MY COON SKIN HERO

Davy Crockett king of the wild frontier

I am an avid history buff. Have been since I was knee high to a toadstool. I like all history, but my favorite is Roman, Biblical, and American History, especially the Civil War era.

In fact, my latest novel attempt is a love story surrounding the Civil War Battle of Brice's Crossroads. Therefore, when it comes to tinkering with history, I get somewhat perturbed.

I know it's good to go back and double check events, give credit to those unmentioned heroes, bring out here-to-fore unknown facts. In other words, correct our misconceptions of what really happened.

But, when they start messing with my personal heroes, I get kinda upset. Having been born in Tennessee, I naturally consider Davy Crockett to be way up there on my pedestal of most admired heroes. Coon skin caps and Fess Parker were mighty popular back in my early years.

A little know fact about Davy that the movies never brought out is: The Crocketts were the descendants of Monsieur de la Croquetagne, a captain in the Royal Guard of the king of France, Louis XIV. As a Huguenot he or his descendants eventually fled France in the 17th century and migrated to Ireland.
Davy’s  father, John, was one of the Over Mountain Men  who fought in the American Revolutionary War at the Battle of Kings Mountain.

Word coming down through my historical journals is now saying that my hero did not die at the Alamo as portrayed in the13Days to Glory when he blew up the powder dump. He and half a dozen others actually survived that battle, a struggle in which we all believed the defenders died to the last man.

Researchers are insinuating that Colonel Jose Enrique de la Pena, of Santa Anna's army wrote in his diary that seven men, including Davy Crockett, were captured alive and when brought before General Santa Anna, butchered like cattle by his goon squad.

Another Mexican officer, Ramon Martinez Caro, secretary to Santa Anna, recorded that General Castrillon captured five men after the battle, including Davy Crockett, and brought them before Santa Anna, who had them slaughtered like cattle with sabers.

Another source, Sergeant George M. Dolseon of the Texan Army, a translator, said after interviewing a Mexican prisoner after the battle of San Jacinto that the prisoner told him a similar story of finding Davy Crockett and five other men in a back room after the battle. Davy and the prisoners were brought before Generalissimo Santa Anna, who immediately had them butchered with sabers.

Whatever the truth of the matter may eventually turn out to be, I know for a certainty that my hero Davy Crockett fought to the last. If he was captured, perhaps hurt or stunned, knowing Davy's temperament, he most likely took half a dozen of Santa Anna’s goons to the pearly gates with him before he finally died.

Now, let’s throw a What-if in here. What would have happened if Davy Crockett had survived the battle of the Alamo?

We all know that on January 14, 1846 David Stern Crockett and 65 other men signed an oath before Judge John Forbes to the Provisional Government of Texas for six months: "I have taken the oath of government and have enrolled my name as a volunteer and will set out for the Rio Grande in a few days with the volunteers from the United States." Each man was promised about 4,600 acres.

The Texas Revolution  erupted in 1836, after Texas declared its independence from Mexico. Mexico responded by invading Texas. General Santa Anna won major victories in the battles of the Alamo and Goliad.

On April 21, 1836, the Texians decisively defeated Santa Anna's forces in the Battle of San Jacinto. Santa Anna himself was taken captive by the Texas militia and released after signing the Treaties of Velasco, in which he promised to recognize the sovereignty of the Republic of Texas and the Rio Grand River as the boundary between Texas and Mexico.Davy Crockett and not Sam Houston would have been the rallying figure for the new Republic of Texas.

The Mexican government, however, refused to acknowledge these concessions, arguing that Santa Anna was not a representative of Mexico, that he had no authority to negotiate on behalf of Mexico, and that he signed away Texas under duress. The Mexican government never ratified the treaties.

In 1838, Robert Patton Crockett went to Texas to administer his father's land claim. In 1854, Elizabeth Crockett finally came to Texas to live, dying in 1860. Crockett's son John Wesley Crockett was a U.S. Congressman from Tennessee, serving two terms between 1837 and 1841.

So, it is historically plausible to state that Davy Crockett intended to "settle" in the new Republic of Texas, establish a large estate, bring his family to the new expanding territory and continue to pursue his political ambitions. After all, politics was thick in Davy’s blood and his biggest reason for leaving his home in Tennessee was his loss of his congressional seat.

With his heroic stand at the Alamo it is more than likely that Davy Crockett would have been a major political figure in both the Texas Republic and the future State of Texas. It is more than conjecture that with this newly found Texas hero status and his already phenomenal hero status in the United States, Davy Crockett would have been elected the first President of Texas - over Sam Houston.

Also, based on his powerful ambition, after Texas entered the Union as the State of Texas, Davy Crockett may have been tempted to run for President of the United States. With his solid heroic stature it is possibly he could have rallied enough support from Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois and the Southern states to place him in the White House four years before the outbreak of the Civil War.

Therefore, Davy Crockett and NOT Abraham Lincoln would have been President of the United States during the American Civil War. Or, Davy Crockett may have been the President of the Confederate States of America by abdicating and signing a non aggression pact with the north.

The results could have been historically devastating as Crockett would, in most probability because of his southern ties, have allowed the Southern States to secede creating the new Confederate States of America.

The history of North America would have changed drastically! Most likely the Confederacy would have annexed the New Mexico territory, and possibly half of California, and in a stretched scenario annexed the entire country of Mexico.

The United States, threatened on both the north and south borders, may possibly have tried to take Canada from the Brittish empire, or purchased it.

Therefore, from the narrows of Panama to the Hudson Bay, there may be in this new history only two countries.