One of the most gallant stands of courage and undying self-sacrifice which have come down through the pages of history is the defense of the Alamo, which is one of the priceless heritages of Texans. It was the battle-cry of "Remember the Alamo" that later spurred on the forces of Sam Houston at San Jacinto. Anyone who has ever heard of the brave fight of Colonel Travis and his men is sure to "Remember the Alamo."
Besieged by Santa Anna, who had reached Bexar on February 23, 1836, Colonel William Barret Travis, with his force of 182, refused to surrender but elected to fight and die, which was almost certain, for what they thought was right. The position of these men was known but no aid reached them. The request to Colonel James W. Fannin for assistance had gone unheeded. No relief was in store. As the Battle of the Alamo was in progress, a part of the Texas Army had assembled in Gonzales under the command of Mosely Baker in the latter part of February. From this army, a gallant band of 32 courageous men under the command of George C. Kimble left to join the garrison at the Alamo. Making their way through the enemy lines, these 32 men joined the doomed defenders and perished with them.
On March 2, 1836, during the siege of the Alamo, Texas independence was declared. Four days later, the document was signed with the blood shed at the Alamo. It was under such conditions that Travis and his men fought off the much larger force under Santa Anna. It was with the love of liberty in his voice and the courage of the faithful and brave that Travis gave his men the none too cheerful choice of the manner in which they wished to die.
Realizing that no help could be expected from the outside and that Santa Anna would soon take the Alamo, Travis addressed his men, told them that they were fated to die for the cause of liberty and the freedom of Texas. Their only choice was in which way they would make the sacrifice. He outlined three procedures to them: first, rush the enemy, killing a few but being slaughtered themselves in the hand-to-hand fight by the overpowering Mexican force; second, to surrender, which would eventually result in their massacre by the Mexicans, or, third, to remain in the Alamo and defend it until the last man, thus giving the Texas army more time to form and likewise taking a greater toll among the Mexicans.
The third choice was the one taken by the men. Their fate was death and they faced it bravely, asking no quarter and giving none. The siege of the Alamo ended on the dawn of March 6, when its gallant defenders were put to the sword. But it was not an idle sacrifice that men like Travis and Davy Crockett and James Bowie made at the Alamo. It was a sacrifice on the altar of liberty.
Texas National Guard Historical Sketch. Remember The Alamo! Texas Military Forces Museum. Camp Mabry, Austin, Texas.
The History of the Alamo
There's an old rumor that suggests the mission now known as the Alamo isn't really the Alamo. Texans would like to see such rumors squashed. They know the Alamo always has been the Alamo. It just has another Christian name.
San Antonio has always been predominantly Spanish. In 1691, a Spanish missionary expedition stopped under a spreading cottonwood tree in central Texas and surveyed the surrounding hills and a gently flowing river. The military commander, Domingo Teran de los Rios, called the spot "the most beautiful part of New Spain." Father Damien Massanet agreed, and since it was June 13, the feast day of Saint Anthony, he promptly named it: "I call this place San Antonio de Padua, because it was his day."
Once back in Mexico, they talked of building a mission at the San Antonio de Padua site. Father Massanet insisted it should be a presidio, a fort built and manned by enough armed men to force respect for the missionaries. Shocked church authorities sent Father Massanet a letter, part of which said, "The [church] marvels at the proposal of violence and the use of the force of arms in the conversion of these savages to our holy faith...."
Seven years later, the Franciscan Seminary in Mexico City was mulling over the idea of building missions like stepping stones across the isolated outposts and the colonized parts of New Spain--with an army contingent, of course. In 1699, construction began on San Juan Bautista on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande at Laredo. A presidio also went up nearby for the Spanish soldiers. On New Year's Day, 1700, San Francisco Solano was begun about 10 miles farther upriver.
By the time civilization crept into San Antonio de Padua in 1718, a new mission stood near the river. It was San Francisco Solano, moved from below the Rio Grande to its new site and renamed San Antonio de Valero, after the viceroy of New Spain, the Marqués de Valero. The San Antonio de Béxar presidio, named in honor of the viceroy's father, was built nearby. The area grew to become the capital of New Spain.
At first, the mission was situated on the east bank of the San Antonio River at the junction with San Pedro Creek, but when the river flooded a year later, the fathers wisely decided to move it to the west bank and farther away from the meandering course of the stream. Whiplash winds from one of the notorious Gulf Coast hurricanes flattened the flimsy structures, and the mission was moved once again, this time upstream and to the east side of the river where it now stands.
Twenty years later, the crumbling adobe walls were replaced with stone and the stone church was constructed, a measure that saved the fathers and Christian Indians within the fortifications of the church from certain death from marauding Apache on the warpath. Directly across the river on the west bank, the city of San Antonio de Béxar flourished around the presidio.
With the success of San Antonio de Valero, the river corridor through the central Texas hills all the way to the Gulf Coast soon became dotted with missions. One mission thought by the fathers of San Antonio de Valero to be in direct competition with their own lay not quite four miles downriver on the west bank. It was the customary practice to establish missions two leagues apart (about seven miles), but the fathers of Mission San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo convinced the New Spain authorities that by following the twisting and turning San Antonio River, their mission was two leagues away. Ironically, San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo was destined to be the "Queen of Missions" in Texas--until her shoddy sister upriver achieved infamy years later.
By 1758, the San Antonio area boasted five missions, all of which are within nine miles of each other and still in use today. One, Nuestra Senora de la Purísima Concepción, became the site of the Battle of Concepción (in October 1835), in which Stephen Austin, Jim Bowie, James Fannin, Juan Seguin and a detachment of 90 volunteers took on a force of at least 230 regulars of the Mexican army under General Martín Perfecto de Cós. The Texans lost one man, the Mexican army about 60.
Eventually, the Spanish began secularizing their missions, beginning with San Antonio de Valero in 1793. When Mexico began its campaign for independence 10 years later, Spanish troops from the city of San José y Santiago del Alamo de Parras moved into the now abandoned mission and stayed for many years. Since it was the common practice to identify the men by the full name of their town, and their town was named after a landmark cottonwood tree (alamo is Spanish for cottonwood) growing on a ranch near Parras, the Spanish soldiers became known as "los Hombres del Alamo." San Antonio de Valero became known as El Alamo. (Parras today is called Viesca and is located in Coahuila, Mexico.)
Whether or not this is the sole reason why the old fortress achieved such an informal name is still a matter of debate. Some claim the nickname really stemmed from the cottonwood trees that lined the river in front of the church. In any event, by the time the Texans got there, the old fortress had long been known as "the Alamo," although its official, Christian name is still San Antonio de Valero. L.P.
This article originally appeared in the February 1996 issue of Wild West.
