This year’s first Museum Week theme is food. Some of the most commonly asked questions at the Alamo revolve around this topic, so we thought we’d take this opportunity to answer a couple of those questions.
What did they eat during the Battle of the Alamo?
This is, by far, the most commonly asked food question we get from visitors. With regards to the Texans’ diet, in the post script of William Travis’ famous letter on February 24, 1836, Travis writes that while withdrawing inside the walls of the Alamo at the start of the siege, the Texans managed to bring with them 80–90 bushels of corn and 20–30 head of cattle. So, we know that the Texans had beef and corn to eat throughout the siege. We also know that there was at least one well within the walls of the besieged Alamo, so the Texans would have had drinking water even after the Mexican army cut off their access to the nearby acequias.
An inventory taken of the items inside the Alamo on February 3, 1836, reports the following food related items: 4 frying pans and 2 bags of coffee.[i] It is possible that the Texan defenders had managed to scrounge other staples common in Texas in 1836 — such as beans, sugar, coffee and tea — in the twenty days between the inventory and the appearance of the Mexican army. Food stores in Bejar and the surrounding area were somewhat depleted, however, as they had previously been stripped for the ill-fated Matamoros Expedition. In a letter to his wife written during the siege, Alamo defender Isaac Milsaps notes “We have beef and corn to eat, but no coffee, bag I had fell off on the way here so it was spilt.”[ii] This comment is interesting, because it confirms that the garrison was largely surviving off the beef and corn mentioned in the Travis letter, but also because it suggests that individual defenders had brought limited supplies of food with them into the Alamo.
The Mexican army was similarly limited with regards to food. After the war, Santa Anna’s generals would critique the poor planning for the Texas campaign, including the lack of food and other necessary supplies. On February 5, 1836, Santa Anna issued orders for his army’s final march on Bexar. At this time he ordered Brigadier General Ramirez y Sesma, who was leading the Mexican army’s vanguard, to leave for San Antonio with “at least one month’s provisions for the entire Division and a surplus of maiz [corn] and flour which you will have conducted in carts or whichever way possible for there are no provisions at Béjar.”[iii] On March 3, day nine of the siege, Santa Anna’s aide-de-camp, Juan Almonte, writes that the Mexican army had information that there was corn at the Seguin family’s farm and that a party had been dispatched to retrieve it.[iv]
Is it true that the Alamo defenders were starving and Colonel Travis was thinking about surrendering?
From the sources discussed above, we know that the defenders had a decent, albeit unvaried, supply of food at the start of the siege. How fast this food was being consumed is not known, as this is not mentioned in the handful of letters written from inside the Alamo that survive to this day. We also know that outside of the corn and beef mentioned in Travis’s letter, that there was probably not much food in the Alamo. Throughout the months of January and February, first Colonel James C. Neill, and then his successor Col. William Travis, constantly mentioned the lack of food for the Texan troops in San Antonio. On February 12, 1836, less than two weeks to the start of the siege, Travis wrote a letter to Governor Henry Smith saying that “Money, Clothing and Provisions are greatly needed at this Post for the use of the soldiers.”[v]
As for whether or not Travis was considering surrender, this claim probably arises out of a possible three-day cease fire that happens during the siege during which the Mexicans and Texans possibly had a parley, or conference. Whether or not the parley actually happened, and its purpose, is debated by historians, and there is no evidence from any of the firsthand accounts from those who were at the battle that mention a lack of food in conjunction with this possible cease fire. In fact, in his letter to the Convention on March 3, Travis writes that “We have provisions for twenty days for the men that we have,” indicating that with regards to food, the Texan defenders could have withstood a siege for at least a couple more weeks.[vi]
As was already noted, food was lacking for the Mexican army as well as the Texans. Santa Anna’s army had been on a forced march for week and his forces were strung out for miles across southern Texas. On the fourth day of the siege, Santa Anna wrote to his second in command, General Filisola, to have him “command the Purveyor General to gather all of the food supplies and march immediately avoiding any delays that might hamper the service of the Nation, as those troops are lacking in food.”[vii]
[i] “John Smith report on Bejar Public Store Inventory, February 3, 1836.” In 100 Days in Texas, edited by Wallace O. Chariton (Wordware Publishing Inc., Plano, Texas: 1990), pp. 207–208.
[ii] “Isaac Millsaps to Wife.” 100 Days in Texas, p. 303.
[iii] Richard G. Santos. Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, (Texian Press, Waco, Texas: 1968), p.45.
[iv] “Almonte Diary Entry, March 2, 1836.” 100 Days in Texasi, p. 296.
[v] “William B. Travis to His Excelly. H. Smith Governor of Texas.” 100 Days in Texas, p. 225.
[vi] “William B. Travis to the President of the Convention.” 100 Days in Texas, p. 305.
[vii] “Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to D. Vicente Filisola, second in command.” 100 Days in Texas, pp. 278–279.
