"Newark Daily Advertiser" Containing 1st Report of Massacre at the Alamo

4pp, measuring 15.5" x 22.5", Newark, New Jersey, dated April 12, 1836. An issue of the "Newark Daily Advertiser", Vol. 5, No. 30. Printed by Tuttle, Harrison, & Co. Contains details of the attack on the Alamo from a March 11th report. With additional articles on a small mob attacking abolitionist Rev. George Cheever, a Charter Election, and numerous advertisements. The newspaper has flattened mail folds, with light edge toning and chipping. Minor foxing throughout. Very good.

The report on the Alamo, written by Sam Houston, reads in part:

"…the Alamo was attacked on Sunday morning, at dawn of day, by about 2300 Mexicans, and was carried a short time before sunrise, with a loss of 520 Mexicans killed and as many wounded. Col. Travis had only 150 effective men out of his whole force of 187. After the fort was carried, seven men surrendered and called for Gen. Santa Anna and for quarter - they were murdered by his order. Col. Bowie was sick in bed, and also murdered…The bodies of the Americans were burned after the massacre - an alternate layer of bodies and wood, underlaid and set on fire. Lieut. Dickinson, who had a wife and child in the fort, after having fought with desperate courage, tied his child to his back, and leaped from the top of a two story building - both were killed in the fall. I have little doubt that the Alamo has fallen - Whether the above particulars are all true may be questionable…"

This March 11th report is the first printed report about the fall of the Alamo. Anselmo Bergara and Andrew Bargana, two farmers, shared the tale with General Sam Houston and his staff at Gonzales. Houston initially believed the two men to be spies, and the story had to be verified by two additional Tejanos.

The report on the attack on George Cheever reads in part:

"Disgraceful Scene at Concord, N.H…The Rev. Mr. Cheever, of Salem, preached an abolition discourse in the foreno II. The discourse being ended, all retired to their homes, and Mr. Cheever took lodgings at the house of Mr. Bouton. Near Midnight, some 12 or 14 individuals, mostly in sleighs, passed up street…with horns of discordant notes and a hastily created image…and on their return drove close to Mr. Bouton's door, after having sounded their horns, and elevated the man of straw some eight or ten feet, and one commenced a loud rapping on the door, and expressed a desire to 'see the man that dreamed the dream.' This noise soon brough together a squad of citizens who had been awakened by the noise and otherwise, among whom was an energetic officer; whereupon the sleighs, image, passengers and drivers, took up the line of march and returned to the S. House Yard, where the fire was applied to the man of straw…"

George Barrell Cheever 1807-1890) was a well-known and controversial abolitionist minister and writer, and a leader of the Christian Abolitionist Movement. He graduated from Bowdoin College, where he was a classmate of Nathanial Hawthorne and Henry W. Longfellow. In 1821 he became pastor of the Howard Street Congregational Church in Salem, Massachusetts.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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