FUENTES, ANTONIO (1813-1836). Antonio Fuentes, Alamo defender, was born at San Antonio de Béxar, Texas, in 1813. He was one of a group of native Texans recruited by Juan N. Seguín for six months' service during the Texas Revolution. He took part in the siege of Bexar as a member of Seguín's company. Fuentes figured in the rift that occurred between William B. Travis and James Bowie just before the siege of the Alamo. He had been found guilty of theft by a jury that included both Travis and Bowie and had been sentenced to jail by Seguín, who acted as judge. When Bowie was elected commander of the volunteers among the troops at Bexar, he got drunk and freed the prisoners. Fuentes was ordered back to jail by Seguín, but at the arrival of the Mexican troops on February 23, 1836, he entered the Alamo with the rest of Seguín's command. He 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). 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).

Bill Groneman