DEWALL, LEWIS (1812-1836). Lewis Dewall, Alamo defender, son of John Dewall, a New York City mason, was born in New York in 1812. By 1832 he lived at 51 Lewis Street in Manhattan, where he worked as an East River boatman. He left New York at a time when abolitionist riots and cholera epidemics were sweeping the city and immigrated to Texas. On October 26, 1835, he registered for a league of land on Harmon's Creek in Joseph Vehlein's colony; his name began to be recorded as Duel. His occupation in Texas is variously listed as blacksmith, plasterer, or mason. Dewall took part in the siege of Bexar and later served in the Alamo garrison as a member of Capt. Robert Whiteqv's infantry company, the Bexar Guards. Dewall died in the battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Daughters of the American Revolution, The Alamo Heroes and Their Revolutionary Ancestors (San Antonio, 1976 Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Muster Rolls of the Texas Revolution (Austin, 1986 Bill Groneman, Alamo Defenders (Austin: Eakin, 1990 John H. Jenkins, ed., The Papers of the Texas Revolution, 1835-1836 (10 vols., Austin: Presidial Press, 1973).
