single crew.

There are long stretches of wall with no firing position along the north and east walls also.

I rather think that the garrison slept in their defensive positions wrapped in blankets. I can't imagine they didn't consider the possibility of a night attack, and must have realized that sleeping in barracks was too risky.

Crikey! That is a lot of officers for such a small number of men!

Yes, that was my sense as well.

In case anyone is interested. "Alamo symposium set for Sept. 7"

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Cool. Sorry I'm not in Texas. I expect there are still things to be discovered, as well as things we'll never know.

I suppose it depends upon what your calling long. The chapel position is pretty much invulnerable to assault from the outside and doesn't need any infantry.

The east wall along the two courtyards is only 173', completely within range of muskets in or on the sacristy. any attackers to that part of the wall would also be enfiladed by one of the guns in the chapel and the 4 pdr at the NE corner of the courtyard. The height of the wall along the east of the Convento courtyard would keep the attackers in the killing zone longer so it's not an attractive objective.

The northern courtyard has lower walls and is much more vulnerable. It has firing positions along its north side, but it depends mainly upon the 4 pdr for its security. A crew of less than four men would nout be able to load, run up and aim with anything approaching normal speed.

The other fuzzy factor on the east wall is just how fordable the flooded area is. Its obviously shallow, but may or may not have been muddy. human nature would also tend to keep people out of it

The rest of the east wall is only 158', easily covered by muskets on the granary, the Reyes house or the north wall of the courtyard.

The whole north wall is only 240' long with firing positions on the Reyes house, between the guns in the two batteries and the firing positions built up between the batteries. As pointed out by just about everyone the problem with the north wall is that there is lots of fire, just no flanking fire.

Romero's column got over the east wall, but took 80 casualties in the process.

As to sleeping inside or out, Travis was obviously sleeping inside. He is described, by Joe, as going straight to the wall and firing over it, which suggests that there were no Texans already there or they would have been in front of him. He was also calling out "come on boys, the Mexicans are upon us". This doesn't seem appropriate if the wall was already manned, but is suggestive that the troops were running up to their positions. Not conclusive either way, like most of the details about the Alamo.

We always start with the miniatures, in this case the Blue Moon Alamo. I probably won't have time to measure until after Historicon, but will eventually get stats on what part of the wall can be scaled by ladders (or even boosting up in the case of the eastern courtyards) but has no firing positions.

The flooded area is the east is deemed to be crossable but a Mexican attack coming that direction does take a turn longer to reach the walls, giving the defenders an extra shot before any escalade.

Great information on the organization. This is hard to find.

You mention cavalry but didn't Travis arrive with his own cavalry unit?

the 40-50 men you speak of are rumered to be deserters because about 40-50 dead Texans were found outside the Alamo walls on the East side of the Alamo after the battle, They were killed by Mexican Lancers. The probably went over the east wall as soon as the North Wall breach occured. So that is why the numbers have been revised to 240-250 in Texas where it happened. They were not reinforcements per evidence that is presented by mexican accounts anyway.

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Tom