Day Eight: Gonzales Rides In.

  Captain Albert Martin and John Smith arrived with 30 men from Gonzales and Goliad in the early morning hours.  They came off the East ridge and walked their horses quietly between the Mexican positions.  They had stayed off the main roads and missed the calvalry.

  Coming off the ridge a rider pulled up in front of them and in perfect English offered to take them to the fort.  Smith was wary and about to fire when the rider spurred his horse into the brush.  It's possible that the rider was Col. Adrian Woll, an English adviser to Santa Anna.  It's quite an international cast out here on the edge of civilization.

   A Texian picket fired when they got close and one of the men was hit in the foot.  A string of profanity confirmed they were Texicans.  They brought some provisions and supplies.  Fresh news and fresh faces were a relief.  The Alamo defenders saw themselves as holding Santa Anna in place until Fannin and Houston could arrive for the decisive battle.

  The horse pen was full.

  32 rifles were a big addition to the 138 folks strung along the walls.  There was plenty of room in the convent, Long Barracks and Chapel.  Surely more were coming.

  Crockett fiddled and John McGregor played the pipes.  The plaza filled with Mexican cannonballs.

  In the afternoon Travis had the crew on the 18 pounder fire it downtown into the Mexican headquarters and marshalling area.  The range is about 1000 yards.  The first ball hit the house Santa Anna was using for his command but didn't produce any casualties.  The second went beyond it into the Military Plaza.

  Smith and Martin had the word from Gonzales.  Nobody else was coming from that area.  Fannin was still at Goliad.  No word from Houston.  (Mexican Cavalry intercepted Houston's courier.)

  It's Tuesday, March 1, 1836.

  Santa Anna missed the downtown bombardment while riding around the Alamo checking his positions.  He moved the some Jimenez men closer to block a previously unnoticed path.  The North wall has taken a beating and the Texians are doing what they can.

  The wind finally dropped and the weather improved a bit.  Travis and Bowie agreed with the Mexicans for a three day truce.  It's possible that Santa Anna offered to let newcomer Americans go with their lives but the locals would be treated as rebels.  Some of the women and children who had followed men into the Alamo seem to have left.