Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis

THREE ROADS TO THE ALAMO is not really about the Alamo. Only a few pages are devoted to that epic battle. The book is a biography of the three most prominent men to have died there: David Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William Travis. Each of their "roads" is quite long. Author William C. Davis has a reputation for detail, and he certainly lives up to it here. Parts of the book are dry and caught up in minutiae. This is especially so in the chapters that deal with Jim Bowie's false land claims.These three men died as heroes at the Alamo, and that they certainly were. But they may not fit the popular image of heroes. Bowie was an especially unethical man, forging bogus land claims in Arkansas and Louisiana to such a great extent that officials in Washington D.C. took to calling all false land claims "Bowie claims." He sold land he didn't own, and went to Texas to escape arrest. He also lied to his Mexican father-in-law about his age and his wealth in order to win the man's daughter in marriage. He never invented the Bowie knife and never claimed to. That was done by his brother Rezin. In his defence, Bowie was a brave man, a ferocious fighter, and a natural leader. The Mexican's called him "the braggart."William Travis ran to Texas to escape huge debt. He abandoned his wife and two small children, and his wife eventually sued him for divorce. He was also an excellent leader.David Crockett (as he preferred to be called) was a good man and was honest to a fault, though he was also in debt for much of his life. Crockett was a U.S. Congressman from Tennessee, a Jacksonian Democrat who broke with Jackson when that president got his Indian Removal Bill through Congress. Crockett felt it was unfair to Native Americans. He was up for reelection in 1835, and said if he lost, he would "go to hell or go to Texas." He chose the latter. Like Travis, he also left his wife and children behind.Crockett was the most famous of the three. He had a reputation as fighter, a hunter, and a frontiersman, all of which were true, but he wanted to be known as a gentleman. He did not wear a coonskin cap.Davis dispels the myths that surround these men and the battle for which they are best remembered, and there are many of them. This is the great value of his book.

William C Davis sometimes doesn't get his due from academic historians because he sells books. Most academics write dry, boring tomes that nobody reads because they are full of inane and pretentious theories that only interest other academic pedants. William C Davis, however, is a historian and the old mode. This book is thoroughly, thoroughly, thoroughly researched. The endnotes are several hundred pages long, and some of the individual notes spanned several pages. He explains in these notes where his sources come from how they're better than previous books, etc. Nobody, even the most academic of Texas historians, can quibble that this book is well researched, well written, and just flat out good. This is the best triple biography of Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William Barrett Travis ever done. Had Davis decided to split this in the three books, there would be the best three books on these three Texas heroes ever. Davis corrects many historical inaccuracies about these characters, putting their lives into focus, defining them as men of their times. Jim Bowie was a land swindler and slave smuggler; Davy Crockett was a failure as both farmer and Congressman, probably a failure into being a second husband, and, in the end, unable to live up to a legend of his own making; William B. Travis was a debtor, an adulterer, and a horrible father; yet they are all representative of the frontier type, to various degrees, the men who turned the untamed wilderness of the American West into pure opportunity. It also serves as a decent introduction to the Texas Revolution, though the last chapter on actual battle of the Alamo was way too short. It was almost a letdown. Davis should have expended his talent, research, and industry into describing the muck mess that is the historiography and historical depiction of the battle (although he probably did that in his later book, specifically on the Texas Revolution, which I own but have not yet read). All in all, a brilliant book.

How close did David Crockett come to being presidient of the United States? Closer than you might think. That's one of the many interesting issues covered in "Three Roads to the Alamo" This book is deep and well researched. The foot notes were as interesting as the book itself. Most Bubba Texas history buffs never considered Crockett, Bowie and Travis until they bite the big bullet. We sometimes forget that Davy Crockett was not much more than a tourist. He had just lost an election and made one campaign promise that he kept. He said, "If I lose this election I'll either go to hell or Texas." He chose Texas. His travels led him to San Antonio at a time that coincided with the defense of the Alamo. James Bowie was a land swindler that forged a lot of Spanish land grants in Louisiana and did a poor job of that. He was kind of hiding out from creditors and enjoying his new squeeze, a pretty local girl from a influential San Antonio family. She died of typhus that rampaged the area and Jim went into a depression that kept him from a timely exit from San Antonio. William Travis was thriving in Texas with a law practice. Only after he had sneaked out of Alabama leaving a family and lots of debt. This book does a great job of explaining how these three men came together and rose above their short comings to lead a brave defense of the Alamo.

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Fascinating and extremely readable.