Remember the Alamo!

This Entry is for Karla - A Side Trip to Texas


Originally named Misión San Antonio de Valero, the Alamo served as church and home to missionaries and their Indian converts for nearly seventy years. Its construction began in 1724.

In the early 1800s, the Spanish military stationed a cavalry unit at the former mission. The soldiers referred to the old mission as the Alamo (the Spanish word for "cottonwood") in honor of their hometown in Mexico. The post's commander established the first hospital in Texas in the Long Barrack. The military — Spanish, Rebel, and then Mexican — continued to occupy the Alamo until the Texas Revolution.

San Antonio and the Alamo played a critical role in the Texas Revolution. In December 1835, Ben Milam led Texan and Tejano volunteers against Mexican troops quartered in the city and when victorious, took over and strengthened its defenses, primarily the Alamo buildings.

On February 23, 1836, the arrival of General Antonio López de Santa Anna's Mexican Army outside San Antonio nearly caught them by surprise. The defenders held out for 13 days against Santa Anna's army. William B. Travis, the commander of the Alamo sent forth couriers carrying pleas for help to communities in Texas. On the eighth day of the siege, a band of 32 volunteers from Gonzales arrived, bringing the number of defenders to nearly two hundred.

As the defenders saw it, the Alamo was the key to the defense of Texas, and they were ready to give their lives rather than surrender their position to General Santa Anna. Among the Alamo's garrison were Jim Bowie, renowned knife fighter, and David Crockett, famed frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee.


The final assault came before daybreak on the morning of March 6, 1836, as columns of Mexican soldiers emerged from the predawn darkness and headed for the Alamo's walls. Cannon and small arms fire from inside the Alamo beat back several attacks. Regrouping, the Mexicans scaled the walls and rushed into the compound. Once inside, they turned a captured cannon on the Long Barrack and church, blasting open the barricaded doors. The desperate struggle continued until the defenders were overwhelmed. By sunrise, the battle had ended and Santa Anna entered the Alamo.

Nearly all of the Texans under arms inside the fort were killed in the March 6, 1836, attack. However, almost twenty women and children were spared and allowed to return to their homes.

The Republic of Texas adopted a Declaration of Independence (from Mexico) on March 2, 1836.

Texas, the Lone Star State, became the 28th state on December 29, 1845.

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