Albert Martin was born 1808 in Rhode Island and died March 6, 1836 defending the Alamo. He arrived in Gonzales, Texas in 1835 and ran a general store. At the outbreak of the Texas revolution, he was one of the “Old Eighteen,” defenders of the Gonzales “Come and Take It” cannon. He served as a officer and was part of the Texas force that besieged San Antonio de Béxar in the autumn of 1835. By December 19, 1835, he was back in Gonzales recovering from a foot injury and returned to Bexar sometime before the Alamo siege. On February 23, 1836, the first day of the siege, he was sent by Lieutenant Colonel William B. Travis as an emissary to the Mexican force. He met General Antonio López de Santa Anna’s adjutant, Colonel Juan N. Almonte, who rejected Martin’s invitation to come to the Alamo and speak directly to Travis. On the following day, he left the Alamo carrying Travis’s famous letter “To the People of Texas.” He passed the message to Lancelot Smither in Gonzales, returned to the Alamo with the relief force from Gonzales, arrived on March 1, 1836 and died five days later in the battle of the Alamo.
Handbook of Texas Online
findagrave memorial by John “J-Cat” Griffith
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