Alamo Commanders Disobeyed General Sam Houston’s Orders to Evacuate the Fort
On January 17, 1836, General Sam Houston wrote Governor Henry Smith that he had ordered Colonel James Bowie and a company of volunteers to San Antonio. Traditional misunderstanding of the letter’s contents created one of the most persistent canards of the Alamo story.
For the careful reader, Houston’s own words clarify the issue: “I have ordered the fortifications of the town of Bexar to be demolished, and, if you think well of it, I will remove all the cannon and other munitions of war to Gonzales and Copano, blow up the Alamo and abandon the place, as it will be impossible to keep up the Station with volunteers. [T]he sooner I can be authorized the better it will be for the country” [Emphasis added].
Houston clearly wanted to raze the Alamo and withdraw, but it is likewise obvious that he was asking Smith’s consent to do so. Smith and the council could concur upon few issues, but on this occasion both the governor and the council agreed they must maintain the Alamo and the San Antonio River line.
On January 19, Bowie rode into the Alamo. What he saw impressed him. The old mission had begun to look like a real fort. Neill’s arguments and leadership electrified Bowie. He declared that he and Neill had resolved to “die in these ditches” before they would surrender so valuable a post. Bowie’s letter confirmed the governor’s view of the defensibility of the Alamo. Smith and the council had already concluded that Texian forces must hold Béxar and Bowie’s judgment only strengthened this determination. Rejecting Houston’s plan, Smith prepared to funnel reinforcements and provisions to the Alamo.
Above all others, one document refutes the often repeated assertion that Bowie and Travis disobeyed their orders to “abandon and then blow up the Alamo.” On January 21, responding to Houston’s advice to Governor Smith in the January 17 dispatch, members of the council directed that an “express be sent immediately to Bejar, with orders from the acting Governor [James W. Robinson] countermanding the orders of Genl. Houston, and that the Commandant be required to put the place in the best possible state for defense, with assurances that every possible effort is making to strengthen, supply and provision the Garrison, and in no case to abandon or surrender the place unless in the last extremity.” Even if Houston had sent orders to abandon the post—and, once again, no evidence exist that he actually did—this directive from the legally constituted civilian government rendered them null and void.
Contrary to the myth, Houston did not dispatch “direct orders” to abandon the Alamo only to have Neill and Bowie ignore them. In brief, Houston had asked for permission to evacuate the post. The politicians considered his request; the answer was an unequivocal “No.” Even after the Texian government fell apart, both Governor Smith and the council directed Neill to stand his ground. While Houston thought it prudent, there was never an actual directive for Neill and Bowie—and later, Travis—to evacuate the fort. To the contrary, the instruction they did receive demanded that they defend it to the “last extremity.”