Battle of the Alamo

Originally built as a Catholic mission known as San Antonio de Valero, after the Spanish secularized El Alamo, as Spanish soldiers renamed the fort in the early 1800s, during the opening stages of the Texas war of independence from Mexico, by December 1835, volunteer Texan soldiers under the command of George Collinsworth and Benjamin Milam overwhelmed a garrison of Mexican soldiers stationed at the Alamo.

Jim Bowie & Davy Crockett

When Colonel Jim Bowie and Lt. Col William B. Travis took command of the Alamo in mid-February, 1836, despite protests by newly appointed commander-in-chief Sam Houston that forces at the Alamo lacked sufficient numbers to defend against a Mexican attack, more than 200 Texan volunteers, including legendary frontiersman and former congressman Davy Crockett, vowed to defend the Alamo to the last.

A Fight to the Death

Their vow would come true during the 13-day Battle of the Alamo, when on February 23rd, 1836, a Mexican force made up of 1,800 to 6,000 men led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, laid siege to the fort, suffering egregious losses—some 600 to 1,600 killed in action—before breaching the outer courtyard wall. Ordering his men to take no prisoners, only a handful of Texans would be spared in the slaughter that followed, save for a handful of Texans like Susannah Dickinson and her infant daughter, who were sent to Houston’s camp at Gonzalez as a warning against continued rebellion to Mexican rule.

Symbol of Resistance

The Battle of the Alamo soon became a symbol of resistance and a rallying cry in the Texan’s struggle for independence, while the phrase “Remember the Alamo” became a second battle cry as 800 Texan volunteers under Houston’s command defeated Santa Anna’s army on April 21st, 1836. Houston’s victory ensured independence for Texas, while the battle cry “Remember the Alamo” would once again rise in the American vernacular during the Mexican-American War of 1846 to 1848, making the Battle of the Alamo, one of the bloodiest events during America’s deep embrace of manifest destiny.