Travis and Bonham / The Connection

by Wm. N. Bonham

William Barret Travis and James Butler Bonham, both natives of Edgefield District in South Carolina and erstwhile residents of Alabama, died in the Alamo in 1836. Travis had lived in Texas for nearly five years before the event, and Bonham only a few months.

It has long been part of the lore of the Alamo that Bonham, while living in Alabama, went to Texas in response to a letter from his boyhood friend, Travis, urging him to come. "These are stirring times in Texas; come take a part in it..." are the lines most often attributed to the letter.

Some historians characterize the story as merely a repetition of family mythology, and question whether such a letter was ever written. On the surface their skepticism seems well founded. At the time James Bonham went to Texas he was twenty eight years old. Having known Travis as a boy, he would not have seen him since the Travis family moved from South Carolina to Alabama in 1818. At that time Travis was nine, and Bonham was eleven. It is not likely that such young boys would have maintained a lifelong correspondence, and there certainly is no record of it. Moreover, no good explanation has ever been offered as to how Travis might otherwise have stayed in touch with Bonham, nor is there evidence that in the days leading up to the battle of the Alamo, Travis was anticipating the arrival in Texas of a lifelong friend.

Even so, the idea of a letter persists. More particularly, the story was recounted in an essay by a professor of history at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, Dr. Milledge Louis Bonham. Entitled James Butler Bonham - A Consistent Rebel, it was published in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly for October, 1931. Dr. Bonham's credentials as a prominent historian suggest that the story merits serious consideration.

Dr. Bonham was the grand nephew of James Butler Bonham, thus there was only one generation between them. His father was Milledge Lipscomb Bonham, a chief justice of the supreme court of South Carolina, and a man of impeccable reliability. Milledge Lipscomb had received a first hand account of the Travis letter from his father, Milledge Luke Bonham, James Butler Bonham's younger brother who in his day would command the 12'th Infantry Regiment in the Mexican war, and then go on to become a congressman, a general in the Confederacy, and governor of South Carolina.

But earlier in his life, about two years after the fall of the Alamo, Milledge Luke traveled to Texas to learn more about what had happened, and to settle his brother's affairs. During that visit, he met with Sam Houston as well as with Mrs. Dickinson, one of the survivors of the Alamo. It is a virtual certainty that any information he may have received from either of these people would not have shed light on any possible correspondence between Travis and James Butler Bonham. But the fact of Milledge Luke's having made the trip at all, is important in that it demonstrates a high level of interest in the events surrounding his brother's death, and suggests that those events would be indelibly etched in his memory.

Often overlooked is that just before leaving for Texas, James Butler had returned from Alabama to his home in South Carolina for a visit. At that time Milledge Luke helped him to get outfitted for his move to Texas. Milledge Luke reported that during that last visit, he sought to dissuade his brother from going, and in the course of their conversations learned of the message that James Butler had received from Travis.

Thus, the account of the connection between Travis and Bonham comes to us through a short chain of reliable sources; Milledge Luke, who had a first hand account directly from his brother; Milledge Lipscomb, whose life span overlapped significantly those of his father and his son; and Milledge Louis, who was a responsible historian. Such a close link to the event cannot be ignored, and certainly the story these men pass on does not deserve to be dismissed merely as family mythology.

Moreover, circumstances in the life of James Butler Bonham lend credence to his having received an invitation from Travis to come to Texas. All that is needed is a closer look.

When Will Travis and James were boys, their families attended the same church which was the center of social activity for the area, and it would have been difficult for the families not to have known each other. James was closer in age to Will than to any of his own brothers, and as a consequence it is not unlikely that he and Will spent a good deal of time together during their boyhood years.

With the passage of time, one of James' older brothers, Simeon Smith Bonham , became a lawyer and married Amanda Wardlaw of nearby Abbeville. In 1828 Simeon and Amanda moved to Wilcox County in Alabama and settled in a place about thirty miles from the town of Claiborne where the young Will Travis, having lived in Alabama for ten years, was beginning his law studies.

Simeon became interested in politics and most likely sought out, or at least met a local figure of great influence, James Dellet. Dellet, a prominent attorney and judge, had himself emigrated from South Carolina where he had been valedictorian of the class of 1810 at South Carolina College. It is also possible that Simeon's brother-in-law, Judge David Wardlaw of Abbeville, prominent in his own right, and valedictorian of the class of 1816 at South Carolina College, may have referred Simeon to Dellet.

Simeon would have soon discovered that a protégé of Judge Dellet's was none other than William Barret Travis, his brother's boyhood friend. So it was, that from the time Simeon arrived in 1828 until 1831 when Travis left for Texas in a cloud of mystery, both geographical proximity and mutual friends virtually assured that the paths of Simeon Bonham and Will Travis would cross.

In October, 1834, James Butler Bonham arrived in Montgomery from South Carolina. He had followed not only Simeon, but his older half-brother, John, and sister Julia and her family, all of whom had settled nearby. In fact, many people who had previously come to Alabama from South Carolina had settled in that part of the state, even naming one town Mount Willing, after the home place in Edgefield District of the Bonhams' maternal grandfather, Jacob Smith.

By the time James arrived in Montgomery, Travis had long since departed for Texas, but Simeon would have become a link between them. At the very least, both Travis and James Bonham would have learned of each other's whereabouts, and probably something of the paths their lives had taken since their boyhood days.

But there were also other opportunities for Will and James to come back in contact with each other. It is almost certain that soon after his arrival in Montgomery, James, possibly as a result of an introduction by Simeon, met and became friendly with A. C. Horton, a state representative from Greensboro, another community in southwestern Alabama. In April of 1835, Horton pulled up stakes and went to Texas. He settled there, but traveled back to Alabama in October to recruit volunteers for the revolution against Mexico. He was assisted in this effort by James Bonham, who in the interim had also decided for Texas. Indeed by the time Horton returned James had completed a farewell visit to South Carolina, and was in transit to Texas. But he stopped long enough in Alabama to help Horton recruit and organize a group of volunteers who called themselves the Mobile Greys, then departed forthwith for Texas. It is unlikely that James Bonham, who made the trip to Texas overland, would have included a detour to Mobile without some prearrangement with Horton.

And it is entirely possible, perhaps even probable, that Horton, when he first went to Texas, came in contact with Travis. It even may have been that it was Travis, well known for his interest in recruiting, who persuaded Horton to return to Alabama on the recruiting mission. And certainly there is the possibility that, through Horton, Travis contacted James, urging him to " ... come to Texas ..."

And there was Sam Maverick, recently arrived in Texas. He was from Pendleton, South Carolina, where he and his friend James Bonham had both practiced law. Sam and Travis are thought to have met each other, and if so, they may have reminisced about life back in Carolina. In that case Bonham's name well could have come up, yet another reminder serving to bring James back into the consciousness of Travis

It will never be known for sure exactly how it happened, but by one means or another, it seems there was ample opportunity for Travis to have learned that his boyhood friend was in Alabama, and been moved to contact him, touting the opportunities in Texas. And by the end of summer James would have been receptive, because by August, and after having been in Alabama less than a year, both of his brothers, Simeon and John had unexpectedly died! Sorrow and disappointment must have combined with a natural restlessness to make the idea of moving on to Texas seem a serious option. It was probably then that James decided to go. But first, he returned to South Carolina to console his family and to spend some time with them before embarking on his new life in a distant place.

Ever after, Milledge Luke reproached himself for not having persuaded James to remain in South Carolina, and his recollection of what his brother had told him about the message from Travis must have remained sharp and clear.

William Barret Travis and James Butler Bonham found a common destiny at the Alamo. They are forever bonded by it, and that bond is not diminished by the recognition that although they sprang from the same soil, there was no contact between them over most of their lives. Fate seems to have driven them both to Texas and to the Alamo where the camaraderie that had begun so many years before along the shores of Red Bank creek would come to full fruition.

This essay was first published in the Riding Line newsletter of the Texas State Historical Association - Summer 2000.