=l. 1.= =Houston= (Samuel, 1793-1863), a Virginian by birth, the commander-in-chief of the army of the Texas republic. He was the second president (first by regular election) of the Republic of Texas, and afterward United States senator and the governor of the State. =l. 4.= =Nueces=, a river of southern Texas emptying into Corpus Christi Bay. =l. 5.= =Castrillon=, a Mexican general (a Spaniard by birth) who was killed at San Jacinto, where he had command of the artillery. It was he who had charge of the assault on the Alamo. =Cos= (Martin Perfecto de), a Mexican general, and brother-in-law of Santa Anna. He was in command at San Antonio when the place was surrendered to the Texans in December, 1835. He was released upon parole under the promise that he would not oppose the re-establishment of the Federal Constitution of 1824. He returned with Santa Anna the following year, and participated in the attack upon the Alamo, hence the epithet “perjured.” =Sesmá= (Ramirez y), a Mexican general. =Almontê= (Juan Nepomunceno), the son of a Mexican priest and patriot. He was a colonel in the Mexican army, and Santa Anna’s secretary. He at one time served as the Mexican minister to the United States. He was an upholder of Maximilian and served in his cabinet. When that ill-fated prince fell, Almontê escaped to France, where he died two or three years later. =l. 6.= =Santa Anna= (Antonio Lopez de, 1795-1876), several times president of Mexico, and when not in power usually a conspirator against the head of the government. He was in command of the Mexican army in the war against the Texans, and again in the war with the United States. He served under Maximilian, and against him. No less than six times he was exiled, or fled the country. =l. 13.= =Travis= (William Barrett, 1811-1836), the colonel who commanded at the defence of the Alamo, by birth an Alabamian. He practiced law in his native State in his early manhood, but emigrated to Texas in 1832, and there became interested in the cause of independence. He was of fine stature, and noted for his intrepidity. =l. 16.= =Bowie= (James, 1790-1836), a Georgian who gained notoriety on account of his part in a bloody mêlée which followed a duel fought opposite Natchez, on the Mississippi, in August, 1827. It is said that it was in this encounter that the famous knife which afterward bore Bowie’s name was first used. The original weapon was made from a blacksmith’s broken rasp or file. Bowie emigrated from Louisiana, where he was living at the time of the duel, to Texas, and was active in the Texan struggle till his death. =l. 17.= =Evans= (Robert), a Texan major of artillery who was shot when on the point of firing a train to blow up the magazine of the Alamo at Travis’s order.