That’s a phrase that I’ve been practicing my entire life, since I was a little boy. My introduction to that historical event began when I was that little boy and saw the Walt Disney miniseries about Davy Crockett on The Wonderful World of Disney, long before the term miniseries had even been invented. But Fess Parker portrayed Davy Crockett, several years before he portrayed Daniel Boone for six years in an NBC TV series of the same name. So, ironically, he’s well known for having portrayed two historical coonskin cap wearing figures. Buddy Ebsen also appeared in the Disney production as Davy Crockett’s companion, several years before he came to fame as Jed Clampett in the TV series The Beverly Hillbillies.

As to my relation to the Alamo, after having seen the Disney series, I discovered a book while spending the weekend with my cousin’s fiancé. It was just an old paperback that he said I could have and that was one of my first steps in coming to love history. The book was 13 Days To Glory: The Siege of the Alamo, by the late historian Lon Tinkle. This book delves more into the mindset that drove the men to stay and defend the mission unto their death rather than exploring the history of the event, concentrating on the story.

The Alamo

A short time after getting the book, John Wayne’s movie The Alamo came out. One weekend my uncle offered to take me and my brother to see a movie and gave us the choice of either The Alamo or Gone With the Wind. My strong protestations against Gone With the Wind drove my uncle to take us to see The Alamo. Though I had already read the book, I was yet so young that I missed seeing the historical inaccuracies in the Hollywood version of the battle. Needless to say, I loved the Hollywood version of history.

A Time to Stand: The Epic of the Alamo

Later on I discovered another book about the Alamo, by an author who has since become one of my all-time faves, Walter Lord. I recently shared here with y’all one of of works I read years ago, and then just recently reread thanks to Lynndee getting me a copy for Christmas, following the directions of my most-wanted list. That book was Incredible Victory: The Battle of Midway. Well, another book on that list appeared just last week as one of my birthday gifts from Lynndee, Walter Lord’s treatise about the Alamo, A Time to Stand. This version was truly an historical, thoroughly researched work.

13 Days to Glory: The Siege of the Alamo

I’ve found it interesting to learn that Lon Tinkle was originally hired as a historical advisor to John Wayne’s movie The Alamo, along with the great Texas historian J. Frank Dobie who was also chosen as an historical advisor. Both men demanded that their names be removed from the credits after seeing the historical inaccuracies in the film. Later on, however, in the mid 80s, the book was adapted into a made-for-television movie, The Alamo: Thirteen: Days To Glory, now regarded as the most historically accurate of all Alamo films. Having seen it when it played, I can say that it truly was a great historically true depiction of the event, following the script of history as written in Tinkle’s book.

An interesting note about Tinkle is that it’s been stated in a Dallas Morning News article that one of his ancestors fought at the Alamo. And in both the books I just mentioned, 13 Days To Glory: The Siege of the Alamo and A Time to Stand, a letter Davy Crockett wrote to his brother before he left for Texas is quoted listing his traveling companions, one being Lindsey K. Tinkle. However, A Time to Stand includes a list of those who fell at the Alamo, and no Tinkle is included. Therefore, it must be a maternal link in his heritage that perished there.

And as a final note, I’ll have to admit that I wasn’t one of those kids from back in the 50s that had to have one of those Davy Crockett coonskin caps. Believe it, or not, I never had the desire for one. For that matter, I don’t recall ever even seeing one so maybe that’s why I never caught the fever, though I’m sure Mama would have got me one if I’d cried enough…(“,)