Battle of the Alamo

File:Independencia texas.jpg

Painting of the battle by an artist who was born later

The Battle of the Alamo took place in 1836 at the Alamo in what is now San Antonio, Texas, United States. Texas then belonged to Mexico, but many people wanted to have their own new country since they did not like Mexican rule. Over 100 of them, including former U.S. Representative Davy Crockett, were at the Alamo.

Under the Spanish Empire, the Alamo had been a mission like a church. The Mexican Army of several thousand arrived, led by General Antonio López de Santa Anna. For 13 days, the Mexican Army surrounded the Alamo, and it finally attacked on March 6, 1836. All 187 men from Texas were killed.

General Sam Houston felt that holding San Antonio was unnecessary and impossible. That made him send Jim Bowie with orders to destroy the Alamo and to return with all of the men and the artillery that were stationed there. Bowie went against his orders and failed to defend the city, which he had thought to be his duty.

Battle Of The Alamo Media

• Fall-of-the-alamo-gentilz 1844.jpg

  The Fall of the Alamo, painted by Theodore Gentilz in 1844, depicts the Alamo complex from the south. The Low Barracks, the chapel, and the wooden palisade connecting them are in the foreground.

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  James Bowie arrived at the Alamo Mission on January 19 with orders to destroy the complex. He instead became the garrison's co-commander.

• Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna 1852.jpg

  General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna led Mexican troops into Texas in 1836.

• William B. Travis became sole Texian commander at the Alamo on February 24.

• This plan of the Alamo was created by José Juan Sánchez Navarro in 1836. Places marked R and V denote Mexican cannon; position S indicates Cos's forces.

• The Fall of the Alamo (1903) by Robert Jenkins Onderdonk, depicts Davy Crockett wielding his rifle as a club against Mexican troops who have breached the walls of the mission.

• A knife purportedly carried by Davy Crockett during the Battle of the Alamo

• A sarcophagus in the San Fernando Cathedral that is purported to hold the ashes of the Alamo occupiers. Historians believe it is more likely that the ashes were buried near the Alamo.

• Detailed news of the battle sometimes took weeks to reach publication in the East, such as these April 9 columns in a Georgia newspaper.

• Alamo77dickinson.jpg

  Susanna Dickinson survived the Battle of the Alamo. Santa Anna sent her to spread word of the Texian defeat to the Texas colonists.