He received a league of land along the San Marcos River, where he started a blacksmith shop, and partnered with George C. Kimble in a hat factory.
[1] He then joined a band of volunteers going to defend San Antonio and became an aide to General Edward Burleson during the Siege of Bexar, with a rank of Lieutenant in the Texian Army.
A few weeks later, his home where Susannah and Angelina had remained was looted by members of a Texian Militia, prompting her to join him in San Antonio.
When Antonio López de Santa Anna and his troops arrived on February 23, 1836, Dickinson moved his family inside the Alamo.
This included Dickinson and others considered to be regular troops, as well as several bands of volunteers, led by frontiersmen James Bowie and Davy Crockett.
To provide cover, Dickinson and his men fired 8-lb cannon, filled with grapeshot and canister, at the Mexican soldiers in the huts.
After learning that a relief force under James Fannin had failed to reach the Alamo and that there was unlikely to be any further reinforcement, a group of 25 men set out from Gonzales at 2pm on Saturday, February 27.
The party would number 32 upon its arrival at the Alamo, and was led by Albert Martin and George Kimbell, the latter of whom had been Dickinson's business partner.
As they approached the Alamo in the early morning hours of March 1, a rider appeared in front of them and asked, in English, if they wished to go into the fort.
In the early morning hours of March 6, 1836, Santa Anna sent an assault force which breached the walls of the Alamo with its third charge.
By her own account afterward, near the end of the battle Dickinson rushed inside where she was hiding, frantically exclaiming "Great God, Sue!
With no time to reload, the Texians, including Dickinson, Gregorio Esparza, and James Bonham, grabbed rifles and fired before being bayoneted to death.
It is generally accepted that over the course of the battle, the Mexican forces lost an estimated 400 to 600 soldiers killed and wounded, while the Texian defenders suffered a total loss of between 182 and 257.