Davy Crockett Died at the Alamo, But the Story of How He Lived Remains

On this episode of Our American Stories, for more than 150 years the story of Davy Crockett has captured our imaginations and inspired us to celebrate his image in song, story, and cinema. Here to tell another Hollywood Goes to War story is Roger McGrath.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
For more than one hundred and fifty years, the story
of Davy Crockett has captured our imaginations and inspired us
to celebrate his image in song, story, and cinema. For
you to tell the story of Davy Crockett is Roger McGrath,

(00:33):
author of Gunfighters, Ie Women and Vigilantes, and he's also
a frequent contributor on the History Channel documentaries and a
regular contributor here.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
On Our American Stories. Take it Away, McGrath.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
One of those truly iconic figures of the American frontier
is David Crockett. He was a legend in his own lifetime.
Now he's sued me had tale spun about him that
were hyperbolic or entirely fictional, but that was only because
his real life rise from backwoodsman to congressman and his
extraordinary adventures were heroic and quintessentially American. He stood as

(01:14):
a symbol of the new American, the man of the West,
and the future of the new Republic. He lived at
the dawn of the age called manifest Destiny, the time
of an expanding America that is moving west. Crockett was
born just ten years after the signing of the Declaration
of Independence in log cabin in Greene County, Tennessee, on

(01:36):
August seventeenth, seventeen eighty six. Davy Crockett is a third
generation frontiersman and becomes a fifth of John and Rebecca
Crockett's nine children. Davy's father, John, is one of the
famous over mountain men who fights in the pivotal American
victory at the Battle of King's Mountain in seventeen eighty.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
While he is.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Away fighting during the American Revolution, John's parents are slaughtered
by Cherokee, who ally themselves with the British to take
advantage of the war to raid in Pillage. One of
John's brothers is badly wounded in the attack and left
for dead, and another is taken captive by the Cherokee
and made a slave for seventeen years. Born into this

(02:24):
war good patriotic environment, a pioneering mountain folk, Davy learns
marksmanship at a young age, both for hunting and for
protection against marauding Indians. Here's Crockett biographer Buddy Levy.

Speaker 5 (02:42):
Crockett came from a tradition of woodsman, and he would
have learned from his father and his uncles how to hunt.
He learned how to track, He learned how to identify
sign scat broken twigs.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
He also learned rough and tumblefere fighting from his older brothers.
Here's historians Steven Harden and David Eisenbach.

Speaker 6 (03:07):
Crocket's a jokester. He's remarkably funny, and he's affable. People
like him well.

Speaker 7 (03:16):
Tennessee at the time was still the American frontier.

Speaker 8 (03:20):
You got wild animals, you got fights, And it was
in this world where there's no kind of solid established law,
that David Crockett begins the process of becoming the myth.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
By the time Davy is twelve, his father bounds him
out to a perfect stranger to travel four hundred miles
on foot in a cattle drive to the eastern seaboard,
with no arrangements for his eventual return home. Three months
of intensive labor pass before Davy travels alone in snow
and on foot back to his mountain home, where his

(03:56):
family runs a tavern. But Davy is in for his parents'
society will benefit from formal schooling. He isn't thrilled with
confinement in a classroom, but his father is paying for it,
so Davy accepts the inevitable.

Speaker 9 (04:13):
I went four days and had just begun to learn
my letters a little when I had an unfortunate falling
out with a boy much larger and older than myself
Davy Crockett.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Davie begins playing hooky from school, but after a week
the schoolmaster contacts John Crockett. Davy now thinks he'll be
whipped by both the schoolmaster and his own father.

Speaker 9 (04:37):
My father told me he would whip me if I
didn't start immediately to the school. Finding me rather too
slow about starting, he gathered about a two year old
hickory stick and broke after me.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
I put out with.

Speaker 9 (04:49):
All my might, and soon we were both up to
our top speed. But mind me not on the schoolhouse road,
for I was trying to get as far to other
way as possible.

Speaker 10 (05:00):
Davy Crockett, eighteen thirty four.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Davy doesn't stop running, and as soon on another cattle
drive to the eastern seaboard. For the next two years,
he has more adventures than most people having lifetime. Davy
returns home just shy of his fifteenth birthday, here's Crockett
historians Gary Foreman and Paul Hadn't.

Speaker 11 (05:23):
David has well reached the age of puberty and his
growth is enormous. He has grown several inches, He's changed
his features, and he is now a young man. He's
no longer the little.

Speaker 10 (05:36):
Boy that ran away from home.

Speaker 12 (05:39):
When Davy got back to the tavern, it was nighttime
and the evening meal was.

Speaker 10 (05:45):
Being served to the herders and teamsters.

Speaker 12 (05:50):
He moved unannounced into the tavern and sat down amids
the other men.

Speaker 11 (05:56):
So he got inside the tavern sat amongst the other
travelers at the same table the family. Finally, one of
his sisters looked at him, recognized his features, and discovered
she has just found her long lost brother, David.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
For dear, life is constant struggle, and the family farm
bankrupts the Crockett's in order to pay his debts. Davy's
father is forced to make a difficult decision. Here's criminology
professor Arnette Guest and Stephen Harden.

Speaker 13 (06:26):
Davy Crockett becomes what is known as a bound boy.
It's really a firm of indentured service to pay off
a debt. It was slightly above being a Slady. This
had a significant impact on Crockett.

Speaker 6 (06:43):
We shouldn't, as modern people, judge John Crockett too harshly.
The role of children in the early nineteenth century was
vastly different than it is now.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you've been listening to the story of Davy Krot
and what a story. Indeed, born in seventeen eighty six
is Tennessee frontiersman, father one of nine kids, and his
father fought in the Revolutionary War. And as was so
well said there, we can't judge people out of their times.
Don't judge the father too harshly. The role of children

(07:18):
was different in the eighteenth century than it is today.
When we come back more of the story of Davy
Crockett here on our American Stories. Here at our American Stories,
we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith
and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that

(07:39):
need to be told that we can't do it without you.
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That's our American Stories dot Com and we continue with

(08:11):
our American Stories. We last left off with Davy Crockett
paying off his father's debts by becoming an indentured servant.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Let's pick up from there. Here again is Roger McGrath.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
After a year of grueling work being off his father's
debts to Abraham Wilson and John Kennedy, David does something
for himself. He understands he needs at least the rudiments
of an education, and coincidentally, Kennedy's son runs a school.
David strikes a deal. He works for the son two

(08:46):
days a week in return for four days a week
of schooling for six months.

Speaker 6 (08:52):
That's the only education Crockett ever had. But in that time,
he says, I learned how to read, I learned how
to write, and I learned how to cipher.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
With just six months of formal schooling, young Crockett's real
education comes from the frontier itself. His skill with his
rifle becomes his trademark. His reputation begins to grow, but
evidently not enough to win himself a girl.

Speaker 12 (09:21):
Now, Davey tried to make his own way, and he
was consumed as young men often are with thoughts of.

Speaker 10 (09:28):
Finding a wife.

Speaker 12 (09:30):
He courted a young lady named Margaret Elder and took
out a marriage license, but she jilted him at the
altar and.

Speaker 10 (09:38):
Broke his heart.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Then, at a dance in eighteen six, he meets the
beautiful Mary Polly Finlay. He courts her for several months
and they fall in love. Polly's mother is initially impressed
by the young man, but soon is trying to dissuade
her daughter from marrying him. This David Crockett is wrecked.
Adventurous Polly deserves a settled man with property. He becomes

(10:06):
a battle between Crockett and missus Finley. Finally, Davy simply
rides up to the Finlay house with a wedding party
consisted of relatives, friends, and a minister in tow and
says he has come for Polly William Finley. He convinces
his wife to step outside and talk with Crockett. She

(10:27):
surprises everyone by apologizing to her daughter's suitor for the
way she has treated him, and invites the wedding party
into the Findlay home. The two are married. Davy is
turning twenty and Polly is eighteen Crockett feels blessed. As
he puts it, he has his own horse, and his

(10:48):
own rifle, and now his own wife. Says Crockett, I
needed nothing more in the whole world. Crockett rants proper
near the families and goes to work establishing a farm.
Children come quickly, a son in eighteen seven, another son

(11:08):
in eighteen nine, and a daughter in eighteen twelve. By
the time his daughter is born, the family has moved
farther west twice, and Crockett becomes a land owner rather
than a renter. Here's Krockett from his eighteen thirty four autobiography.
I found that farming wasn't what it was cracked up

(11:30):
to be.

Speaker 4 (11:30):
It was therefore more necessary that I should hunt to
get along.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
In eighteen twelve, war with Britain erupts again, and the
transit Appalachian country is in the thick of it, not
fighting British troops but fighting their Indian allies. The Greeks
are especially troublesome. The majority of them support the British
and become known as the Red Sticks. A minority, the

(11:55):
White Sticks, support the Americans, receiving arms, trading goods, and
occasionally military advisors from the British, the Red Stick Creeks
begin raiding outlying American settlements. The creek attack that cost
Crockett and other Tennessee boys to volunteer for service occurs

(12:16):
on August thirtieth, eighteen thirteen, at Fort Mims, about forty
miles north of today's Mobile, Alabama. So called fort was
not much more about a palisade of logs around the
homestead of Samuel Mims, with the Red Stick Creeks on
the warpath. American settlers and peaceful Indians crowded into the

(12:37):
fort for protection. By late August, the number of people
inside the fort reaches five hundred militia men accounting for
about half. At noon on the thirtieth of August, upwards
of one thousand Creek warriors assault the fort and finally
set at ablaze, where everyone inside is forced to flee

(12:59):
into the open. The creeks grabs small children by the
ankles and swinging them through the air, dash out their
brains on logs. Men, women and children are scalped and dismembered.
Pregnant women have their bellies split open and their fetuses
ripped out, said one witness. The fearful shrieks of women

(13:20):
and children put to death in ways as horrible as
Indian barbarity could invent, could be heard. A half mile off.
About three dozen Americans escape, some mortally wounded. Their descriptions
of what the Creeks have done reverberate across the frontier.
Remember Fort Mims becomes a rallying cry. Tennessee legislature authorizes

(13:47):
the raising of an army of mushmen. Andrew Jackson is
named the army's commander. At the time, Jackson is recovering
from a severe wound suffered in a duel. Though he
is too to get up from his bed, he accepts
the appointment, saying you'll have an army on the march
in nine days. Immediately issues a call for Tennesseeans to

(14:12):
volunteer for duty. Although Polly cries and begs David to
stay home, he is one of the first to answer
Jackson's call. Here's Crockett from his autobiography and Stephen Harden.

Speaker 14 (14:29):
If every man waited for his wife to be willing
for him to go to war, we'd all be killed
in our homes.

Speaker 6 (14:38):
These are the people who murdered his grandparents. These are
the people who forced Crockett to leave a loving wife
and family. Now we have David Crockett the soldier for
the first time in this life.

Speaker 5 (15:00):
When Crockett joined the militia, he was perfect to chase
rogue creeks and got to observe how they moved through landscape.
It was something that he in fact emulated.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
As the army moves southward, Crockett is put in command
of a small party of men and is sent out
on a scouting mission to find the Creek Indians. Among
the volunteers, Davy is very popular is known to be honest.
One man's account called David the merriest of the mirry,
keeping the camp alive with his jokes and stories during

(15:37):
the harsh winter. David spends his own money to buy
blankets for the soldiers. In just two weeks, Crockett finds
them penetrating deep into Creek country. This gives Jackson all
the information he needs to attack. In the early morning
hours on November three, eighteen thirteen, Krockett and nine hundred

(16:00):
militia under the immediate command of John Coffee Rasahad and
surround the creek village of Taoloosa. Hatchie there are dozens
of cabins there with more than two hundred well armed
Creek warriors in them. Coffee has his volunteers encircle the
village and then sends a portion of his force in

(16:21):
a faint at the center. Cabins, the trap works, and
the Red Stick Creek warriors are all killed, while eighty
four women and children are taken prisoner. One of the children,
a ten month old boy orphaned by the fight, is
about to be killed by squaws when the troops intervene.

(16:42):
He is carried to Andrew Jackson, who takes him into
his tent and coaxes him to drink a mixture of
brown sugar and water. The boy becomes Andrew Jackson Junior.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of Davy Crockett, and what a story indeed, how he
becomes a military man, following in his father's footsteps. His
father again had fought in the Revolutionary War at a
time when the country needed him. And here was Davy Crockett,
well doing what Andrew Jackson wished more men would do.

(17:19):
He scouted and tracked down that village, and then the
Tennessee militiamen did their work and killing all of the
Creek warriors and taking the women and children hostage, not
doing the same thing that the Creeks had done to
the women and children of the villages that Jackson was
fighting on behalf of When we come back more of

(17:40):
the story of Davy Crockett here on our American stories,

(18:07):
and we continue with our American stories and with the
story of Davy Crockett. We last left off with Crockett
and the Tennessee militia battling against the British backed Red
Stick Creek Warriors in the War of eighteen twelve. Let's
pick up where we last left off.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
Here again is Roger McGrath.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
The War of eighteen twelve is over in March of
eighteen fifteen. After a treaty is signed recognizing a military stalemate.
Crockett returns to his family and home in the backwoods
of Tennessee, but his bliss is short lived.

Speaker 12 (18:49):
No sooner had he returned home than Polly died. She
had been fine after the birth of their third child, Margaret,
but she soon took ill on rapidly.

Speaker 10 (19:02):
Davy was devastated.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
Crockett forges on as a widower, and a year later
marries Elizabeth Patton, a widow with two small children of
her own. She lost her husband in the Creek War.
Crockett will father three children with her. He moves west
again in eighteen seventeen through Lawrence County, Tennessee, and.

Speaker 12 (19:27):
At the same time he began his political career, first
as magistrate, later as colonel of the local militia regiment,
thus the title Colonel Crockett, and soon he began to
think about running for the state legislature.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
Crockett's reputation as a frontiersman and soldier make him a
standout candidate. He becomes a voice of laborers, tradesmen, pioneers
and farmers, those building America into the powerhouse. It's becoming
style is simple, one that involves whiskey drinking and laughable storytelling.

(20:08):
As hot as blaze is out here.

Speaker 5 (20:10):
I bet you're all at thurstay.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
You need to what all was?

Speaker 3 (20:16):
Here's his historian, David Eisenbach.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
I hope I get your vote. You got my vote, yes, sir, good.

Speaker 10 (20:23):
David Crockett was a politician.

Speaker 7 (20:24):
The frontiersman was part of his image making campaign in
order to get elected to a population that did not
want to hear from the old time politicians.

Speaker 15 (20:38):
When Crockett's elected to the United States Congress, he arrives
in Washington and still takes the floor of the House
pretty much dressed in his buckskins.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
In eighteen twenty one, he's elected to the Tennessee General
Assembly and re elected in eighteen twenty three. He is
elected in a landslide to the US House of Representatives
twenty six and reelected in eighteen twenty eight.

Speaker 5 (21:05):
David Crockett looms huge in the notion of what the
American frontier was. He became a symbol of possibility, of
hope that the common man could actually rise to great heights.
A man with six months education ends up in the
halls of Congress. It's a uniquely American story.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Hendrew Jackson becomes president in eighteen twenty nine, and the
year after, he signs the Indian Removal Act, which Crockett,
to Jackson's dismay, opposes. With Crockett running for reelection, Jackson
backs his opponent, William Fitzgerald, who immediately begins running a
smarra campaign against Crockett's character. At a campaign stop in

(21:54):
northwest Tennessee, Crockett confronts Fitzgerald.

Speaker 5 (22:01):
When Crockett and Fitzgerald arrived for one of their co
stump speeches, Crockett stood up and strode towards the stage
and said, you know, if you continue with these casting aspersions,
I'm going to give you a country caning. Fitzgerald leveled
his pistol at Crockett's chest and said, take one more

(22:23):
step and it'll be your last. The event with William
Fitzgerald and the pistol was devastating to Crockett. He had
run part of his campaign on his courage and here
he was publicly slinking away in front of someone. It
was kind of an assault to his manhood.

Speaker 3 (22:43):
After a brutal campaign, Crockett loses a stunning upset in
his re election bid in eighteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (22:51):
When Crockett lost his bid for Congress, he sort of
slung home with his tail between his legs. He was
now broke to find out that his wife had also
left him and he was living alone. It was a
very low low point in his life.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
That is until A play opens on April twenty fifth,
eighteen thirty one, in New York City.

Speaker 5 (23:16):
One of the things that revitalized Crockett in his career
was the creation of this play called The Lion of
the West. At the beginning, Crockett was sort of offended
by this. He felt like he was being made fun of,
but as it turned out, the play actually made him
an international celebrity.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
When Crockett loses his election bid for a fourth term
in eighteen thirty four, he starts thinking about moving to
the Mexican Hill territory of Texas. Pioneers looking for cheap
land stream across modern day Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas into
a new frontier full of opportunity. By eighteen thirty six,

(24:03):
thirty thousand Americans have moved to Texas deeply. Crockett is
one of them. By the time the forty nine year
old Crockett reaches Memphis, some thirty like minded friends have
joined him. The night before they crossed the Mississippi, a
celebration is held in his honor. Door hopping finally takes

(24:25):
the revelers to Neil mccool's. They hoist a whiskey filled
Crockett up on a counter. He stands up, surveys the crowd,
and says, you may all go to Hell.

Speaker 13 (24:41):
I'm going to Texas.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
Here's historian Donald Fraser.

Speaker 16 (24:45):
The Texians were essentially the Anglo settlers in Mexican Texas.
These guys were coming to Texas in order to make
Texas into a new American.

Speaker 3 (24:58):
Like the United States. Mexico is a new country. It
has recently won independence from Spain. One of the heroes
of Mexico's war against Spain is General Santanna. He is
now elected the Mexican president. Bit by bit, the ruthless
Santa Anna, who promotes himself as the Napoleon of the West,

(25:22):
seizes more power. He raises taxes, takes away freedoms. Now
the angry Texians are calling for revolution. They want independence
from Mexico. In response, Santa Ana sends five hundred troops
to confiscate weapons from the Americans. When the Texians refuse

(25:44):
to surrender their guns, sant Ana makes plans to retaliate
to take them down to Santoin. What began as a
fresh storeat in Texas is now a call to arms.
Commander of the Texian Army, General Sam Houston, dispatches Crockett
and his companions to a garrison where the Texan soldiers

(26:06):
recently expelled Mexican troops seizing control of the former Spanish mission,
now a military fortress called the Alamo, located in San Antonio.
They arrive at the Alamo on February eighth, eighteen thirty six.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of Davy Crockett. We're lucky to have him, more honored
to have him. What a professor he was for so
many years out on the West Coast. Any students lucky
enough to have studied under him, and Greg Hangler did well,
they'll be happy to hear his voice on our national
show telling stories about this country. Cal State Northridge, j CLA. Pepperdine.

(26:46):
That's where doctor Roger McGrath taught. And again we've all
had those teachers who brought history to life, and they're
a blessing and we need more of them now than
ever here in this great country.

Speaker 17 (26:57):
Heavy Crockett, King of the Frontier.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
When we come back, more of the story of Davy
Crockett here on our American Stories.

Speaker 17 (27:08):
Fought single handed through the Engine War till the creeks
was whipped and peace was a storm. And while he
was handling this risky charm made itself a legend.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
Ever more, and we continue with our American stories and
the story of Davy Crockett. Let's pick up where we

(27:43):
last left off with the arrival of Davy Crockett and
his fellow soldiers the Alamo on February eighth, eighteen thirty six.

Speaker 10 (27:54):
You'all halt right there and state your business.

Speaker 3 (27:57):
For volunteers from the United States here to five the
Republic of Texas open the gates up. William Travis, who
is in command of the Texas Regulars, gets word of
an advancing Mexican army. Here's Crockett from his autobiography.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
Take note.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
When this war is won and Texas has achieved their independence,
these people are going to need a strong leader, and
I intend to give them what they need. On February
twenty second, the San Antonians celebrate George Washington's birthday, dancing
and aiding Tamal's and enchiladas. What Crockett and those stationed

(28:41):
inside the walls of the Alamo, including numerous women and children,
don't know is that in an enraged Santa Anna and
his army of nearly two thousand soldiers will arrive the
following day and surround the Alamo.

Speaker 16 (28:56):
If you're going to teach these Texans a lesson. You
need to teach them that lesson at the Alamo. So
the first thing he does is try to scare them.
Raises a black flag of no quarter. The black flag
means none of you will be spared, and he sets
his guns up in strategic position, could begin bombarding the Alma.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
Several different times during the siege, a sharp shooting of
Crockett and his Tennesseeans are instrumental in driving back the Mexicans.
Crockett is living up to his reputation.

Speaker 6 (29:38):
What people need to understand about the Battle of the
Alama is that it is a siege.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
Now.

Speaker 6 (29:45):
This battle lasted thirteen days.

Speaker 3 (29:48):
After they were one of the battles, William Travis writes.

Speaker 4 (29:52):
The Honorable David Crockett was seen at all points animating
the men to do their duty.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
Colonel William Travis thirty six March fifth, eighteen thirty six, Starving,
sleep deprived and outnumbered more than ten to one, Davy
Crockett and some one hundred and ninety Texians refused to
surrender and prepare to fight to the death. Here's the

(30:18):
author of loan survivor, retired US Navy Cereal Marcus latrelle Man.

Speaker 14 (30:26):
There's the thing that happens when death at the door.
Most people don't know when the reaper is going to
show up, right, You just kinda hopefully you die in
peace or you die quickly. When you see the reapers
standing outside the door and you know he's coming in
here for us. The world just kind of lends perspective
in that moment. What was important, what's not important? Who
I wish I would have talked to? Man, it's the
hell of a thing to go through that in the door.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
Well, i's get you get Santa Anna is relentless, accepting
heavy losses to breach the fortress. On the morning of
March six, he launches a massive assault.

Speaker 16 (31:06):
So he was willing to send a political message both
to the United States and to the people of Mexico,
using the blood of his men as the ink for
this missing.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
According to Susannah Dickinson, who was there throughout the siege
as one of the non combatants crowded into the Alamos Chapel,
Crockett steps into the chapel and says a prayer before
joining his Tennesseeans defending the South Wall. Crockett and all
the Tennessee boys fire their rifles and tell how to ammunition,

(31:40):
and then use those rifles as clubs. Here's retired US
Army General David Petreus.

Speaker 18 (31:48):
Davy Crockett did what many American patriots have done, and
that is decide to stay and fight for a cause
in the face of an attacking enemy, and it speaks
volumes about him and about his character.

Speaker 3 (32:06):
After ninety minutes of Purre is fighting, it's over. The
Mexican Army takes the Alamo. All of the fort's defenders
are killed.

Speaker 19 (32:17):
As we passed through the enclosed ground in front of
the church, I saw heaps of dead and dying. One
hundred and eighty two Texans and sixteen hundred Mexicans were killed.
I recognize Colonel Crockett lying dead and mutilated between the
church and the two story barrack building, and even remember
seeing his peculiar cap lying by his side. Susannah Dickerson

(32:42):
Alamo Survival, eighteen thirty six.

Speaker 20 (32:47):
There are approximately twenty five different accounts of how Crockett
died at the Alamo.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
There's no way to know.

Speaker 20 (32:57):
Because there are no credible witnesses to it. All I
can tell you is Crockett became a Texas icon by
dying here. He was actually only in Texas two months
before he met his death at the Alamo.

Speaker 3 (33:13):
From the smoking ruins of the Alamo, a nation will
soon learn that Davy Crockett gave his life defending Texas.
In the American Dream, General Sam Houston calls on Texans
to avenge Crockett's death and remember the Alamo. The Alamo
becomes their rallying cry. Hundreds of angry Texans are drawn

(33:35):
to the cause of independence. In a little over a month,
on April twenty one, eighteen thirty six, Sam Houston and
his troops defeat Mexican forces and capture San Anna, gainey
their independence. Nine years later, Texas will become the twenty
eighth US state. Davy Crockett may well have perished at

(33:58):
the Alamo, but the Crockett of the legend has just begun.
The Crockett legend easily transfers from stage to motion pictures,
where he is always featured as the hero and always
in a coonskin cap. On the night of December fifteenth,
nineteen fifty four, America's first ever television mini series begins,

(34:23):
airing on Wednesday night at seven thirty PM, forty million people,
almost one fourth of all American television sets glow with
a black and white image of a young Texan named
Fest Parker starring as Davy Crockett on ABC and now
Walt Disney.

Speaker 4 (34:44):
It's characteristic of American folklore that most of our favorite
legends and tables are based on the lives of real
man like Davy Crockett of Tennessee, born on a mountain.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
Top Ptannas, and the show's theme song, The Ballad of
Navy Crockett, becomes number one on the music charts for months.

Speaker 17 (35:07):
Killed him my bar when he was only three. Davy Crockett,
King of the wildfrontem.

Speaker 11 (35:19):
Walt Disney creates a new series called Davy Crockett, King
of Wild Frontier. It's positioned perfectly because America is still
in the post war era. It believes strongly in patriotism
and long comes Davy Crockett, another effort to rekindle the
light of the hero that people have.

Speaker 10 (35:39):
Forgotten for many, so many years.

Speaker 11 (35:41):
And it's with this timing that Crockett emerges again as
a monumental hero in America's past, and he does it
in such a way that he captures the imagination of
a whole television crowd that remembers him as coonskin caps
and a host of other kitchen in pulp culture.

Speaker 15 (36:05):
In America, the Crockett craze certainly took off with the
first episode. Well, everyone was really taken aback and unaware.
They didn't have any marketing ready like they would today.
It was just something that had to be developed after
the fact. But quite soon we had little boys and
girls running around in coonskin caps and full buckskins rifle,

(36:26):
trying to hunt bear, just like Davy Crockett did, trying
to talk like fest Parka did.

Speaker 12 (36:32):
What others may do with imagination and a good stick,
and they played out the Battle of the Alamo in
backyards all across America. Of course, more often than not,
Davy Crockett won his last battle because historical fact was
pretty irrelevant to toddlers in America.

Speaker 10 (36:53):
Davy Crockett has had a remarkable.

Speaker 12 (36:56):
Afterlife, growing to proportions that no one at the time
of his death could have ever imagined. New Crockets have
been created meeting the needs of new generations of Americans,
and I think it's safe to say that Davy Crockett
will always live in the American heart, at least so

(37:18):
long as Americans cherish decency and freedom.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Engler and doctor Roger McGrath. And
what a story this was. Let's face it, the story
of Crockett, even up to eighteen.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Twenty eight, would have been complete.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
Starts with nothing, six months of education, and he rises
to the halls of Congress. But that's the beginning of
the story. What happens in the Battle of the Alamo
thirteen days and it was a siege, not a battle.
Well this told you everything about the man and his character.
As General Petreus noted, he stayed and he fought ninety minutes.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Jury is fighting in the end.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
And not long after, nine years later, Texas became America's
twenty eighth state. The story of Davy Crockett, story of
Texas and America.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
Here on our American Stories