TitleOriginally named Misión San Antonio de Valero, the Alamo served as home to missionaries and their Indian converts for nearly seventy years. Construction began on the present site in 1724. In 1793, Spanish officials secularized San Antonio's five missions and distributed their lands to the remaining Indian residents. These men and women continued to farm the fields — once the mission's but now their own — and participated in the growing community of San Antonio. San Antonio and the Alamo played a critical role in the Texas
Revolution. In December 1835, Ben Milam led Texian and Tejano volunteers against
Mexican troops quartered in the city. After five days of house-to-house fighting,
they forced General Marín Perfecto de Cós and his soldiers to
surrender. The victorious volunteers then occupied the Alamo — already
fortified prior to the battle by Cós' men — and strengthened its
defenses. "I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and that of his country — VICTORY OR DEATH." Lieutenant Colonel William Barret Travis "It could well be said: With another such victory, we will all go to the devil." Carlos Sanchez-Navarro, Mexican Officer While the facts surrounding the siege of the Alamo continue to be debated, there is no doubt about what the battle has come to symbolize. People worldwide continue to remember the Alamo as a heroic struggle against overwhelming odds — a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. For this reason the Alamo remains hallowed ground and the Shrine of Texas Liberty.
Those Who Died Defending the Alamo:
|
In the early 1800s,
the Spanish military stationed a cavalry unit at the former mission. The soldiers
referred to the old mission as the Alamo (the Spanish word for "cottonwood")
in honor of their hometown Alamo de Parras, Coahuila. The post's commander
established the first recorded hospital in Texas in the Long Barrack. The
Alamo was home to both Revolutionaries and Royalists during Mexico's ten-year
struggle for independence. The military — Spanish, Rebel, and then Mexican
— continued to occupy the Alamo until the Texas Revolution. 
On
February 23, 1836, the arrival of General Antonio López de Santa Anna's
army outside San Antonio nearly caught them by surprise. Undaunted, the Texians
and Tejanos prepared to defend the Alamo together. The defenders held out
for 13 days against Santa Anna's army. William B. Travis, the commander of
the Alamo sent forth couriers carrying pleas for help to communities in Texas.
On the eighth day of the siege, a band of 32 volunteers from Gonzales arrived,
bringing the number of defenders to nearly two hundred. Legend holds that
with the possibility of additional help fading, Colonel Travis drew a line
on the ground and asked any man willing to stay and fight to step over —
all except one did. As the defenders saw it, the Alamo was the key to the
defense of Texas, and they were ready to give their lives rather than surrender
their position to General Santa Anna. Among the Alamo's garrison were Jim
Bowie, renowned knife fighter, and David Crockett, famed frontiersman and
former congressman from Tennessee. 
The final assault
came before daybreak on the morning of March 6, 1836, as columns of Mexican
soldiers emerged from the predawn darkness and headed for the Alamo's walls.
Cannon and small arms fire from inside the Alamo beat back several attacks.
Regrouping, the Mexicans scaled the walls and rushed into the compound. Once
inside, they turned captured cannon on the Long Barrack and church, blasting
open the barricaded doors. The desperate struggle continued until the defenders
were overwhelmed. By sunrise, the battle had ended and Santa Anna entered
the Alamo compound to survey the scene of his victory. 