Historic Shrines of America Part 36

Dr. S. K. Axson, the grandfather of Ellen Axson, the first wife of President Woodrow Wilson, was pastor of the church from 1857 to 1889.

The Wilson marriage ceremony was performed by Dr. Axson in the manse of the church.

All Savannah mourned when, on April 6, 1889, firebrands tossed by the wind lodged on a cornice of the graceful steeple, too high to be reached. Soon the old church was in ruins. But the city resolved that the historic church must be restored. A new building was erected which is an exact reproduction of the former church. To it, as to its predecessors, ecclesiastical architects go on pilgrimage as a part of their education.

One of the old customs still continued in the church is the a.s.sembling of the communicants at a table which is laid the entire length of the broad aisle, as well as in the transept aisle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CABILDO, NEW ORLEANS, LA.

_Photo by Ph. B. Wallace_ See page 343]

LXXVIII

THE CABILDO OF NEW ORLEANS

WHICH SAW THE TRANSFER OF LOUISIANA TO THE UNITED STATES

When Count Alejandro O'Reilly, Irish Lieutenant-General of Spain, entered New Orleans on July 24, 1769, he came as the avenger of the disorders that followed the transfer of Louisiana to Spain by the Treaty of Paris. After putting to death some of the leaders in the revolt, he reorganized the civil government. Among other innovations he inst.i.tuted the Cabildo as the law-making body for the province, to take the place of the French superior council. The meeting place was a building on the Place d'Armes. In this square, on the coming of O'Reilly, the flag of France had been displaced by that of Spain as Aubrey said, "Gentlemen, by order of the King, my master, I absolve you from your oath of fidelity and obedience to his most Christian majesty." The Spanish and French officers then had gone together to the cathedral, next door to the meeting place of the Cabildo.

The original building occupied by the Cabildo was destroyed in the fire of 1788, when, in less than five hours, eight hundred and sixteen buildings were burned. The loss, amounting to three million dollars, was a blessing in disguise, for it cleared the ground for the reconstruction of the city under the leaders.h.i.+p of Don Andres Almonaster y Roxas, who was a member of the Cabildo. He had become rich since his arrival with the Spaniards, and he had a vision of a city glorified through his wealth.

First he built a schoolhouse, a church, and a hospital. On one side of the church he built a convent; on the other side he erected a new town hall, the Cabildo. The walls--which are as st.u.r.dy to-day as in 1795--are of brick, half the thickness of the ordinary brick. Sh.e.l.l lime was used for the mortar. Originally the Cabildo was two stories in height, with a flat roof; the mansard roof was added in 1851. At the same time the open arches of the second story loggia that corresponded to the arcade on the ground floor were closed, that there might be more room for offices.

For eight years more the Cabildo continued its sessions under Spanish rule. Then came the news that Louisiana had been transferred by Spain to France. Great preparations were made for the ceremonies that were to accompany the lowering of the Spanish flag and the raising of the French colors in the square before the Cabildo. Then the prefect Laussat was thunderstruck by the coming of word that Napoleon had appointed a Commission not only to receive the colony from Spain but also to give it into the hands of the United States, to whom the vast territory had been sold.

The first transfer took place on November 30, 1803. The official doc.u.ment was signed in the Sala Capitular, the hall where the Cabildo met, and was read from the centre gallery. Then the tricolor of France replaced the flag of Spain.

December 20, 1803, was the date of the transfer to the United States.

The American Commission met the French Commission in the Sala Capitular of the Hotel de Ville, or City Hall, as the French called the Cabildo. Governor Claiborne received the keys of the city, and the tricolor on the flagstaff gave way to the Stars and Stripes. A vast company of citizens watched the ceremonies, listened to the addresses, and looked at the American troops in the square, as well as at the French soldiers who were to have no further power in the province.

Grace King, in "New Orleans, the Place and the People," tells what followed:

"When, twenty-one days before, the French flag was flung to the breeze, for its last brief reign in Louisiana, a band of fifty old soldiers formed themselves into a guard of honor, which was to act as a kind of death watch to their national colors. They stood now at the foot of the staff and received in their arms the Tricolor as it descended, and while the Americans were rending the air with their shouts, they marched silently away, their sergeant bearing it at their head. All uncovered before it; the American troops, as they pa.s.sed, presented arms to it. It was carried to the government house, and left in the hands of Laussat."

During the years since that momentous transfer the Cabildo has continued to be the centre of historical interest in New Orleans. In 1825 Lafayette was quartered here. In 1901 President McKinley was received in the building. In 1903 the Centennial of the Louisiana Purchase was observed in the Sala Capitular, which had been for many years the meeting place of the State Supreme Court. The great hall is almost as it was when the Cabildo of Don Almonaster met there.

Since 1910 the Cabildo, in common with the Presbytere, the old Civil District Court, a building of nearly the same age and appearance, located on the other side of the Cathedral, has been the Louisiana State Museum. The curios are shown in a large hall on the ground floor. Among these is the flag used by General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans.

From this hall of relics a door leads to a courtyard, which is lined by tiers of gloomy cells. Stocks and other reminders of the old Spanish days are in evidence.

The old Place d'Armes is now called Jackson Square. On either side are the Pontalba buildings, which were erected by the daughter of Don Andres Almonaster y Roxas, who inherited millions from her generous father. On the spot where the Stars and Stripes were raised in 1803 is the statue to General Jackson, the victor of the battle of New Orleans, to which the same public-spirited woman was a large contributor.

The tomb of Don Andres is shown in the Cathedral he gave to the people, by the side of the Cabildo which he built for the city he loved.

LXXIX

THE ALAMO, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

"THERMOPYLae HAD HER MESSENGER OF DEFEAT: THE ALAMO HAD NONE"

Early in the eighteenth century the Spaniards built in Texas, then a part of Mexico, a number of staunch structures that were designed to serve not only as chapels but also as fortresses. The mission that at length became known as the Alamo was first built on the Rio Grande in 1710, and during the next forty-seven years was rebuilt four times in a new location, before it was given a final resting-place at San Antonio, on the banks of the Alazan River. There it was called Alamo, or Poplar Church. Though the Alamo was begun in 1744, it was not completed until 1757.

For nearly eighty years there was nothing specially notable about the building. Then came the events that made the name famous.

In 1832 Sam Houston was sent to Texas by President Jackson to arrange treaties with the Indians for the protection of settlers on the border. Just at this time settlers in Texas, which was then a part of the state of Coahuila, were seeking equal privileges with the other Mexican states. Most of the settlers had come from the United States, and they hoped that in time Texas might become a part of that country.

On February 13, 1833, Houston wrote to President Jackson that the time was ripe for getting hold of the country. Less than three months later he was asked to serve as a delegate to a const.i.tutional convention, which demanded from Mexico the organization of the territory into states, and was made the chairman of the committee which drew up for the proposed states a const.i.tution based on that of the United States.

Stephen F. Austin, who has been called "The Father of Texas," went to Mexico City with the pet.i.tion. But he was imprisoned, and the request of Texas was denied by Santa Anna, president of Mexico.

Later, when the colonists attempted to defend themselves against the Indians and other lawbreakers, the demand was made that they give up their arms.

The organization of a provincial government followed in 1834, and Houston was chosen commander-in-chief of the army. The brief war with Mexico was marked by a number of heroic events, chief of which was the defence of the Alamo, where a small force of Texans resisted more than ten times the number of Mexicans.

When the army of Santa Anna approached San Antonio, on February 22, 1836, one hundred and forty-five men, under the leaders.h.i.+p of Colonel James Bowie and Lieutenant-Colonel William B. Travis, retired within the church fortress. For nearly two weeks these heroic men defended themselves, and the enemy did not gain entrance until every one of them was killed.

The details of the heroic struggle were not known until 1860, when Captain R. M. Potter printed an account in the San Antonio _Herald_, in which he had patiently pieced together the reports that came to him through those whom he regarded most dependable among the besiegers, and from one who was an officer in the garrison until within a few days of the a.s.sault.

Within the walls a well had been dug on the very day the Mexican Army entered the town. Thus a plentiful supply of water supplemented the store of meat and corn for the defenders.

A message sent out by Colonel Travis on the night of March 3 told of the events of the first days of the siege:

"With a hundred and forty-five men I have held this place ten days against a force variously estimated from 1,500 to 6,000, and I shall continue to hold it till I get relief from my countrymen, or I will perish in the attempt. We have had a shower of bombs and cannon-b.a.l.l.s continually falling among us the whole time, yet none of us have fallen."

Santa Anna led a final a.s.sault on March 6. Scaling ladders, axes, and fascines were to be in the hands of designated men. Five columns were to approach the wall just at daybreak.

At the first onset Colonel Travis was killed and breaches were made in the walls. The outer walls and batteries were abandoned, and the defenders retired to the different rooms within.

"From the doors, windows, and loopholes of the several rooms around the area the crack of the rifle and the hiss of the bullet came fierce and fast; as fast the enemy fell and recoiled in his first efforts to charge. The gun beside which Travis fell was now turned against the buildings, as were also some others, and shot after shot was sent cras.h.i.+ng through the doors and barricades of the several rooms. Each ball was followed by a storm of musketry and a charge; and thus room after room was carried at the point of the bayonet, when all within them had died fighting to the last. The struggle was made up of a number of separate and desperate combats, often hand to hand, between squads of the garrison and bodies of the enemy. The bloodiest spot about the fort was the long barrack and the ground in front of it, where the enemy fell in heaps."

David Crockett was among those who were killed in one of the rooms. He had joined the defenders a few days before the beginning of the siege.

The chapel was the last point taken. "Once the enemy in possession of the large area, the guns could be turned to fire into the door of the church, only from fifty to a hundred yards off. The inmates of the last stronghold fought to the last, and continued to fire down from the upper works after the enemy occupied the floor. Towards the close of the struggle Lieutenant d.i.c.kenson, with his child in his arms, or, as some accounts say, tied to his back, leaped from the east embrasure of the chapel, and both were shot in the act. Of those he left behind him the bayonet soon gleaned what the bullet had left; and in the upper part of that edifice the last defender must have fallen."

This final a.s.sault lasted only thirty minutes. In that time the defenders of Texas won immortal fame. Four days before, the Republic of Texas had been proclaimed. Those who fell in the Alamo were hailed the heroes of the struggle. "Remember the Alamo!" was the battle cry of the war for independence that was waged until the Mexican Army was routed at San Jacinto, April 21, 1836.

On the capitol grounds at Austin, Texas, stands a monument to the heroes of the Alamo, with the inscription: "Thermopylae had her messenger of defeat; the Alamo had none."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE HERMITAGE, NASHVILLE, TENN.

_Photo by Wiles, Nashville_ See page 351]

Lx.x.x

THE HERMITAGE, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

ANDREW JACKSON'S RETREAT IN THE INTERVALS OF HIS PUBLIC SERVICE

Andrew Jackson was a pioneer. From North Carolina he crossed the mountains to what was then the Western District. He was a lawyer, but he wanted to be a farmer also. His first land purchase was made in 1791. This land was lost in the effort to pay the debts of another.