Flashman at the Alamo by Robert Brightwell

Author:Robert Brightwell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: texas, crockett, houston, alamo, bowie, scoundrel, santa ana, flashman, goliad
Publisher: Robert Brightwell

Chapter 20

I had hoped that we might find Fannin and his relief force the next day, but was disappointed. Nor was there any sign of the promised reinforcements. We did not find them the next day either, not that we could travel that quickly. To make matters worse, Warnell was coming down with a fever, whether as a result of his wound or immersion in the cold river, I could not say. The second night I managed to get a huge fire blazing by lighting a smaller one under an old fallen tree. I lay him near it but even wrapped in both blankets he still shivered. He needed a doctor, but as we were still in the arse end of nowhere, there was no alternative to pressing on.

On the third day we finally found a woman with two small children on a farm. She told us that Fannin had left Goliad to relieve the Alamo over a week before, but had turned back the same day. She asked if the Alamo was still resisting. When I gave her our news, she stood quietly for a moment staring at her fields and then declared it was time for them to leave.

“There is talk of another Mexican army coming up the coast,” she explained, “but if Santa Anna marches to Goliad from the Alamo, we will be right in his path. My Ned is with the garrison at Goliad, has been these past two months, we’ll not be safe here.” She was only a young woman, yet she looked as tough as teak. She must have been, for she had been left with a farm to look after and two young children to raise out there in the wilderness. The field was freshly ploughed and there was recently shot game on the table. She gave us some food and even offered to take Warnell with her in the wagon to Goliad. She was going there first to see her husband and then they would head north. It was a generous offer as I guessed that her wagon would have to carry all the possessions that she wanted to keep from being plundered by passing armies. However, I declined; we were less than a day’s ride away now and so I kept Warnell with me. By the time she arrived in town, I hoped to be aboard the ship.

Being so close to our destination, I rode hard that afternoon and was rewarded at dusk with the sight of the sprawling town. We kicked on and I was soon riding under the gate of the stone fort by the river. A painted wooden plank over the portal announced that the place was now known as Fort Defiance. Unlike the Alamo, this was a proper stone-built fortification with thick eight-foot-high walls around a central enclosure that must have covered three acres. There were stone gun emplacements in the corners and various stone and wooden buildings against the walls. Much of the central space was now taken up with tents; there were far more men in the town than I remembered.

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