Alamo

Know this topic well? Help others and get FREE products!

In the late 1820s and early 1830s, hundreds of Americans and Europeans flooded into the northern province of Mexico, known as Tejas (Texas). The American-born colonists, clinging to the political beliefs they had grown up with in the United States, along with many Tejas-born Mexicans, or Tejanos, openly opposed any form of government that was not democratic in principle and application. Armed hostilities broke out in late 1835 between the people of Texas and the soldiers of the Mexican dictator, General Antonio López de Santa Anna, who were stationed throughout the province. Santa Anna began to raise a massive army in Mexico City to put down the rebellion.

A ragtag army made up of Texas colonists, volunteers from the United States, and Tejanos attacked and defeated the Mexican military garrison at San Antonio de Bexar in December 1835, expelling the soldiers from both the town and the nearby San Antonio de Valero mission, popularly known as the Alamo. At the same time, Santa Anna was driving his army north from Mexico City through an unusually cold winter, intent on crushing this opposition.

The Alamo was a sprawling three-acre compound of stone and adobe whose size and shape made it unsuitable as a fort. Colonel William Barret Travis, a former lawyer, and Colonel James Bowie, known for his adventures and the knife that bore his name, shared command of the small Alamo garrison. Both were determined to defend it against all odds. Among the American volunteers who joined the garrison was David Crockett, former congressman from Tennessee. Santa Anna and advance elements of his army marched into San Antonio on February 23, 1836, and immediately began a siege and continuous

artillery bombardment of the Alamo. Bowie fell gravely ill on the first day of the siege, and sole command of the garrison rested with Travis from that day on.

The siege and bombardment of the Alamo continued for twelve days, with additional units of the Mexican army arriving to reinforce the advance troops. Some Texan reinforcements managed to sneak into the Alamo to aid the beleaguered garrison, but Travis's messages for help went largely unanswered. Santa Anna attacked the Alamo on March 6, 1836, in a predawn assault that he hoped would catch the exhausted defenders unprepared. Just before dawn, sixteen hundred Mexican soldiers attacked from all four sides. The defenders, numbering just over two hundred, beat back two attacks, but a third assault breached the north wall and Mexican soldiers poured into the Alamo. The soldiers moved through the compound killing the garrison's defenders in hand-to-hand fighting. Within ninety minutes, all the defenders were dead and the battle was over. Their bodies were burned without ceremony.

Texas won its independence from Mexico on April 21, 1836, when the army of Texas, under the command of General Sam Houston, attacked Santa Anna's camp at San Jacinto while the Mexican soldiers were resting. The Mexican army had pursued the retreating Texas army for weeks following the battle of the Alamo, and Santa Anna had moved ahead of his main body of troops with a small force of twelve hundred men in an effort to cut off Houston's escape. Houston attacked with less than eight hundred men, routing the Mexican forces and capturing Santa Anna. The Texas battle cry that day was "Remember the Alamo!" As a condition of his immediate safety and eventual release, Santa Anna ordered the entire Mexican army out of Texas and officially recognized it as a free, independent republic.

From 1836 to 1845, the Republic of Texas was the fourth country on the North American continent, along with the United States, Canada, and Mexico. But an ongoing border dispute with Mexico over ownership of lands north of the Rio Grande continued even after Texas was granted statehood in the United States in 1845. In 1846, units of the U.S. army built a fort just north of the Rio Grande, prompting a Mexican army south of the river to cross over and attack a force they considered armed invaders of their territory. A war between the United States and Mexico ensued.

The battle at the Alamo invigorated Americans' determination to achieve independence for Texas, and this ultimately led to the creation of the Republic of Texas, which in turn intensified the settlers' desire to become part of the United States and fostered a major debate over the future of Texas and those Mexican lands situated above the Rio Grande. The resulting concerns led to the Mexican War of 1846, the Compromise of 1850, and the debate over slavery in the territories—all of which contributed to the events leading to the Civil War (1861–1865).

Through the years, however, the battle of the Alamo has been remembered less for its remote link to the coming Civil War than for its battle cry. "Remember the Alamo" has come to symbolize Americans taking a stand for what they believe in and struggling against overwhelming odds for a cause or ideal. The battle cry has become a feature of American identity and the battle itself an icon of American popular culture, illustrating the mythic heroism of ordinary people.

Texas, Republic Of.

Chemerka, William R. Alamo Almanac and Book of Lists. Austin, TX: Eakin, 1997.

Edmondson, J. R. The Alamo Story: From Early History to Current Conflicts. Plano: Republic of Texas Press, 2000.

Timanus, Rod. An Illustrated History of Texas Forts. Plano: Republic of Texas Press, 2001.

This is the complete article, containing 911 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).