|
Server : Apache/2.4.62 System : FreeBSD fbsdweb2.web.rcn.net 14.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE releng/14.1-n267679-10e31f0946d8 GENERIC amd64 User : www ( 80) PHP Version : 8.3.8 Disable Function : NONE Directory : /domains/agribiz/Jennings Heritage/ |
Upload File : |
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us">
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0">
<meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<title>Oldest Alamo Hero</title>
</head>
<body>
<div align="center">
<center>
<p> </p>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="80%">
<tr>
<td width="100%">
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center">
<font face="Arial" size="2"><b>OLDEST HERO AT THE ALAMO: </b></font><b>
<font face="Arial" size="2">GORDON JENNINGS OF CONNECTICUT</font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center"><font face="Arial"><b><font size="2"> </font></b><font size="2">Nicholas
E. Hollis<br>
</font><span style="font-size: 10.0pt">(All Rights Reserved</span><font size="2">)</font></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">Gordon C. Jennings was born in May 1782 in
Windham, Connecticut, the eldest son of Joseph and Ruth (Cartwright)
Jennings. Joseph had served in the Continental Army during the
Revolutionary War and traced his line to the
<a href="nicholas-jennings.htm">Joshua Jennings� family</a>, which first
settled in Hartford in the 1630s. A farmer, Gordon was among the first
pioneers to settle in Troy, Missouri (outside St. Louis) in the
early 1820s. In 1833, he and a brother moved with their families to
Bastrop, Texas (near present-day Austin). Later, encouraged by the promise
of land grant compensation, Gordon enlisted in the Texas militia on July
25, 1835 under Capt. R.M. Williamson in the command of Col. John H. Moore.
On December 13, 1835, Gordon re-enlisted, this time under Col. William B.
Travis.</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">As Texas colonists became increasingly
discontented with the Mexican Government they were obligated to serve,
Travis moved his regiment to the Alamo mission in January 1836 and awaited
reinforcements. Gordon Jennings, a corporal, was probably manning the
artillery positions when Santa Anna�s army arrived on February 23 and
surrounded the crumbling church and outer lying buildings. After a
thirteen-day siege, on March 6 at daybreak, 4000 Mexican infantry and
dragoons mounted their final assault. They attacked in three columns,
simultaneously hitting a breach in the north wall, the chapel and, a third
scaling the west barrier. Hurled back twice by furious artillery and rifle
fire, the Mexicans finally stormed the garrison with ladders and overran
those 189 Texas militiamen. Room by room �was carried at the point of a
bayonet. When the brutal hand-to-hand fighting subsided ninety minutes
later, the gallant defenders lay dead. Legendary frontiersman and
erstwhile populist congressman, David Crockett and six others, cornered in
the church, were the last killed. Santa Anna ordered all the bodies
burned, but his commanders were stunned by the ferocity of the Texans�
resistance. The Mexicans suffered more than 1,600 casualties in the
assault � the flower of Santa Anna�s army. </font></p>
<div align="center">
<center>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="60%">
<tr>
<td width="100%"><font face="Arial" size="2">
<img border="0" src="../images/Alamofighting.jpg" width="433" height="525"></font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100%">
<p align="right" style="margin-bottom: 2pt">
<font size="1" face="Times New Roman">(Painting: Fall of the Alamo
by Robert Onderdonk, Courtesy of Friends of the Governor's Mansion.)</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0"><font size="2" face="Times New Roman">
FAMOUS BATTLE SCENE -- Davy Crockett and his Tennessee boys shown in
desperate combat at the Alamo.</font><b><font FACE="Arial" SIZE="2"></p>
<table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#000000" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td width="100%"><font size="2">
<img border="0" src="../images/clear.gif" width="1" height="1"></font></td>
</tr>
</table>
</font>
</b></td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2">In a cruel irony, Charles
B. Jennings, Gordon�s brother (or cousin) was killed at the Goliad
massacre later that month. Alamo and Goliad became rallying cries for
Texas freedom, and years later the Jennings family heirs received 1,280
acres for each hero � reflecting their service and ultimate sacrifice.
Gordon�s son, Samuel Jennings (1828-1881), became a prosperous stockman in
the cattle business � and Gordon�s daughter, Catherine (1826-1911), became
a legend in her own right. As a ten-year-old, Catherine had ridden
bareback many miles to warn her neighbors of the advancing Mexican army �
and thus, �the Ride of Katy Jennings� became regarded for Texas as a kind
of <a href="origins_of_a_farmer_soldier.htm">Paul Revere�s ride</a>.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"> <b><i>Additional Reading</i></b></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2">�The Alamo Heroes and
Their Revolutionary Ancestors,� San Antonio, Daughters of the American
Revolution (1976). </font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2">�The Alamo� by Mary Ann
Noonan Guerra (1983). </font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2">�Fall of the Alamo and
Massacre of Travis and his Brave Associates� by Frances Antonio Ruiz,
Texas Almanac (Waco) 1857-58.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><u>David Crockett: The
Man and the Legend.</u> James Shackford, University of Nebraska Press,
1956.</font></p>
<p align="center"> </p>
<p align="center"><font face="Arial" size="2"><b>Jennings Heritage
Project<i><br>
</i></b>P.O. Box 5565 - Washington DC 20016<br>
Tel: (202) 296-4563<br>
Email: <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a></font></p>
<p align="center"><b><i><font size="2" face="Arial">"Leadership
Education and Character Development Through Historical Scholarship"</font></i></b></td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
</div>
</body>
</html>