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Post by TRK on May 7, 2007 7:56:50 GMT -5
More notes on Naraw/Naran/Navin: "Navin, Gerald," member (probably private) of T.L.F. Parrott's Artillery, Siege of Bexar, roll of November 23, 1835. www.mindspring.com/~dmaxey/l/parrtl9l.htmOn January 23, 1836, J. C. Neill, Commandancy of Bexar, wrote to Henry Smith informing him that on January 16 he had recommended "Mr. Gerald Navan as a fit and Suitable person for the office of Sutler to the army of this place, and now beg to recommend him to your notice . . . ." Neill continued that Navan had "been in the army for some three months at this place, he is a suitable and capable person, and has funds whereby he can conduct the office with great effect to the army . . . ." (Hansen, Alamo Reader, p. 657) Amelia Williams listed Gerald Navan as a "probable messenger from the Alamo" but found that evidence was "inconclusive". www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v037/n3/contrib_DIVL2067.htmA "Mr. Navan," along with John W. Smith, supplied a list of the Alamo dead from Gonzales for the March 24, 1836, issue of the Telegraph and Texas Register. www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v037/n3/issue.htmlNavan was deceased by December 1838 (Adolphus Sterne, in his diary, wrote of doing some research on Navan, in Houston, Tx., evidently concerning military claims of his heirs. www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v030/n2/article_5.htmlI found no records of a Gerald/G. Navan/Navin/Naran etc. in the Republic of Texas military claims or Adjutant General's records. Since Navan evidently was not killed at the Alamo, I see two possible scenarios: Navan was appointed sutler for the Bexar garrison and was out of town on official business when the Mexican army arrived there; or, perhaps, as Williams surmised, he really was a courier.
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Post by stuart on May 7, 2007 12:42:33 GMT -5
Although not relevant to the Navan case, this identification was a mistake, later admitted by Harriet Smither (the editor); the diary was actually that of James Ogilvie, a one-time associate of James Grant and at this time the agent acting for his brother, Hugh Grant, and other heirs: However as Tom notes Ogilvie's diary does have this to say concerning Navan: "Went to the War Office and fell in with a clerk who knew the late Mr Gerald Navan when going to attack San Antonio de Bexar, & who promised to further my views in obtaining all necessary information respecting the succession." Quite incidentally, with reference to an aside on the Holzinger thread, you'll also note various references to Samuel Bangs and the Tamaulipas land business
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Post by TRK on May 7, 2007 16:22:21 GMT -5
Regarding "Preehouse, J." and "Preehouse, P." on Neill's muster roll, there are numerous documents pertaining to John Pevehouse and Preston Pevehouse in the Republic Claims files. Neither was killed at the Alamo. My bet is Preehouse = Pevehouse. For Preston Pevehouse's and John Pevehouse's Republic Claims records, go here and type in their names, surname first: www2.tsl.state.tx.us/trail/RepublicSearch.jsp In a nutshell, a document signed W. H. Patton and endorsed by Edward Burleson stated that John Pevehouse joined the Columbia Company in November 1835 and conducted himself "with gallantry" at Siege of Bexar. tslarc.tsl.state.tx.us/repclaims/82/08200709.pdfJohn Pevehouse reportedly again served in the Texas Army from March 13 to June 13, 1836: archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/PEVEHOUSE/2006-02/1139912476In the year or so after the Battle of San Jacinto, he filed several claims for expenses incurred in his military service . Preston Pevehouse also was at the Siege of Bexar, where he reportedly was wounded in the head by a Mexican cannister round on Dec. 10, 1835 (date's probably wrong; truce ending the battle was on Dec. 9). He was third sergeant of Co. J, 1st Regt. Texas Vols., organized Feb. 22, 1836; listed in roster of Texans in camp near Harrisburg, April 21, 1836. (Moore, Eighteen Minutes, p. 454)
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Post by stuart on May 8, 2007 0:54:31 GMT -5
Good solid stuff coming up here, but I wonder if its worth changing the heading on this thread to the Neill Roll (or something similar) and starting another where the wider issue of numbers can be discussed without breaking or interrupting this one.
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Post by Herb on May 8, 2007 9:20:29 GMT -5
I think this thread is pretty well established to working on defender's names, maybe we just ought to let it continue. If and when we start working on numbers we can start a "Defender's Numbers" or some such thread.
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Post by sloanrodgers on May 8, 2007 11:45:40 GMT -5
I also think it's fine the way it is. There's always time and space for a spin-off if it starts to wander more.
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Post by TRK on May 8, 2007 12:27:08 GMT -5
"Fry, B.F." in Carey's artillery, per Neill's roll, appears to have been Benjamin Franklin Fry; this guy: www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/FF/ffr17.htmlIn addition to the info in that article, Fry was a private in Co. I, First Regt. Texas Vols., “Velasco Blues,” organized at Velasco on Mar. 8, 1836. (Moore, Eighteen Minutes, p. 444)
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Post by TRK on May 8, 2007 13:17:50 GMT -5
"Ward, T.W. (Capt.)" in Neill's roll: appears to be Capt. Thomas William Ward (1807-1872). (rangerrod, Ward was a mover and shaker in your town from the 1840s to the 1870s: www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/WW/fwa52.html)The interesting thing about that article, and the biographical material on Ward in Gary Brown's book, Volunteers in the Texas Revolution: The New Orleans Greys, is that Ward lost a leg in the storming of Bexar in December 1835 and was sent on medical furlough to New Orleans to recover. According to the Handbook of Texas, he returned to Texas "in the spring of 1836", while Brown states (p. 308) that Ward "returned quickly to Texas" after his furlough to New Orleans. It stretches credulity a bit that Ward lost a leg in early December, was transported to New Orleans, and returned to Bexar on active duty two months later.
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Post by stuart on May 8, 2007 15:11:17 GMT -5
I have to say that I found Brown’s book to be one of the least reliable (and worst written) study of the revolution its been my misfortune to read. The list I posted at the start of this thread is just an index. According to the discussion of Neill's list in Chariton, the actual roll does have annotations on it and 8 of the men on the list are variously noted as wounded, sick or "in hospital". Presumably Ward was one of them, and another will have been the Captain Peacock, who was also wounded at the taking of Bexar
One man, as I’ve mentioned before, who certainly didn’t die at the Alamo was Stephen Dennision. Here’s my entry on him from “Secret War”:
Stephen Dennison A British-born painter and glazier, Dennison was 24 years old when he came to Texas as a member of the New Orleans Greys, and was one of those who transferred to Burke’s company at Bexar and signed the Convention Memorial at Refugio with them on or about February 5, 1836. He must subsequently have transferred again, this time to Lewellen’s Company when Cooke took the reinforcement down to the Irish village on February 9, for he appears on Pittman’s roll with the annotation “killed” – presumably at Agua Dulce. Dennison is also claimed as an Alamo defender on the strength of a headright claim presented by an H.F. Smith of Louisville, Kentucky, who stated that he died there, but as Dennison must have ridden south with Grant on February 10, this is clearly an error.
Another one who has me genuinely puzzled is that Dr. W.H.W. Hart. Again here’s the entry on what may or may not be the same man from “Secret War”:
Dr. J. Hoyt This man presents even more problems than Dr. Heartt of Lewellen’s Company with whom he is sometimes confused. At first glance identification appears quite straightforward, since Morris referred to him as “Doct. Joit” and Reuben Brown remembered him in 1858 as “Dr. Hoyt of South Carolina.” However, McMullen, recording his death with Pearson at San Patricio, called him “Dr. J. Hart.” Despite the different initials, Harbert Davenport eventually came to the conclusion that he was the Dr. William M.W. Hart listed as Assistant Surgeon in Johnson’s 17 December list of officers to be commissioned in the Federal Volunteer Army. He was noted at the time to be a member of the Mobile Greys and bounty and donation grants were later issued to his heirs on the strength of his having been killed at San Patricio. The difficulty with this particular identification is that W.H.W. Hart is still recorded as being at Bexar on about February 14, in a "RETURN, made by Col. J.C. Neil, of the men remaining in the garrison of Bexar when he left." If so he and Dr. Hoyt cannot be one and the same since the latter carried a dispatch to Fannin from San Patricio on February 6. Presumably Hoyt subsequently returned to San Patricio with Cooke’s reinforcement, but if not the ‘Dr. J. Hart’ killed there may have been Charles Heartt.
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Post by sloanrodgers on May 9, 2007 0:34:16 GMT -5
"Ward, T.W. (Capt.)" in Neill's roll: appears to be Capt. Thomas William Ward (1807-1872). (rangerrod, Ward was a mover and shaker in your town from the 1840s to the 1870s. Yea, I'm well acquainted with Peg-leg Ward as our three time mayor of Austin. He was a tough old bird in giving a leg, then an arm to the Texas Republic. I wonder if anyone ever called him Stumpy while he was running for office.
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Post by TRK on May 10, 2007 15:23:23 GMT -5
"Atkinson, M.B." of Neill's list might match Milton B. Atkinson, a member of an 8-man squad under Capt. David Kokernot that arrived in Gonzales from Lynchburg on March 12, 1836. Later, Atkinson joined the Columbia Company as a private and fought to the end of the San Jacinto Campaign. (Moore, Eighteen Minutes, pp. 50, 99, 448, 462)
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Post by stuart on May 15, 2007 6:41:54 GMT -5
I’m having a look at the various names appearing on the Neill Roll and the Voting List which don’t appear on the “official” list of defenders. Some of them obviously didn’t die at the Alamo for one reason or another, but I’m also trying to reconcile some of the variant name spellings.
One which has me intrigued is a “Floddens (Floeder), _____ (Capt)” who appears on the Neill Roll. This is almost certainly the same “Cap(tain) Flowers” on the Voting List. Any ideas who he actually was and what might have happened to him. Did he die at the Alamo?
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Post by TRK on May 15, 2007 11:02:01 GMT -5
One which has me intrigued is a “Floddens (Floeder), _____ (Capt)” who appears on the Neill Roll. This is almost certainly the same “Cap(tain) Flowers” on the Voting List. Any ideas who he actually was and what might have happened to him. Did he die at the Alamo? I'm trying to figure out if this was actually Salvador Flores de Abrego. Obviously, we don't have the manuscript roll and voting list for comparison, but Flores in Spanish = Flowers, and I suppose somebody not versed in Spanish could write down Flores phonetically as Floddens or Floeder. There just aren't any Capt. Floddens/Floeder/Flowers turning up in the 1835-36 muster rolls. (And I'm looking at various permutations of the spelling, including the possibility that "Fl" could have been "H", etc.) Although Salvador Flores was the first lieutenant in the company of his brother-in-law, Juan Seguin, during the Siege of Bexar in 1835, and some evidence indicates that Flores wasn't a captain until later on in the year 1836, there are anecdotal references to his having been a captain during the fall 1835 campaign. (I think Juan Seguin in his memoirs refers to Flores as a captain in the context of fall 1835.) In the Texas Revolutionary and Republic armies, today's private could be tomorrow's captain, and vice versa. One thing that bothers me is that in the Neill Roll, Floddens/Floeder is listed as a captain of artillery. I suppose Flores could have been on temporary assigment to that branch, but I gather that Flores was more of a cavalry type.
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Post by stuart on May 15, 2007 11:53:43 GMT -5
Yeah, since posting it occurred to me that he might be a Flores. Francisco Esparaza's account refers to his brother Gregorio being at the taking of Bexar in '35 under the command of Colonel Juan N Seguin and Captain Don Manuel Flores. Whether this is the same man you've turned up is an interesting question. Both the Neill roll and the voting list clearly show him a captain in February '36 which is consistent with the Esparza reference. There's also the fact that the astonishingly ubiquitous Dr James Grant held a claim for Manuel Flores' service at the taking of Bexar. Significantly this Manuel Flores apparently didn't survive the revolution. I was inclined to think he may have died at Agua Dulce but this suggests the possibility that he was one of the unknown Tejanos who died at the Alamo
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Post by TRK on May 15, 2007 13:28:18 GMT -5
Stuart, I'm not so sure Manuel Flores was the "captain" on the Neill roll and/or voting list. According to the Index to the Military Rolls of the Republic of Texas, Manuel Flores served in the Siege of Bexar in 1835 and was 1st sergeant of Juan Seguin's Company at San Jacinto. He was 1st lieutenant of Co B, 2nd Regiment of Cavalry, Regular Texas Army, from at least Nov. 1-Dec. 31, 1836, but I can find no record of him as a captain. New Handbook of Texas states he was born c. 1801 and died in 1868 and, like Salvador Flores, was a brother-in-law of Juan N. Seguin, whom Manuel fought under in the Siege of Bexar. There was another Manuel Flores who was a Mexican agent, not to be confused with the Tejano who fought with Seguin.
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