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[FEATURE ARTICLE] Rhode Island’s Albert Martin, A Hero of the Alamo

April 1, 2015 By Brian Wallin

One of the most famous documents in American history, “To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World,” was written by Lt. Col. William B. Travis as a plea for reinforcements to defend the Alamo against Mexican forces during the Texas Revolution in 1836. Intimately connected with the letter is Albert Martin, born in 1808 in Providence.

Martin’s two grandfathers fought in the American Revolution and his fervent support of liberty was not surprising. After attending Norwich University in Vermont, he followed his father and brothers to Tennessee and later to New Orleans, eventually settling his family in Gonzales, Texas, in 1835. He opened a general store affiliated with the family business, Martin, Coffin & Company. The Texas Revolution broke out in 1835. Albert was involved in the defense of Gonzales (about 70 miles from the Alamo) and in Bexar (the original name of San Antonio) where he was wounded.

The Alamo
The Alamo

On February 23, 1836, a Mexican army numbering some 1500 laid siege to Texians holding the Alamo. Martin, a Captain in the Texas Rangers, returned from Gonzales and was immediately sent by Col. Travis to meet an aide of Mexican General Santa Anna’s who refused to see him. The following day, Col. Travis entrusted Martin to deliver an open letter to San Felipe de Austin containing a plea for reinforcements. Texans today revere this stirring language as their version of the Declaration of Independence:

TO THE PEOPLE OF TEXAS & ALL AMERICANS IN THE WORLD:
Fellow citizens and compatriots – I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna – I have sustained a continual Bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded surrender at discretion, otherwise the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken – I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch – The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country – Victory or Death.

William Barret Travis
Lt. Col. Comdt

P.S.The Lord is on our side – When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn – We have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels and got into the walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves.

Letter - William Barret Travis
Col. William Barret Travis’ open letter to San Felipe de Austin containing a plea for reinforcements.

Martin rode through the night back to Gonzales and handed the letter to colleague Lancelot Smithers. On the way, Martin added two personal postscripts. He wrote of his fear that the Mexican army had already launched their attack on the fort and added, “Hurry on all the men you can in haste.” The second is hard to read since the letter has frayed along a fold. But, it appears to convey that the Texians were “determined to do or die.”

Smithers penned his own postscript to the letter and carried it on to Austin. The letter was widely published, but it took some time for a large force to be assembled. Back in Gonzales, a small relief force of 32 men set out for the Alamo. Against his father’s wishes, Martin went with them and on March 1 made it back into the fortress. Five days later Albert was among the 188 men killed in the Battle of the Alamo. In April of 1836, an American army under General Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto.

Martin’s body was never recovered. It was likely among those burned by the Mexicans who then scattered the ashes of the Alamo defenders. The original Travis letter survived and is now in the Texas State Library in Austin, where a copy is on public display.

In July of 1836, Martin’s obituary was published in the New Orleans True American newspaper. It reads, in part: “Among those who fell in the storming of the Alamo was Albert Martin, a native of Providence, Rhode Island and recently a citizen of this city … He had left the fortress and returned to his residence. In reply to the passionate entreaties of his father, who besought him not to rush into certain destruction, he said ‘this is no time for such considerations. I have passed my word to Colonel Travers, that I would return, nor can I forfeit a pledge thus given.’ Thus died Albert Martin, a not unapt illustration of New England heroism. He has left a family, and perhaps a Nation to lament his loss and he had bequeathed to that family an example of heroic and high-minded chivalry which can never be forgotten.”

There is a cenotaph at the Martin family plot in Providence’s North Burial Ground memorializing Albert. Although a pamphlet distributed at the Alamo states Martin was a Rhode Island native, a plaque at the memorial says he is from Tennessee. Officials at the shrine have long been aware of the error, but decline to correct it since in their view, “there are errors all over the place here and we cannot change them all.” But, in Rhode Island, we know the true story.

A Postscript: The Varnum Museum collection includes a US Model 1816, .69 caliber musket manufactured at the Springfield Armory in 1833 and several others made at the Federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry. This type would have been used by Texians at the Alamo and by the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War. More 1816 models (675,000) were made than any other flintlock in U.S. history. Many were converted to percussion caps in the period leading up to the Civil War.

US Model 1816, .69 caliber musket manufactured at the Springfield Armory in 1833
US Model 1816, .69 caliber musket manufactured at the
Springfield Armory in 1833.

By Varnum Trustee & Member Brian Wallin

Filed Under: Feature Article, Varnum Memorial Armory Tagged With: 19th century, feature article, varnum memorial armory

[FEATURE ARTICLE] The Aircraft Carriers of Block Island

February 1, 2015 By Brian Wallin

Out on Block Island, there is a small plot of land with a very special memorial: a ship’s bell commemorating the two US Navy aircraft carriers that proudly bore the name USS Block Island. The first, designated CVE-21, was among the Bogue-class of escort carriers that went to sea early in World War II. These relatively small (15,000 tons & 495-feet long and capable of 18 knots), lightly armed ships carried up to 28 fighter aircraft for use in the battle against Nazi U-boats that were devastating Allied convoys in the Atlantic. In the rush to provide a response to the German attacks, the Navy decided to build small aircraft carriers on merchant ship hulls. CVE-21 was planned as a tanker before her conversion to a carrier. The first escorts were delivered to the British (in fact, one of those hulls designated CVE-6 was to be christened as Block Island). However, she was ultimately delivered under “lend-lease” to the Royal Navy as HMS Hunter.

CVE21, "The Fighting Block Island"
CVE21, “The Fighting Block Island”

Life aboard an escort carrier, also known as “Jeep Carriers” or “baby flattops,” was Spartan. The ships lacked the amenities of their big sisters, the fleet carriers. They had no air conditioning, were noisy, and pitched wildly in the heavy ocean swells. They relied on their escorts and CAP (combat air patrol) for defense as they carried only two 5-inch, multi-purpose guns and a smattering of 20mm and 40mm anti-aircraft weapons. When I see a ship like this I usually try to imagine how hard it was to keep it in good condition. Now it is easy to find where to learn about boating fairings and so on, but imagine how diffucult it must have been back at the time. Nicknamed “The Fighting Block Island” or “FBI,” CVE-21’s planes were credited with sinking two U-boats and shared credit with the escort screen ships for two more during her brief time in service. The ship and her crew earned two battle stars. According to the USS Block Island Association, made up of survivors and family members of the two carriers and their escorts, CVE-21 pioneered the use of HF/DF (high frequency direction finder) gear that enabled surface warships to track U-boats by their radio transmissions. The ship was also the first American carrier to be used in the hunter-killer role and, unfortunately, the only US Navy aircraft carrier to be sunk by enemy action in the Atlantic.

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Block Island had a short, but active life. She was placed in commission with the Atlantic Fleet in March of 1943. She transited from the West Coast shipyard where she was built and began her service by ferrying warplanes to Great Britain. Then, she went on the hunt for German submarines. On May 29, 1944, during her fourth war patrol, she was torpedoed without warning by U-549 and sunk in 40 minutes off the Canary Islands. Six men went down with the ship. The remaining 951 crewmen were rescued by escorting destroyers (four pilots of six in the air at the time were also lost with their planes). The German boat was put down for good by two of the Block Island’s escorts.

Now, here’s another twist to the story and a Navy first. It was decided to name a new escort carrier nearing completion on the West Coast after the first Block Island. The crew of CVE-21 was kept together until a second ship was commissioned. The new CVE-106 was launched less than two weeks after her predecessor was sunk. The second USS Block Island was designed from the keel up as an escort carrier. She was larger (24,000+ tons and 557′ long), a little faster at 19 knots and carried a few more aircraft. She was similarly armed as her late sister, but with a few more 40mm guns. As a side-note, she was sponsored at her launching by Mrs. E.J. Hallenbeck, the mother of the famed Marine Pilot Major Greg “Pappy” Boyington, leader of the “Black Sheep” squadron and a Medal of Honor recipient. (At the time, the Japanese were holding him as a POW).

Block Island CVE-106 was commissioned on December 30, 1944, at the same Washington state shipyard where her predecessor had been built. The event program noted “From the commanding officer (Captain F. Massie Hughes) all the way down through the ranks, the ship is manned by the same crew that was aboard the first USS Block Island when she pursued unremitting warfare against the U-boats in the Atlantic – the same men who fought her in her last battle…. So it is with a deep sense of privilege and pride that the ‘Fighting Block Island’s’ men sail again in this greater warship, determined that her name will make yet more history in the annals of naval warfare.”

CVE-106, "Block Island"
CVE-106, “Block Island”

CVE-106 made it to the Pacific in time for the battle for Okinawa and then fought in the Philippines. She was the first escort carrier to have an all-Marine Air Group. Later, the ship was the first escort carrier to launch radar-equipped night fighters when her Marine pilots participated in the Balikpapan campaign. At war’s end in August of 1945, Block Island had the proud duty of transporting freed Allied prisoners from Taiwan. She was placed in reserve status in 1946 and moved into service as a training ship for the US Naval Academy. In April of 1951, she returned to active duty and assigned to the Atlantic fleet where she carried out a number of cruises. In 1954, Block Island was at last decommissioned and placed in the mothball fleet in Philadelphia. In 1958, she nearly took on a new life when she was re-designated LPH-1 (helicopter assault ship) but before work could be completed, the conversion was cancelled and she was stricken from the Naval Register on 1959. In a final irony, she was sold for scrap – to Japan – the following year.

So, how did her bell wind up back on Block Island? According to Block Islander Robert Downie in his book “BLOCK ISLAND The Sea,” local resident Maizie Rose enlisted the help of Senator Claiborne Pell in tracking down the bell. Remarkably, it was found at the Philadelphia Navy Yard where CVE-106 had been decommissioned.

CVE-106 Bell on Block Island
CVE-106 Bell on Block Island

On May 31, 1971, a ceremony was held at the Island’s Legion Park near the Island Cemetery in New Harbor, a small plot of land that had been transferred to the American Legion Post 36 by the town back in 1939. And there the bell stands today, a fitting tribute to the men who served their country aboard two proud warships of the same name.

By Varnum Trustee & Member Brian Wallin

Filed Under: Feature Article, Varnum Memorial Armory Tagged With: feature article, varnum memorial armory, World War II

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Varnum Continentals Contribute to RI Public School Curriculum

June 11, 2022 By James Mitchell Varnum

The Varnum Continentals will work with the RI Foundation, RI Historical Society, and the RI Black Heritage Society to introduce teachers to a new public school curriculum on the famed First Rhode Island Regiment of the Revolutionary War.

About the Varnum Continentals

The Varnum Continentals are committed to the preservation of the historic heritage of our community, our state, and our nation. Please take a virtual tour of our museums to learn more about our mission to encourage patriotism. You can participate with us through active membership and/or philanthropic support in our non-profit organization. Donations are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Museum tours are welcomed and our facilities may be rented for suitable events.

Our Mission

The Varnum Continentals are committed to encourage patriotism through the Varnum Armory Museum, the Continental Militia, and the James Mitchell Varnum House and thus to preserve, support, and communicate the military history of our community, our state, and our nation.

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