I’m not an expert on the battle, but I think it’s worth taking a moment to remember the Alamo. Yesterday was the 189th anniversary of the martyrdom of the heroes of the Alamo, including Jim Bowie, William B. Travis, and Davey Crockett.
The context of the battle was the drive for Texian’s independence from Mexico. Conflict had been growing since late in 1835, when the Texians at Gonzales refused to return a cannon that Mexico had lent them. Realizing they were outnumbered, the Mexican army gave up the fight and retreated to San Antonio de Bexár (San Antonio).
The Texians followed and laid siege to San Antonio de Bexár. After a losing a couple of battles in October and November, the Mexican army withdrew, and the Texians began fortifying the town and the Alamo garrison, expecting a counterattack.
Unbeknownst to them, a division of the Mexican army, under the command of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the elected president of Mexico, was marching north to take back San Antonio de Bexár and strangle the Texian’s revolution before it could gain any more momentum.
The siege of the Alamo lasted 13 days.
The Alamo had 18 serviceable cannons and approximately 150 men at the start of the siege. As the Mexican Army arrived, a parlay was called by one of the two Alamo Commanders, James Bowie, a famous adventurer and knife fighter. Green B. Jameson, chief engineer of the garrison met with Mexican officials. Santa Anna’s terms were surrender at discretion, meaning he would decide their fate. The other Alamo Commander, 26-year-old William B. Travis answered with a cannon shot from the 18-pounder cannon. The Siege of the Alamo had begun. Santa Anna ordered a red flag to be flown from San Fernando Church showing that no quarter would be given.
On February 24, 1836, with the garrison surrounded and the Texan Army at the Alamo outnumbered, one of the most famous letters in American history was written by William B. Travis. It was addressed, “To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World.” This letter was a passionate plea for aid for the Alamo garrison. He ended the letter “Victory or Death” – the only outcome this battle could have. That letter left the Alamo and the siege continued.
On March 1, 1836, 32 men from the town of Gonzales arrived to aid the Alamo. This brought the number of defenders up to almost 200 men.
On March 2, 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico.
On March 3, 1836, courier James Butler Bonham arrived at the Alamo with word from Robert Williamson informing Travis help was on the way. Unfortunately it would not arrive in time.
On March 5, 1836, Santa Anna held a council of war, setting forth this plan for a four pronged attack of the garrison.
Battle of the Alamo
At dawn on March 6, 1836, the 13th day of the siege, the Battle of the Alamo commenced. Fighting lasted roughly 90 minutes, and by daybreak all the Defenders had perished, including a former congressman from Tennessee, David Crockett. The loss of the garrison was felt all over Texas, and even the world. The Defenders were from many different countries, including some Defenders who were native-born Mexicans. Following the battle, Santa Anna ordered the Defender’s remains burned.
The question is, why was this battle considered so heroic when, in the end, the fort was lost and the defenders were slaughtered? The defenders died heroically, but what did they accomplish?
Rod Martin has an interesting perspective.
But beyond the unquestionable rightness of the Texian cause, the successful Revolution served to answer the burning geopolitical question of that era, namely, would America or Mexico — and would liberty or tyranny — dominate the New World?
Santa Anna had proclaimed himself “the Napoleon of the West”: his ambitions were vastly greater than just holding a few farms on the Brazos. Had he imposed his tyranny on the Texians, he would have been liberated to threaten — and possibly conquer — New Orleans, the continent’s single most strategic point.
Had Santa Anna taken New Orleans, he would have reversed Jefferson’s achievement in securing the Louisiana Purchase and accomplished what the British in 1815 could not: the reduction of the United States to a servile position. And with all commerce in the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi river basins bottled up at Santa Anna’s mercy, not only might America never have generated the capital, industrial strength and military might needed to become a great power, but an authoritarian Mexico might well have supplanted it, expanding throughout the West and the Caribbean Basin as well.
But for Houston’s victory at San Jacinto — but for Davy Crockett’s martyr’s death at the Alamo, enabling Houston’s triumph — the American experiment might well have come to nothing. America might well have been recolonized in that era of global European expansion which saw India and China subjugated (as indeed Mexico was by France for a time, during the 1860s). And with the coming of the 20th Century, freedom might well have perished from the Earth.
In other words, if the defenders of the Alamo had not tied up Santa Anna in a siege, stalling him for those two weeks, Sam Houston and his army may not have been able to prepare themselves for the battle of San Jacinto seven weeks later. It was there that the battle cry, “remember the Alamo!” rang out, and that Santa Anna and his army were defeated.
As I said, I’m no Alamo historian, but I understand why it was so critical to the formation of the United States and to the liberty we enjoy.
Remember the Alamo!
And have a good weekend.