Brought by police escort and welcomed with honor guards, drawn swords and a drum roll, the iconic “Victory or Death” letter written by Alamo commander William Barret Travis returned Friday to San Antonio for the first time since it left by courier at the start of the famous siege at the old Spanish mission 177 years ago.
Travis’ letter seeking reinforcements to bolster his badly outnumbered rebel Texans failed to prevent their deaths nearly two weeks later on March 6, 1836. But the following month, Alamo-inspired men led by Gen. Sam Houston defeated elements of the same army under the Mexican president, Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, in an 18-minute battle outside present-day Houston to win independence for Texas from Mexico.
“This is a day of pride — pride in our state, pride in our history,” Michael Waters, chairman of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, said, calling it a “reunion of two icons of Texas history.”
The single-page faded and yellowing letter, with Travis’ some 200 words written on both sides, arrived by police motorcycle escort in a truck with Massachusetts license plates that backed up on the grounds of the Alamo. It’s to be displayed for 13 days inside the shrine, beginning Saturday.
With a drum roll in the background, four police officers reverently carried a blue crate containing the letter through an arch of sabers held by members of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets and into the mission.
Travis’ letter, written Feb. 24, 1836, was addressed to “the People of Texas and All Americans in the World.”
“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 26-year-old lawyer wrote. He also promised: “I shall never surrender or retreat.”
Historians consider Travis’ words a heroic reflection of individual sacrifice for a bigger and nobler cause.
Lynn Jones, a 53-year-old graphic artist from Mesquite, made a special trip to San Antonio for Friday’s event.
“It’s just history,” said Jones, her face painted with the image of the Texas flag. “The hair on the back of my neck was standing up.”
The state of Texas owns the letter, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News