Alamo
The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event and military engagement in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna reclaimed the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar (now San Antonio). About one hundred Texians had been garrisoned at the mission, and they were supplemented by around a hundred subsequent reinforcements, led by eventual Alamo co-commanders James Bowie and William B. Travis. On February 23, approximately 1,500 Mexicans marched into San Antonio de Béxar as the first step in a campaign to retake Texas. In the early morning hours of March 6, the Mexican Army advanced on the Alamo. After repelling two attacks, the Texians were unable to fend off a third attack. As Mexican soldiers scaled the walls, most of the Texian fighters withdrew into interior buildings. On the basis of “perhaps" ten sources, William C. Davis posits three separate escapes of Texian combatants from the Alamo, consisting of perhaps 80 men. Phillip Thomas Tucker also sees three discrete Texian escapes, totaling as many as 120 men. Nearly all Texian combatants were killed. Those who fled outside the walls were dispatched by Mexican lancers, who had been positioned there for that purpose.
Several noncombatants were sent to Gonzales to spread word of the Texian defeat. The news sparked both a strong rush to join the Texian army and a panic, known as "The Runaway Scrape", in which the Texian army, most settlers, and the government of the new, self-proclaimed but officially unrecognized Republic of Texas fled eastward toward the U.S. ahead of the advancing Mexican Army. Santa Anna's execution of surrendering soldiers during the battle inspired many Texians and Tejanos to join the Texian Army. The Texians defeated the portion of the Mexican Army led by Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto, on April 21, 1836. The capture of Santa Anna ended the war. Hardin notes that the Texians "could scarcely believe that enemy troops, the majority of whom had never known defeat in Texas, would complacently obey the orders of a captured commander." The cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal to Mexico of the divided forces led by other Mexican generals guaranteed the survival of the Republic of Texas.
Within Mexico, the battle has often been overshadowed by events from the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848. The Alamo complex gradually became known as a battle site rather than a former mission. The Texas Legislature purchased land and the long barracks building (the former convento) in the early part of the 20th century. The Alamo church, which had been purchased by the state in 1883, was designated an official Texas State Shrine. A roofless ruin at the time of the battle, it was intended to have three floors and a large dome framed by two tall bell towers. The gable and the pitched roof it concealed were added by the U.S. Army in 1849.
The Alamo has been the subject of numerous non-fiction works beginning in 1843. Most Americans, however, are more familiar with the myths and legends spread by many of the movie and television adaptations, including the 1950s Disney miniseries Davy Crockett and John Wayne's 1960 film The Alamo.
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