This year is the 175th Anniversary of the Alamo - 13 fateful days in 1836! The Alamo - originally Mission san Antonio de Valero - served as home to missionaries and their indian converts for nearly 70 years. In 1793 spanish officials secularised San Antonio's five missions and distributed their lands to the remaining Indian residents.
In the early 1800's the Spanish military stationed a cavalry at the former mission. The soldiers referred to the old mission as the Alamo (the Spanish word for "cottonwood" - a tree which is prolific in the desert)
in honour of their hometown Alamo de Parras Coahuila. The Alamo was home to both Revolutionaries and Royalists during the Mexico's 10 year struggle for independence. The military - Spanish, Rebel, and then Mexican - continued to occupy the Alamo until the Texas Revolution.
San Antonio and the Alamo played a critical role in the Texan Revolution. In 1835 the Texians and Tejano forced the Mexican troops out and they occupied the Alamo. February 1836, the arrival of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's Mexican army outside San Antonio nearly caught them by surprise at the Alamo. Undaunted they prepared to defend the Alamo - they held out for 13 days against the bigger, stronger army. William B Travis, the 26 ear old 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 200.
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 defence 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 who the Bowie Knife was named after, and David Crockett, famed frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee. Thought he was just a cowboy in a TV show I watched when I was younger...still remember the song and tune..."Born on a mountain top in Tennessee.....Davey, Davey Crockett, king of the wild frontier."....remember it? (if you were old enough! lol)
The final assault came before daybreak on the morning of March 1836, as columns of Mexican soldiers (2,000 of them) emerged from the predawn darkness and headed for the walls of the Alamo. A desperate struggle with the 189 defenders of the Alamo finally saw the defenders overwhelmed and killed!
So the Alamo was 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 Texan Liberty.
The bravery, courage and patriotism inspired Texans and Santa Anna was finally defeated at San Jacinto in 1835 - Texas was free from Mexico and was independent and stayed this way for 10 years until in 1845 it became a US State.
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| The story. Click on pic to enlarge |
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| The mission. Click on pic to enlarge. |
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| Heroes - Travis and Crockett |
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| Memorial to the heroes of the Alamo Click on pic to enlarge |
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| The heroes - Bowie and Bonham |
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| The Church at The Alamo |
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| Alamo Plaza. The Tower of the Americas and the Menger Hotel (the oldest hotel in San Antonio) to the right |
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| Alamo Plaza. Left is the Long Barracks and the right is the front of the Church. The stately Emily Morgan hotel towers behind |
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| Convento Courtyard. The well dates back to the mission period. The long barracks, behind the well, was the infantry and artillery quarters. |
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| St Anthony, inside the Church at the Alamo. San Antonio's naming saint. |
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| The side entrance into the Alamo |
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