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How did Davy Crockett die?

According to eyewitness accounts from Ramón Martínez Caro, Santa Anna’s personal secretary, and Colonel José Enrique de la Peña, a small number of Alamo defenders were captured alive and executed immediately after the battle on March 6, 1836. The earliest Texian accounts of the fall of the Alamo tell a similar story.

The identity of those Texians, however, is unclear. Some of the accounts name Crockett as one of the men, while others only describe an unnamed prisoner who could have been Crockett.

Ultimately, there’s no conclusive account of exactly how David Crockett died other than that it was as a result of defending the Alamo, but for some Texans, even the suggestion it was after the Alamo fell is deeply upsetting.

While his time in Texas was brief—less than three months—Davy Crockett looms large in the mythology of the state. The image of Crockett’s last moments, bloodied but still fighting, surrounded by a pile of his fallen enemies, is symbolic of the bravery and heroism that the Alamo has come to represent. For many Texans, this image and the story of the Alamo as a whole is part of what it means to be a Texan.

As a result, the idea that Crockett didn’t die fighting can feel like a criticism of Texas itself.

Of course, this isn’t true. Whether Crockett died defending the walls of the Alamo or immediately after they fell doesn’t change the fact that he died fighting for Texas’s freedom. This knife, taken from his body, however he died, serves as a reminder of why history still resonates so strongly with us today.