This Day in History

March 6, 1836

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Fall of the Alamo

Last Week's "This Day in History" featured the story of how Texas was annexed to the United States. What made this annexation possible was a revolution, nine years earlier, by Texans (or "Texians," as they were then called) against Mexico. Probably the most famous event of this revolution was the defense of the Alamo in San Antonio and its conquest by Mexican forces commanded by General Antonio López de Santa Anna, the president of Mexico. The following account of the fall of the Alamo comes from our high school textbook (currently available only as an e-book), Lands of Hope and Promise: A History of North America. For ordering information on this text and on our other books, please click here.

Santa Anna

In his latest transformation -- into a conservative dictator --Santa Anna had decided that he had to do something about Texas. Liberalism was triumphant there. The laws were not being observed. Anglo-Americans, like a barbarian horde (that's how the Mexicans saw them), were crossing the border illegally. To remedy the situation, Santa Anna sent an army under General Martín Perfecto de Cos north to enforce obedience to the law. Learning of Santa Anna's plans from Lorenzo de Zavala, who had gone north to warn the Texians of the general's approach, Stephen Austin, now released from imprisonment, called on Texians to take up arms, and Sam Houston was made general of a Texian army. In early October 1835, Cos arrived with 1,200 troops at San Antonio de Bexár; he fortified the city, including the old Franciscan mission church, San Antonio de Valero, known as the Alamo. Throughout October and November, armed Texians and some Tejanos arrived at San Antonio de Béxar and lay siege to the city.

On December 4, Texian colonel Benjamin R. Milam gathered the Texian army and, the next day, assaulted Cos' position in the city. For five days battle raged as the Texians pushed their way into San Antonio. Finally, on December 10, Cos surrendered. The Texians occupied the city and fortified the Alamo.

Illustration of the Alamo, from 1854

Santa Anna had had second thoughts after he sent Cos to Texas; El Benemerito de la Patria decided that he wanted the glory of crushing the Texian revolution for himself. Establishing his headquarters at San Luis Potosí, about 260 miles northwest of Mexico City, Santa Anna impressed Indians and other "recruits" -- men who had known nothing of army service before -- until he had built up a sizable force. The government had no money to finance an army, so Santa Anna took out loans at ruinous interest rates. He manufactured munitions and requisitioned horses and carts. Whipping the men into some semblance of discipline, Santa Anna drove them north across the deserts of Coahuila, toward Texas.

Those who know nothing of deserts may not understand how bitterly cold they can be in winter. Both men and animals in Santa Anna's army suffered terribly from the cold, hunger, and from disease. Still, the ever implacable Hero of Tampico forced them on until, having left behind many dead, the Mexican army stood, half starved, outside the walls of the Alamo.

An illustration, allegedly,
 of William Travis,
 drawn during his lifetime.
Its authenticity is disputed.

Meanwhile, the Texians at the Alamo were quarreling over how to conduct the war and changed their commander almost daily. The garrison, numbering only about 150 men, eventually fell to the command of 27-year-old William Barrett Travis. Born in South Carolina, Travis had spent many years in Alabama, where he had become a lawyer and a Mason. Abandoning his wife, son, and unborn daughter, Travis went to Texas in 1831, where he set up a law practice and joined those who were conspiring for independence from Mexico. Houston had ordered Travis to evacuate the Alamo, but he was determined to remain. He ordered the fortification of the mission to prepare for the assault he knew would come.

James Bowie

Defending the Alamo with Travis were both Texians and Tejanos-- among them the frontiersman David Crockett and James Bowie, famous for his long hunting knife. Bowie had come to Texas in 1830. Before that, both he and his brother, Rezin (pronounced like reason), had engaged in illegal slave smuggling in Louisiana (the pirate, Jean Lafitte, was their supplier) and in land speculation. Shortly after coming to Texas, James Bowie was baptized a Catholic and married into a prominent San Antonio family. Over the next few years he gambled, engaged in land speculation, and earned the ill will of Stephen Austin, who thought him a charlatan. Bowie, though, had distinguished himself as a brave leader in the battle of Béxar against General Cos.

David Crockett

David Crockett was a latecomer to Texas, having arrived at the lag end of 1835. Already a legendary frontiersman, Crockett had fought in the Creek Wars and had served in Congress as a representative from Tennessee, where he distinguished himself as an opponent of Jackson's Indian removal policy. When in 1835 he lost his congressional seat to a Jackson man with a peg-leg, Crockett told friends, "Since you have chosen to elect a man with a timber toe to succeed me, you may all go to hell and I will go to Texas." And to Texas he went, arriving just in time to join Colonel Travis at the Alamo.

On February 23, 1836, Santa Anna with 3,000 ragged troops laid siege to the 150 defenders of the Alamo. For two weeks, Travis refused to surrender. Finally, in the early hours of March 6, Santa Anna ordered the trumpeter to sound the deguello -- the ancient signal used in the Spanish wars against the Moors, signifying "take no prisoners." The assault began. Travis died early on in the battle, with a single bullet through the head. Bowie, whom sickness had confined to bed, had his skull shattered by six bullets. Almost all the defenders died within a few hours, and Santa Anna commanded that those who had been captured must be shot. It is uncertain what happened to David Crockett. One account by an eyewitness, the Mexican officer Jose Enrique de la Peña, says that Crockett was among the captured. De la Peña continues that, after his plea for his life was refused, Crockett was bayoneted and then shot. He died bravely, without complaint.

An Old Song of Anglo-America

"Barbry Allen," as sung by Jean Ritchie. This song was likely familiar to the Anglo settlers of Texas. 

Jean Ritchie--"Barbry Allen"