David Crockett

Perhaps no other figure in American history is more shrouded in myth and legend than David ("Davy") Crockett, the Tennessee frontiersman whose death at the Alamo in 1836 ensured his place in the Valhalla of American heroes. Crockett himself was responsible for much of the folklore about his life. A gregarious, fun-loving man, he was more than capable of spinning tall tales over a "horn" of liquor. But in truth David Crockett was a true self-made man who left home at the age of twelve. His adventures, hunting and exploring, serving as a soldier under Andrew Jackson in the Creek Indian War of 1813, a political career that took him to the United States Congress, and incessant search for "elbow room" that drew him to Texas, these were the real fabric of a heroic life. Crockett’s reputation and heroism have been tainted by revisionist historians, but David Crockett was a true hero exemplified in new evidence that the Tennessean actually left the Alamo during the siege to bring back reinforcements, but when he was safely outside the walls, he fought his way back in to rejoin his friends for the final, fatal, battle.