Antoine married Louise de Saix and emigrated to the Kingdom of Ireland with her, changing the family name to Crockett.

[8] Their son Joseph Louis[8] was born and raised in Ireland, possibly being born, according to local tradition, near either Castlederg or Donemana, both villages in the northwest of County Tyrone in the west of Ulster; Joseph Louis Crockett later married Sarah Stewart, who was also from west Ulster, she being an Ulster-Scot from just outside the village of Manorcunningham in the Laggan district in the east of County Donegal.

[14] He was away as a militia volunteer in 1777 when his parents David and Elizabeth were killed at their home near modern Rogersville by Creeks and Chickamauga Cherokees led by war chief Dragging Canoe.

[21] Crockett's English ancestry comes from his mother Rebecca Hawkins, as the earliest ancestor arrived in Gloucester County, Virginia in 1658.

[26] John sold that tract of land in 1794 and moved the family to Cove Creek, where he built a gristmill with partner Thomas Galbraith.

[47] The newlyweds settled on land near Polly's parents, and their first child, John Wesley Crockett, who became a United States Congressman,[48] was born July 10, 1807.

[80] They served under Colonel John Coffee in the war, marching south into present-day Alabama and taking an active part in the fighting.

[89] On March 27, 1818, he was elected lieutenant colonel of the Fifty-seventh Regiment of Tennessee Militia, defeating candidate Daniel Matthews for the position.

[97] Crockett spent his entire legislative career fighting for the rights of impoverished settlers who he felt dangled on the precipice of losing title to their land due to the state's complicated system of grants.

[102] In 1823, he ran against Andrew Jackson's nephew-in-law William Edward Butler[103] and won a seat in the General Assembly representing the counties of Carroll, Humphreys, Perry, Henderson and Madison.

[114] On February 25, 1830, he introduced a resolution to abolish the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York[118] because he felt that it was public money going to benefit the sons of wealthy men.

[125] During his last term in Congress, he collaborated with Kentucky Congressman Thomas Chilton to write his autobiography, which was published by E. L. Carey and A. Hart in 1834 as A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, Written by Himself,[126] and he went east to promote the book.

In 1836, newspapers published the now-famous quotation attributed to Crockett upon his return to his home state: I told the people of my district that I would serve them as faithfully as I had done; but if not, they might go to hell, and I would go to Texas.

[128][129] By December 1834, Crockett was writing to friends about moving to Texas if Jackson's chosen successor Martin Van Buren was elected president.

The next year, he discussed with his friend Benjamin McCulloch raising a company of volunteers to take to Texas in the expectation that a revolution was imminent.

[131] His youngest child Matilda later wrote that she distinctly remembered the last time that she saw her father: He was dressed in his hunting suit, wearing a coonskin cap, and carried a fine rifle presented to him by friends in Philadelphia. ...

[132]Crockett traveled with 30 well-armed men to Jackson, Tennessee, where he gave a speech from the steps of the Madison County courthouse, and they arrived in Little Rock, Arkansas, on November 12, 1835.

The local newspapers reported that hundreds of people swarmed into town to get a look at Crockett, and a group of leading citizens put on a dinner in his honor that night at the Jeffries Hotel.

On February 25, 200–300 Mexican soldiers crossed the San Antonio River and took cover in abandoned shacks approximately 90 to 100 yards (82 to 91 m) from the Alamo walls.

[145] Historian Walter Lord speculates that the Texians were creating a diversion to allow their courier John Smith to evade Mexican pickets.

[145] However, Alamo survivor Susannah Dickinson said in 1876 that Travis sent out three men shortly after dark on March 3, probably a response to the arrival of Mexican reinforcements.

[146] Lindley states that Crockett and one of the other men found the force of Texians waiting along Cibolo Creek just before midnight; they had advanced to within 20 miles (32 km) of the Alamo.

[148] The Mexican soldiers climbed up the north outer walls of the Alamo complex, and most of the Texians fell back to the barracks and the chapel, as previously planned.

They defended the low wall in front of the church, using their rifles as clubs and relying on knives, as the action was too furious to allow reloading.

Santa Anna ordered his men to take their bodies to a nearby stand of trees, where they were stacked together and wood piled on top.

[157] The popular mythology of Crockett's death in American culture is one of a heroic last stand, a tale that is backed up by some historical evidence.

[158] There is, however, historical evidence countering the popular myth, with stories of a Crockett surrender and execution circulating as far back as just a few weeks after the battle.

[162] Longtime John Wayne enthusiast Joseph Musso [163] also questioned the validity of de la Peña's diary, basing his suspicions on the timing of the diary's release, and the fact that historical interest in the topic rose around the same time as the Walt Disney mini-series Davy Crockett was released in 1955.

[157] Furthermore, no other officer under Santa Anna's command mentions Crockett's surrender, not even his personal secretary Ramon Caro.

Later in life, Santa Anna wrote a memoir only stating that Davy Crockett's body was "among the corpses" without giving context to how he died.