Alamo Personnel - February 1, 1836 Voting Roll

Introduction

A voting roll from an election held on February 1, 1836 gives us the names of 100 men who were in the Texian army in San Antonio on that date, three weeks before the siege of the Alamo began.

At the beginning of 1836, the Texas Revolution was underway. The Texian army had secured a string of victories over the Mexican centralists loyal to Santa Anna - most importantly, driving the Mexican army out of the city of San Antonio de Bexar. Many of the Texian volunteers involved in that conflict either went to their homes or joined other campaigns in the Revolution. Only about a hundred men who fought in the Bexar campaign remained in the city, under the command of Col. James C. Neill. During January, some more volunteers arrived, including a group that came in with James Bowie on January 19, 1836, and another with Captain Philip Dimmitt on January 24. Others continued to leave.

At that time, the provisional government that was assembled in late 1835 was fractured and ineffective. Texians did not even know what their government's stance was on the question of Texas independence. In December 1835, the call went out for a political convention to be held at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 1, 1836. Delegates to the convention would decide whether to declare independence or not and form a new government. Local elections to choose delegates were to be held on February 1.

The Bexar Garrison Election

The provisional government that called for elections was unable to arrive at any agreement over who would be eligible to vote. One of the biggest questions was whether there should be a residency requirement. Many long-time colonists and settlers, especially those who were not in favor of Texas declaring independence from Mexico, believed there ought to be a residency requirement, saying that the men who had arrived since the fighting started in October were unfamiliar with both the issues and the people. The men who recently arrived to join the army, however, argued that their service to Texas entitled them to a say in its affairs. Each district handled this question differently, and not always without conflict. In Bexar, the local residents, many of whom were native Tejanos, held their election, while the men of Neill's garrison held their own.

According to the voting roll, 100 men voted in the Bexar garrison election. There were two delegate positions to fill. The candidates for the first position were Samuel A. Maverick and J. M. Hays. One man voted for Hays. Maverick did not cast a vote, while Hays and everyone else voted for Maverick, making the final result Maverick 98, Hays 1. The candidates for the second delegate position were Jesse Badgett and James B. Bonham. Bonham did not vote in either election, but he received one vote (from the same man who voted for Hays). Badgett and four other voters abstained from that election. The final result was Badgett 94, Bonham 1. A total at the bottom of the roll incorrectly shows that Maverick received 103 votes, Badgett 100, and Hays and Bonham 1 each.

Badgett left San Antonio after the votes were counted and was seated at the convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 1. Maverick, who lived in San Antonio, did not leave right away, and encountered trouble with heavy rains getting there. He arrived at the convention late, between March 3 and March 5. He may have still been in San Antonio when Santa Anna's forces arrived on February 23.

The Voting Roll

The original specimen of the Bexar garrison voting roll still exists. (Presumably, Badgett took it with him to Washington to serve as his credentials to be seated as a convention delegate.) It consists of two folios, one with names written on the front and back, and a second with names and totals written on the front and a signed certificate on the back. The certificate repeats the error about the number of votes cast and the number of votes received by Maverick and Badgett.

The images are presented below reduced in size so that they can be seen side-by-side. To see the full-size image, click on the smaller image or on one of the links below:

• Page 1: Names 1 through 34
• Page 2: Names 35 through 68
• Page 3: Names 69 through 100 and totals
• Page 4: Certificate

Names on the Voting Roll

The table below contains our transcription of the names on the Bexar garrison voting roll. As with most historical documents, the voting roll contains many abbreviations and misspellings. Our first column, "Normalized Name," gives the person's full name, correctly spelled. The names on our list have been sorted alphabetically. The second and third columns show the transcribed name - misspellings and all - and the position it has on the written roll. The remaining columns provide a bit more information about each person. His age, where available, is given. In many cases, only the man's birth year is known, so two possible ages are given, with the lower one being more likely. The column headed "Neill Roll?" indicates whether the man was included in a muster roll of the Bexar garrison taken by Colonel Neill approximately in mid-January. Finally, the "Status" column shows what is known about what happened to the man after the vote.

Note: although every effort has been made to be accurate, it is possible that we have missed something or made a copy-and-paste error or typo. If you spot something wrong, please contact us.

Analysis

An analysis of the Alamo voting roll reveals the following facts:

• The men of the San Antonio garrison apparently believed that anyone who was willing to fight was entitled to vote. Even though the minimum age to vote was 21 in the United States, where most of these men were from, at least 2 of the voters were 18 years old, and at least 2 others were under 21.
• 60 voters were on Col. Neill's muster roll, meaning they had been in San Antonio since probably at least mid-January. Most of the other 40 probably entered San Antonio in about the two weeks prior to the election, although some, like Gregorio Esparza, were residents of San Antonio, and others, such as Almaron Dickinson, had previously been there, left, and returned.
• As many as 21 men who are listed on Neill's muster roll are not known or suspected of leaving San Antonio afterward and are believed to have died in the Alamo battle on March 6, 1836, but they do not appear on this voting roll. Either they left San Antonio and returned without leaving any trace of their movements, or they simply did not vote in the election.
• 59 voters are known or believed to have died at the Alamo. Another died of wounds after leaving. 14 voters left before the battle. What became of the other 26 is unknown.