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Last week, the governor of Texas made the following press release:
AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry has appointed Lynwood Givens of Plano and reappointed Sharon Carr of Katy to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission for terms to expire Sept. 28, 2017. The commission provides informational, library, archival and records management services to government agencies and individuals.
Givens is a retired chief technology officer from the Raytheon Company, a consultant and investment analyst, and a published author. He is a member of the American Physical Society, Gideons International, and the Midwestern State University Board of Regents, and is a past member of the University of Texas at Dallas Research Advisory Board. Givens received a bachelor’s degree from Midwestern State University, and a master’s degree and Doctorate of Physics from the University of Texas.
I am pleased to be a part of this prestigious organization. The Texas State Library and Archives Commission is charged with assisting the state’s library programs, meeting the reading needs of the disabled, and preserving and providing access to Texas documents such as state records and genealogy. The letter that Colonel Travis wrote from the Alamo is one of the treasures maintained by the commission.
On February 24, 1836, during Santa Anna’s siege of the Alamo, Travis wrote a letter addressed “To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World“:
Fellow citizens and compatriots;
I am besieged, by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained a continual Bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours and have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken. I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily and will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country. Victory or Death.
William Barret Travis
Lt. Col. Comdt.
P.S. The Lord is on our side. When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn. We have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels and got into the walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves.
Travis