Alamo Guns?

[Smokey Plainsman]

I find myself, in my travels, today in San Antonio, Texas. Home of the Alamo.

I wonder, what would a typical flintlock rifle at the great 1836 battle here have been like? What caliber, barrel legth, wood, furnishments, the lock etc. etc.?

With a new custom in the future, maybe a nice gun like that was at the Alamo would be real neat to have commissioned.

Thoughts?

[rsells]

They did have a early Dickert  rifle on display the last time I went down for a visit.  It was found in the Alamo.  It made me wonder how a  mid 1700 rifle made it all the way out there and was found in the Alamo after it fell. 
                                                                                                 Roger Sells
                                                                                         

[elkhorne]

Roger,
Being a native Texan descending from a family that came to Texas in the early 1840s, I have always had a erie sense of reverence when I have visited the Alamo. I was stationed in Laredo for sometime in the early 70s and built my second longrifles in my BOQ room on the base from Dixie, Log Cabin and Golden Age parts. I spent many Saturdays in the Alamo studying the Dickert rifle you make mention of. As you probably know, since the rifle is in one of the rooms of the mission proper, there is no photography allowed in there out of respect for the men who died there. I was told and somewhere read, that the Dickert rifle that is on exhibit was "put together" in the 30s by an unknown gunsmith. In all the cleanup and construction over the years. they had excavated many parts and artifacts most probably from the battle. The story went that the gunsmith in the 30s built a rifle from many of those parts found and the Dickert barrel with signature was one of those artifacts. It will be fascinating to return to the Alamo when they complete the museum in plans to house Phil Collins collection of Alamo memorabilia. There are also stories of artifacts turning up from Mexican families that took things after the battle and had family members that were in Santa Ana's army. The history there just comes out of the walls at you. I like to put my finger in one of the musket ball holes that still look fresh in the front of the mission and try to visualize the historical importance of those 13 days of glory fought for freedom! 

[Monty59]

Hello, surely some rifles will have been used there early style and later ones but most of them will still have been muskets I think !

Monty

[Bill Raby]

I believe the Mexicans were armed with Brown Bess. The Texans were not part of any organized army and likely carried whatever they brought from home.

[deepcreekdale]

Bill is likely 100% correct. The Texans were a pretty ragtag bunch, not organized or trained in any real way. Anything from fine Pennsylvania rifles, to mountain style southern rifles, fowlers, and cast off military muskets would be likely. The actual taking of the Alamo didn't take very long, probably less than an hour due to poor defensive layout once the Mexicans got serious Despite my childhood visions of Fess Parker and Buddy Ebsen picking off Mexicans at 200 yards it is not likely they had much useful fire power. Courage yes, skill and equipment, not so much. I read recently where Davy Crockett had a percussion rifle that he chose not to take to Texan due to a perceived lack of being able to obtain caps. I bet there were at least a few caplocks used there but I don't know of any documentation

[elkhorne]

Anyone interested in the Alamo, go go to the website "thealamo.org" and it has a lot of information and some good visual depictions under the menu item "Remember" called the Digital Battlefield. That heading also has a detailed list and information on the defenders. Under the "Educators" menu item, there is also a good historical tour of the Texas Revolution that gives a good chronological discussion of the timeline. An interesting read. No real info on when the Phil Collins collection will go on display.

[dogcatcher]

Considering the various birthplaces of the defenders of the Alamo, the weapons would have been a real mixture of history.  They were born in various states and some even Europe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Alamo_defenders

[t.caster]

I recall seeing the Dickert rifle there that looked to be a .72 caliber rifle. I thought it was very unusual for a Dickert. Maybe it wasn't the Dickert, but a different one. All of the guns on display were very different from one another.

Oh, and there was no "Georgy Russel" listed as a defender of the Alamo. Darn Disney!

[deepcreekdale]

Oh, and the was no "Georgy Russel" listed as a defender of the Alamo. Darn Disney!

That can't be true! There goes my childhood history memories up in smoke. First Buddy Ebsen got cheated out of playing the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz because he was allergic to the paint, then it turns out he wasn't at the Alamo either? Next thing I am going to hear, he wasn't a poor mountaineer that could barely keep his family fed before he moved to Beverly Hills.