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 [Span.,=cottonwood], building in San Antonio, Texas, the cradle of Texas liberty. Built as a chapel after 1744, it is all that remains of the mission of San Antonio de Valero, which was founded in 1718 by the Franciscans and later converted into a fortress. In the Texas Revolution, San Antonio was taken by Texas revolutionaries in Dec., 1835, and was lightly garrisoned. When Santa Anna approached with an army of several thousand in Feb., 1836, only some 150 men held the Alamo, and confusion, indifference, and bickering among the insurgents throughout Texas prevented any help from joining them, except for 32 volunteers from Gonzales who slipped through the Mexican lines after the siege had already begun. Defying Santa Anna's demands for surrender, the Texans in the fort determined to fight against the hopeless odds. The siege, which began Feb. 24, ended with hand-to-hand fighting within the walls on March 6. William B. Travis, James Bowie, Davy Crockett, and some 180 other defenders were dead, but the heroic resistance roused fighting anger among Texans, who six weeks later defeated the Mexicans at San Jacinto, crying, Remember the Alamo! The chapel-fort was bought by the state in 1883, the surrounding area was added in 1905, and the whole complex was restored and improved from 1936 to 1939. See A. G. Adair and M. H. Crockett, ed., Heroes of the Alamo (2d ed. 1957); Lon Tinkle, 13 Days to Glory (1958); Walter Lord, A Time to Stand (1961).
The Battle of the Alamo
William Barret Travis' Letter from the Alamo, 1836
At the Alamo in San Antonio, then called Bejar, 150 Texas rebels led by William Barret Travis made their stand against Santa Anna's vastly superior Mexican army. On the second day of the siege, February 24, 1836, Travis called for reinforcements with this heroic message:
I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism, and everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all dispatch. ...
VICTORY OR DEATH.
From October 1835, Texans in the field had succeeded in most of their military campaigns. The cannon at Gonzales remained, smaller military units surrendered and then retired to Mexico, and Bexar finally gave way after a two-month siege. When Martin Perfecto de Cos and his men retreated from Bexar in December 1835, Texas had eliminated the last of the Mexican garrisons.
Most of the volunteers returned to their homes, convinced the war was over. The provisional government, split by internal quarrels over the objectives of the war, failed to supply the men in the field adequately. What little remained of the munitions and supplies were further subject to confiscation by commanders proposing buccaneering expeditions to Matamoros.
William Barret Travis
D. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
By January, the small body of men commanded by James C. Neill were reduced to about 100. They were supplemented by some twenty-five volunteers commanded by James Bowie. William Barrett Travis arrived on February 3 with thirty men from the regular army, ordered there by Governor Henry Smith.
In spite of engineer Green B. Jameson's belief that the Alamo was indefensible, both Neill and Bowie saw the fortress as a strategic post, particularly because of its armament. Houston, on the other hand, preferred to avoid fixed fortifications, and ordered Bowie, subject to Henry Smith's approval, to blow up the building.
When James C. Neill left the city a few days later to deal with illness in his family, he left Travis in command. Bowie, however, as commander of the volunteers, refused to accept orders from a regular army officer. A divisive contest was avoided when Bowie became ill and was forced to accept the arrangement.
Santa Anna crossed the Rio Grande on February 12, and - a month earlier than expected - he arrived outside Bexar on February 23. Travis dispatched a note to Gonzales calling for reinforcements and numbering the defenders at 150. The next day he wrote his Letter from the Alamo , probably the best known of all Texas documents.
Reinforcements under Captain Albert Martin arrived from Gonzales on March 1. With the arrival of the last of Santa Anna's forces, Travis was able to send out only one last appeal on March 3. Again, he echoed the determination of the fortress to withstand surrender: "A blood red banner waves from the church of Bejar, and in the camp above us, in token that the war is one of vengeance against rebels: they have declared us as such, and demanded that we should surrender at discretion, or that this garrison should be put to the sword. Their threats have had no influence on me, or my men, but to make all fight with desperation, and that high souled courage which characterizes the patriot, who is willing to die in defence of his country's liberty and his own honor."
Fall of the Alamo, by Theodore Gentilz
After the battle, the Texan bodies were burned. The pyre was constructed about three o'clock in the afternoon of March 6, and was lighted about five according to Francisco Antonio Ruiz, who went on to report: "The gallantry of the few Texans who defended the Alamo was really wondered at by the Mexican army. Even the generals were astonished at their vigorous resistance, and how dearly victory was bought.The men (Texans) burnt were one hundred and eighty-two. I was an eyewitness, for as alcalde of San Antonio, I was with some of the neighbors, collecting the dead bodies and placing them on the funeral pyre."
After the fall of the Alamo in 1836, the church and buildings were largely abandoned. The government of the Republic returned the chapel to the Catholic Church, but after annexation, the U.S. Government claimed it again for military use. In the ensuing years, both U.S. and Confederate forces used the building to house quartermaster stores and munitions. The U.S. Army continued to lease the property until 1876. Bishop John Claud Neraz's offer to sell the Alamo in 1882 was made to Frank W. Johnson, first president of the Texas Veterans' Association. He, in turn, passed the information on to the governor with a recommendation that the State purchase the building. On April 23, 1883, the Texas legislature passed an act authorizing the purchase of the Alamo . Money from the sale went to complete a new chancery building for the San Antonio diocese.
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