Post by Greg C. on Nov 20, 2007 16:54:07 GMT -5
JIMÉNEZ, DAMACIO (?-1836). Damacio (Damasio) Jiménez (Jimenes, Ximenes, Gimenes), Alamo defender, was a member of Col. Juan N. Seguín'sqv militia during the Texas Revolution.qv That he defended the Alamo was discovered in 1986, when a land petition was found that had been filed in the courts of Bexar County in 1861 by his surviving niece and nephew, Gertrudes and Juan Jiménez. Damacio was with Col. William B. Travisqv at Anahuac and was among those who helped bring an eighteen-pound cannon to Bexar in December 1835. This cannon was to become the centerpiece of the Alamo siege and the cannon with which Travis answered Mexican surrender terms on February 23, 1836. Jiménez is described as a resident of Texas who had been married and had one son who died in 1835. In 1861 Juan and Gertrudes Jiménez were designated as Damacio's sole heirs and legal representatives. As such, they petitioned for a first-class headright grant as promised by the Constitution of 1861.qv The Jiménez petition was supported by affidavits of Colonel Seguín and Cornelio Delgado. In his affidavit Seguín stated that Jiménez was one of his volunteer soldiers and that he had last seen Jiménez at the Alamo when Seguín himself left to serve as a messenger for Travis. Delgado was among those engaged in the burial of the dead after the battle of the Alamoqv on the morning of March 6, 1836, and he identified Jiménez's body among the fallen. The Jiménez petition was filed but never ruled on by the court because of failure to pay filing fees. Therefore, the heirs of Damacio Jiménez did not receive a grant of land. Consequently, the Jiménez petition, the only known record of Damacio Jiménez's sacrifice for Texas liberty, was stored in the Bexar County archives, where it remained until its discovery in 1986.