Talk:Anthony Wolf

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I found this information about Wolf in books I'm currently reading for the Battle of the Alamo article. All of this is directly quoted material from the books listed

  • Todish, Timothy J.; Todish, Terry & Spring, Ted (1998), Alamo Sourcebook, 1836: A Comprehensive Guide to the Battle of the Alamo and the Texas Revolution, Austin, TX: Eakin Press, ISBN 9781571681522 

Page 88 NAME: Wolf, Anthony (Also shown as “Wolfe,” “Woolf,” & “Wollf”) AGE: 54 BIRTHPLACE: Popular tradition holds that he was born in England, but there is no solid evidence of this. RANK/MILITARY STATUS: Private; PV MILITARY SPECIALTY: CIVILIAN PROFESSION: Indian scout and interpreter COMMENTS: Member of Carey's artillery company. His two young sons were also killed in the final assault. One of the most misunderstood of all Alamo defenders; much of what has previously been written about him is now suspect.

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Wolf, Anthony (2/17/17823/6/1836)

Age: 54 years (Served as a Lieutenant of Infantry in the Louisiana Territorial Militia in 1806.)

Residence: Washington County, Texas

Rank: Private (artilleryman, Captain Carey's artillery company)

KIB

Anthony Wolf lived in the Louisiana-Texas territory before 1820.

On 9/15/1818 he was sent as an emissary to the Wichita Indians on the Brazos River, the first individual who would agree to do so. He returned to Natchitoches, Louisiana, in mid-January of 1819. 128


On 10/6/1822, Wolf relocated to Nacogdoches, Texas, and was introduced to Governor Tres Palacios by James Dill, who described Wolf as having been "[b]orn and raised a Spanish subject ¼" In Texas, Wolf continued to serve as an Indian agent and on 11/8/1822 was a member of an expedition to treat with the Cherokee Indians.129

Sometime prior to the Texas Revolution, Wolf went through a long illness. He convalesced in the home of John W. Hall at Washington-on-the-Brazos.130

Following the siege and battle of Bexar, he served as a member of Captain Carey's artillery company.131 He died in the battle of the Alamo on 3/6/1836.

In 1878 an Ohio journalist, Charles W. Evers, interviewed Susannah Hannig (nee Dickerson). Evers wrote, "She says that only one man, named Wolff, asked for quarter, but was instantly killed. The wretched man had two little boys, aged 11 and 12 years. The little fellows came to Mrs. Dickerson's room, where the Mexicans killed them and a man named Walker, and carried the boys bodies out on their bayonets."132

In 1841 Mary V. Tauzin (nee Durst), claiming to be


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Wolf's widow, filed for one league and labor of land due him for his service. The rear of the form is marked "Dec. 14 ¼ Public Lands ¼ unfavorable," indicating that she probably did not receive the claim. 133

Anthony Wolf is listed as the third husband of Mary V. Durst in the Durst family genealogy. Why she did not receive the land is unknown. The genealogy also lists them as having had a son, although it does not give a name.134

Also in 1841, an attorney, David S. Kaufman, was named as the administrator of Wolf's estate.135

His name has been given as "Wolfe," "Woolf," and "Wollf.

p283 France and Germany had each contributed a few volunteers. A twentyeight-year-old painter named Charles Zanco came all the way from Denmark with his widower father. Enlisting with the First Volunteers at Lynchburg, he had fabricated the company flag bearing a single star and the slogan, Independence. It may have been the first Lone Star flag, and perhaps it, too, had found its way to the Alamo.

During the siege of Bexar, Zanco had been assigned to the artillery, and so he, like McGregor, now served in Carey's company. So did Anthony Wolf, a fifty-four-year-old Indian scout said to have been born and raised a Spanish subject. Wolf may have attended the party, but he probably entrusted his two sons, only eleven and twelve years old, to the care of friendly Bexarenos.

p 371 only the defenders in the church remained. Its entrance was protected by a tall barricade, probably constructed of sandbags and set back inside the entrance to allow access at either side. The Texians firing over the barricade stalled the Mexicans massing outside.

Colonel Morales ordered the captured eighteen-pounder aimed at the barricade. The big gun boomed; the barricade collapsed. The Mexicans fired a volley and then shoved inside.

[Almeron] Dickinson was ready. The old church trembled as a cannon in the apse fired downward into the Mexicans charging through the door.

But there was no time to reload. More Mexicans emerged through the thick, choking cloud of smoke left in the wake of that blast. They trampled over their fallen comrades, up the artillery ramp. Dickinson, Gregorio Esparza, and the others discharged their rifles into the throng—and then died beneath the bayonets Bleeding from his wounds, Major Robert Evans crawled painfully toward one of the powder magazines, a torch in his fist. The thirty-sixyear-old Irishman served as master of ordnance, and it was his job to keep the powder from falling into enemy hands. A Mexican musket ball ended his effort.

Tejano Brigido Guerrero had had enough of this fight. He darted through the smoke into the dark sacristy where the women and children huddled in sheer terror. Jacob Walker, blood streaming from a wound, also sought refuge there. Mrs. Dickinson, seated on her cot in one corner, held little Angelina close. Ana Esparza crouched in another corner, Enrique and her other children clinging to her dress. Walker retreated to another dark corner, and thought again of his wife and four children.

Deafening flashes preceded the entry of the Mexican soldados. One of Anthony Wolf's young boys, seated against the wall near the door, rose to his feet and pulled his blanket across his shoulders. The soldados saw only a

p 372 shape in that dim light. They bayoneted him before the screams of women alerted them that noncombatants occupied the room.

From somewhere Anthony Wolf appeared. He grabbed his remaining son, ducked under the Mexican bayonets, and ran up the cannon ramp to the rear of the church where they were silhouetted in the dawning light. Soldados fired after them. Father and son toppled over the edge—dead before they hit the ground below

p 52 Regina Pierce presented the oral evidence for the following story. Pierce is a great-great-niece of Alamo defender Anthony Wolf. She heard stories about her famed ancestor from her uncle, Dave Wolf.

Opportunities were boundless in the Mexican province of Texas for pirate Jean Lafitte and his followers from New Orleans. Free from the watchful eye of the United States government, they could raid passing ships under a Mexican flag and reestablish their dominance in that coastal region.

Mexico was busy with a brewing revolution, thus leaving Lafitte and his motley crew of Baratarians to reign as they desired. So in 1817, a small fleet and a few of Lafitte's former men moved their operation to Galveston.51 Anthony Wolf was one of those men.52

Wolf had run with Lafitte in New Orleans. He was one of many to follow the famous buccaneer to Texas, where they

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smuggled booty and slaves back across the American border into Louisiana. Lafitte also sold slaves to Texas immigrants.

Lafitte's force was 1,000 strong before long.

The Galveston settlement offered a strange mix. Many of Lafitte's pirates brought along women— African-Americans, Native Americans, and a few white women. Some of the women were prostitutes from New Orleans. 53

Lafitte's stronghold in Galveston lasted until his departure in either 1820 or 1821.54 But in his wake he left a band of pirates, including Wolf. Their next great adventure would come in the spring of 1836.

When word of the Alamo's call for help against the onrushing Mexican Army reached Galveston, Wolf and other scalawags quickly responded. The hardy gang of pirates rode all-out to aid those entrapped at the Bexar mission.

Wolf was killed along with other Alamo defenders on March 6, 1836. Their bodies were unceremoniously piled on wood and burned. Since Wolf was the black sheep of the family, his relatives didn't talk much about him. Alamo survivor Susanna Dickinson did remember a man named "Wollf" in an 1878 interview with journalist Charles W. Evers of Ohio. Evers wrote, "She says that only one man, named Wolff, asked for quarter, but was instantly killed. The wretched man had two little boys, aged 11 and 12 years. The little fellows came to Mrs. Dickerson's (Dickinson's) room, where Mexicans killed them and a man named Walker, and carried the boys bodies out on their bayonets."55