Davy Crockett Surrendered at Alamo, says NC State Historian

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

North Carolina State University historian Dr. James Crisp has been threatened by a Texan woman with a Bowie knifing, jestingly, he claims. He has been introduced at a speaking engagement as the Antichrist, jokingly, he says. And he has been accused in the pages of his own Rice University alumni magazine of "marketing a contrarian neohistory to suit [his own] self- interests," all because he has verified the authenticity of an 1836 diary. The diary says that instead of fighting to the death with his comrades, Davy Crockett surrendered at the Alamo and was executed by sword.

But, Crisp, assistant history department head, insists, "I'm not persona non grata at the Alamo."

And he certainly isn't persona non grata among producers of documentaries, having worked with the History Channel, the Discovery Channel and most recently with BBC radio. In January, the BBC flew him to San Antonio, Texas, to work on a 40-minute special about the Crockett controversy. It will air on Thursday, March 6, in Great Britain.

Crisp also has written an introduction to a new edition of the diary, titled "With Santa Anna in Texas, A Personal Narrative of the Revolution by Jose Enrique de la Peña," which will be released on Thursday, March 6, by Texas A&M University Press. In his 15-page introduction he describes the colorful history of the diary, the debate around it and the historical detective work

that brought him to the conclusion that it isn't a forgery.

"This edition will bring people up-to-date on where we stand on the controversies surrounding the manuscript," says Crisp.

When the first English translation of the diary appeared in 1975, it was viewed by many die-hard Crockett fans as a malicious fake. When Dan Kilgore, then president of the Texas State Historical Association, endorsed the diary's version of Crockett's death, he was accused of being a communist traitor. It has remained a touchy issue.

The controversy was reignited in 1994 when Crisp was asked by the journal of the Texas State Historical Association, The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, to review the book "Defense of a Legend: Crockett and the de la Peña diary," by amateur historian and New York City fire department lieutenant Bill Groneman. Groneman claimed that the diary was very likely a forgery.

Until that time Crisp had no serious interest in Davy Crockett, but he realized Groneman had indeed detected something odd about the diary. Conventional historical wisdom had it that the diary was published in 1836, which Groneman succeeded in showing had not been the case. It was only first published in the 1950s. But, Crisp suspected, Groneman's reasoning that the diary was a forgery was flawed.

"Groneman got it half right," says Crisp. Crisp agrees the diary wasn't published at the time it was written but says that date doesn't compromise the book's authenticity.

So began a three-year professional detour for Crisp -- filled with painstaking document hunting, vigorous debate, and an occasional hostile exchange of articles and letters in historical and popular publications.

Crisp is tinkering with an American myth, one that goes to the heart of red-blooded, Anglo-American individualism, tenacity and ferocity. Davy Crockett, legend has it, died fighting, taking as many Mexican soldiers as he could, during the most memorable and inequitable battle of the Texan Revolution. When Crockett ran out of ammunition, he used the butt end of his rifle as a weapon until he could fight no more.

Or so the story went and so was Crockett deified -- until Crisp showed through meticulous work that the diary, written by Mexican officer Jose de la Peña, is almost certainly not a forgery. In Texas libraries, at Yale University and in 19th-century newspapers, Crisp found corroborating written accounts that served to document the memoir's authenticity. The "diary" is really a 400-page memoir, expanded by de la Peña himself from an original 109-page diary he wrote during the failed Mexican war effort. In no uncertain terms he identifies the celebrity Crockett, and describes his brutal death, along with that of a half dozen other captured defenders at the hands of Mexican soldiers upon the direct order of General Santa Anna.

A native Texan, Crisp teaches courses on the American West and antebellum South at NC State, and he isn't interested in perpetuating or overturning the Crockett myth, he says. He is interested in historical truth. He has even been mocked by one Alamo expert as being the president of "The Who Cares How Davy Died Association."

So, besides inflicting a massive bruise to American machismo, why does it matter how Davy died?

"Well, they do have a reenactment of the Alamo battle every year in March," says Crisp. "They might need to make some adjustments."

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NOTE TO EDITORS: From March 4-21, Dr. Crisp will be in Texas and can be reached at (512) 263-2939 before 9 p.m. CDT.