EP. 142: Letters from the Alamo (?)
Wise About Texas
Ken Wise
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 February 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Most are familiar with William Barret Travis’ letters from the Alamo, espcially his February 24th letter promising “Victory or Death!” But could there hqave been others? Did the defenders write their families? Did those letters survive? We examine that possibility in this episode of Wise About Texas.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Howdy and welcome to Wise About Texas, the Texas History podcast. |
| 0:11.7 | This is your host, Ken Wise. |
| 0:13.0 | Thank you very much for tuning in today. |
| 0:15.0 | I'm going to talk a little bit about Texas history. |
| 0:17.5 | We're in the 190th anniversary of the Texas Revolution, and we're going to talk a little bit about an obscure topic related to the Battle of the Alamo. |
| 0:31.0 | But first, let me remind you, this podcast is being recorded and released in late February, and upcoming is the annual meeting of the Texas State |
| 0:39.7 | Historical Association from March the 5th through the 7th in Irving, Texas. So be sure and |
| 0:47.5 | come over there. I'm going to host a panel Friday morning, March 6th, and three historians are going to be presenting on three different former |
| 0:59.0 | governors of the state and I'm going to be the commentator so that'll be Friday morning at 10 a.m. |
| 1:04.0 | at the meeting so stop by say hello I'll be around the meeting the whole time. |
| 1:08.5 | Look forward to meeting everybody who wants to come to that meeting. |
| 1:13.2 | Today, I wanted to talk about letters from the Alamo, but maybe not the letters that you think of. |
| 1:20.7 | So let's go back to 1836. |
| 1:23.9 | In San Antonio de Behar, the Alamo is under siege by the Mexican Army under Santa Ana, and we're going to get wise about Texas. |
| 1:37.8 | The first thing you're going to think about when we talk about letters from the Alamo is the famous William Barrett, Travis, |
| 1:45.3 | victory, or death letter. That letter, Travis wrote that letter or dated it, February 24th, 1836. |
| 1:54.6 | And this is probably one of the most famous letters actually in the world. If you think about |
| 2:00.5 | the effect of the Texas Revolution on the formation of If you think about the effect of the Texas Revolution on the |
| 2:02.3 | formation of the United States and the effect of the formation of the United States on the rest of |
| 2:07.2 | the world, Shirley Travis's victory or death letter is right on up there. It's inspired millions |
| 2:13.0 | of people through history, was instantly recognized as an inspirational plea for assistance from the besieged |
| 2:22.2 | alamo defenders. That letter was one of a series that Travis wrote and sent from the Alamo. |
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