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This article is from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6 volumes, edited by William S. Powell. Copyright ©1979-1996 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

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Wright, Claiborne

by R. H. Detrick, 1996

1810–6 Mar. 1836

"Battle of the Alamo," artistic depiction by Percy Moran, 1912. Claiborne Wright fought in the defense of the Alamo and died when the Alamo fell to General Antonio Lopez. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Collection. Claiborne Wright, Alamo defender, was born in North Carolina, perhaps the son of Henrietta Claiborne (1754–1810) and William Wright (1752–1827), natives, respectively, of King William County and Fauquier County, Va., who moved to Surry County, N.C., in 1774. Young Claiborne Wright traveled to Texas, possibly to visit a family of the same name who lived at Pecan Point in Red River County. Eventually he settled in Gonzales, Tex., and enlisted as a private in the Texas army. On 29 February 1836 he accompanied a group of thirty-one other Gonzales residents to San Antonio de Bexar to aid in the defense of the Alamo. The force arrived at San Antonio on 1 March and entered the Alamo under the cover of darkness that night. Wright died five days later when the besieged Alamo fell to the armies of General Antonio López de Santa Anna.

On 25 June 1851 the state of Texas awarded Wright's heirs a bounty of 1,920 acres of public land "for his having fallen with Travis in the Alamo." In 1860 the acreage of the land grant was doubled.

References:

Robert F. Cole (Miami, Fla.) to Nathaniel C. Hale (Philadelphia), 10 Jan. 1956 (possession of Dr. Claiborne T. Smith, Ardmore, Pa.).

State of Texas, General Land Office Files (1851, 1860).

Lon Tinkle, The Alamo (1958).

Amelia W. Williams, "A Critical Study of the Seige of the Alamo and the Personnel of Its Defenders," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 37 (1933–34).

Additional Resources:

"Wright, Claiborne." Texas State Historical Association. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwr20 (accessed January 24, 2014).

Groneman, Bill.  "WRIGHT, CLAIBORNE," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwr20), accessed February 20, 2014. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

"Battle of the Alamo." Texas State Library and Archives Commission. https://www.tsl.texas.gov/treasures/republic/alamo-01.html (accessed February 20, 2014).

Image Credits:

Moran, Percy, 1862-1935, artist. "Battle of the Alamo / Percy Moran." Photograph. c1912. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/92515472/ (accessed February 20, 2014).

Subjects: 
Military personnel
Authors: 
Detrick, Robert H.
Origin - location: 
Surry County
From: 
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.

1 January 1996 | Detrick, Robert H.