Battle of the Alamo
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The Battle of the Alamo was a battle between Mexican and Texan forces during the Texas Revolution that took place at the Alamo mission in San Antonio in February and March of 1836. The siege climaxed on March 6 with the capture of the mission and the death of nearly all the Texan defenders.
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2 The battle 3 The Tejano 4 Casualties |
Mexican Army General Martin Perfecto de Cos had been forced to surrender a garrison of 1,100 and the public property, guns, and ammunition stocks of the Mexican Government in the city of San Antonio de Bexar to Texas general Edward Burleson in the December, 1835 Siege of Bexar. This included the Alamo. Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna realized the strategic importance of San Antonio and decided to launch an offensive with the aim of recapturing San Antonio. Santa Anna assembled a force of 6,500 at San Luis Potosi and moved by Saltillo, Coahuila, to Texas.
The Texan forces who had fortified the Alamo in anticipation of the battle were volunteer soldiers of the Provisional Government of Texas who had signed an oath of allegiance to protect that government and obey the orders of that government's officers.
The Alamo, a converted missionary church, protected the road further northeast into Texas. Although the Alamo was not designed for military purposes, the Texan militia and regulars fortified the post and mounted 18 cannon, including an 18-pounder. This was the greatest concentration of cannons west of the Mississippi River. The Mexican forces would not be able to bypass the post and use the road without investing and taking the Alamo.
The defenders of the Alamo came from several places. One group, the New Orleans Greys, came from the city of that name to fight as infantry in the battle. Their battle color is now kept at the Mexican Army museum in Chapultapec.
The Mexican Army was a mixed force of regular infantry and cavalry units as well as activo reserve infantry battalions. They were equipped with the British Brown Bess musket and were well-drilled, though the Mexican army discouraged individual marksmanship. The initial forces were equipped with several 6-pounder cannon. Several of the Mexican officers were European mercenary veterans, and General Santa Anna was a veteran of the Mexican War of Independence. The Mexican siege was scientific and professionally conducted.
The number of Mexican forces attacking the post was reported as high as 4,000 to 5,000, but only about 1,400 soldiers were used in the investment and the final assault. 6,500 soldiers did set out from San Luis de Potosi, but illness and desertion reduced the force. After a 13-day siege, the Mexican army attacked the post in four columns, starting at 6:30 a.m. on March 6 and took the Alamo by 8 a.m. that day., under hand-to-hand fighting. One of the reasons the siege took 13 days was that the Mexican army did not have its 12-pounder cannon, needed to breach the walls, until late in the siege.
Lieutenant Colonel William Barret Travis, commander of the Texas regular army forces, was able to dispatch riders before the battle and as late as February 25, informing the Texas provisional government of his situation and requesting assistance. However, the Texas Army was not strong enough to fight through the Mexican Army and relieve the post. Colonel Fannin, commander of the Texas forces at Goliad, was forced to abort his relief march because he could not take his cannon with him.
Midway though the battle, 32 men were able to make it through Mexican lines and join the defenders.
Before the battle, Santa Anna ordered that a red flag be raised indicating to the defenders that no quarter would be given. Several defenders who had not been killed in battle were captured and executed. Among its defenders were James Bowie (the leader of the militia forces), David Crockett and Travis. About two dozen women and children and two slaves at the Alamo, named Ben and Jim, were released.
Later in the war, General Santa Anna's army was defeated by a Texian force in the Battle of San Jacinto, who used the now-famous battle cry, "Remember the Alamo".
183 Texans and Tejano bodies were found at the Alamo after the battle, though Santa Anna's official report stated 600 were found. Historians believe this to be a propaganda claim. All but one body, Gregorio Esparza, were burned by the Mexicans; Gregorio was buried because his brother, Franciso Esparza, had served as an activo who fought with General Cos in the Siege of Bexar.
Historical and strategic context
The battle
On February 23, 1836, General Antonio López de Santa Anna marched an army through inclement weather, including snowstorms in mountain passes, against the Texas rebellion. The city of San Antonio de Bexar was one of his intermediate objectives; his ultimate objective was to capture the Texas government and restore the rule of the central Mexican government over a rebellious territory, as he had over the State of Zacatecas the previous year.The Tejano
Although in the United States of the time the siege of the Alamo was seen as a battle of American settlers against Mexicans, many of the Mexican nationals of the territory of Texas sided with the rebellion. The Tejanos wanted Mexico to be have a loose central government which supported state's rights, as expreseed in Mexico's 1824 constitution. One combatant at the Alamo was Captain (later Colonel) Juan N. SeguÃÂn, a Tejano, who later became Mayor of San Antonio; he was sent as a dispatch rider.Casualties
Reports of the number of Mexican dead and injured vary from approximately 250 in the official Mexican account to 1400 to 1500 in later Texan accounts. Military experts familiar with warfare of the period believe there were approximately 200 Mexicans killed and 400 wounded.