Battle of the Alamo
The Battle of the Alamo is one of America's defining moments. It happened over a period of a couple of weeks in late February and early March 1836, and centered on a small, almost defenseless, mission courtyard. The mission area is now a shrine. Here is the story…
Mission San Antonio de Valero (now known as The Alamo) was the first of six missions founded by Catholic missionaries along the San Antonio River in the early 1700s. The priests left towards the end of the century.
Then, at the end of the 18th century, Spanish soldiers used the mission church as a fort during Mexico’s fight for independence from Spain. The soldiers were from Alamo del Parras, so the locals began to call the fortified mission “The Alamo.” To make it into a fort, the soldiers reinforced the mission courtyard walls, but even so, they were less than 12 feet height, and enclosing almost 3 acres, this meant over 1300 feet of wall had to be defended.
But our story starts when, in the mid-nineteenth century, during the Texas Revolution, a small garrison of Texan soldiers were given the task of defending The Alamo against the Mexican army.
To understand why they were there, you need to know that, in the early 19th century, newly independent Mexico began inviting foreign (mostly American) immigrants to settle in Texas. As a result, by the end of the 1820s, Anglo-American immigrants outnumbered the Mexican population. When the government in Mexico City tried to remove them from Texas and regain control of the region, violence broke out between immigrants and those loyal to Mexico. Texicans, as they called themselves at that time, of both American and Mexican heritage, organized a rebellion in October 1835 to push out the Mexican government and form the independent Republic of Texas.
The Texican rebels arrived at The Alamo in December 1835, and held it until their defeat in March. In January, Mexican General Santa Anna marched north with thousands of soldiers, but the disorganized Texas government could not get enough reinforcements to help the Texican rebels at The Alamo in time to mount an effective resistance.
When he arrived on February 23, Santa Anna started a siege. It lasted 13 days, and he lost hundreds of men in the fighting because the fort's thick walls were relatively easy to defend even though there were just 187 Texican rebel men at The Alamo. However, at the end of the siege, all 187 Texicans were dead because Santa Anna would take no prisoners. Between five and seven Texicans may have surrendered; if so, they were quickly executed. Santa Anna's cruelty during the battle inspired many Texicans to join the Texas Army. Later, this Texas army won the war, and forced Santa Anna to concede Texas to the rebels.
Santa Anna called the Alamo mission an "irregular fortification hardly worthy of the name". This is because it had been designed to withstand an attack only by native tribes, not a cannon-equipped army. However, the former Mexican forces had left behind 19 cannon, which the Texican defenders installed along the walls, so making it more defensible.
James (Jim) Bowie arrived at the Alamo Mission on January 19 with orders to destroy the mission so that the Mexicans could not use it. Instead, believing the location was strategically important, he wrote back to his commander "we will rather die in these ditches than give it up to the enemy", and he took on the role of the garrison's co-commander.
A party of 30 extra men arrived, led by cavalry officer William Travis, the other co-commander. Then a small group of volunteers arrived, including frontiersman and former U.S. Congressman David (Davy) Crockett of Tennessee.
Few arrangements had been made for a potential siege, so although the mission had a well, it did not have food. One group of Texicans rushed to herd cattle into the Alamo, while others scrounged for food in the recently abandoned houses.
During the first week of the siege more than 200 Mexican army cannonballs landed in the Alamo plaza, but the defenses held. On March 4, now with reinforcements, Santa Anna decided to mount a dawn assault on the Alamo.
Legend holds that at some point on March 5, Travis gathered his men, and explained that an attack was imminent, and that they were greatly outnumbered by the Mexican Army. He supposedly drew a line in the ground and asked those willing to die for the Texas cause to cross and stand alongside him; only one man was said to have refused.
At 10 p.m. on March 5, the Mexican artillery stopped their bombardment. As Santa Anna had expected, in the apparent lull in fighting, the exhausted Texicans soon fell fast asleep.
At 5:30 a.m. Mexican troops silently advanced. The three Texican lookouts stationed outside the walls were killed in their sleep, allowing Mexican soldiers to approach undetected within musket range of the walls.
As the Mexican troops were now at the walls, Texicans were forced to lean over the walls to shoot, leaving themselves exposed to Mexican fire.
The Mexican soldiers closest to the north wall realized that the poorly-made wall had many gaps and toeholds, allowing the Mexican troops to swarm over the wall. Once over, they opened a small (postern) gate, allowing the whole army to enter.
The Mexican army now controlled all of the outer walls and the interior of the Alamo compound except for the church. The Mexican soldiers turned the Texan cannon towards the defended Texican barracks.
By 6:30 a.m. the battle for the Alamo was over. The Texican bodies were stacked and burned.
During the siege, newly elected delegates from across Texas met at the Convention of 1836. On March 2, the delegates declared independence, forming the Republic of Texas.
On the afternoon of April 21 the Texan army attacked Santa Anna's camp near Lynchburg Ferry. During the fighting, many of the Texan soldiers repeatedly cried "Remember the Alamo!" as they slaughtered fleeing Mexican troops. Santa Anna was forced to order his troops out of Texas.
The Alamo had been revenged.
