On 23 February-6 March 1836, the Siege of the Alamo was fought in North America between the Texans under William Travis and James Bowie against the Mexicans under Santa Anna during the Texan War of Independence.
Why did it happen?
In 1821, 300 American families migrated to Texas, which was then ruled by Mexico, seeking land to farm crops. By 1830, the total American population of Texas numbered 30,000 settlers, outnumbering the Mexicans three to one. The Mexican government perceived the Americans as a threat and sent soldiers to occupy Texan towns and police its borders while levying heavy duties on imported goods. Although troops were withdrawn in 1832, they returned in 1835 after the arrest of Stephen Austin, who had petitioned the Mexican government to make Texas an autonomous province. In September 1835, after Mexican troops attempted to disarm a small group of Texans in the town of Gonzales, the Texans rose in revolt and evicted Mexican forces through a series of surprise attacks. In response, the Mexican government raised an army under President Santa Anna to recapture Texas, and in February 1836, crossed the Rio Grande River and marched on the Mission San Antonio de Valero, better known as the Alamo, which was occupied by a detachment of Texan volunteers under William Travis and James Bowie.
Who was involved?
The Texan army at the Alamo numbered 184 infantry and 19 artillery. Most of the infantry and artillery were positioned along the walls of the Alamo, with William Travis commanding the north wall and James Bowie commanding the south wall. The Mexican army at the Alamo numbered 1,900 infantry, 500 cavalry, and 7 artillery. The Mexican army was arrayed in three columns to the north and west of the Alamo: Manuel Fernandez Castrillon commanded the artillery and cavalry in the north, along with Martin Perfecto de Cos, who commanded three columns of infantry, while Santa Anna commanded the remaining infantry and artillery behind the Rio Grande River.
What happened?
On 23 February, in response to being fired upon after demanding unconditional surrender, Santa Anna ordered his Mexican army of 1,400 men to besiege the Alamo. Over the next ten days, both sides exchanged artillery fire while Cos’s infantry manoeuvred closer to the Alamo. On 3-4 March, several volunteers managed to break through the Mexican lines to reinforce the Texans inside the Alamo while 1,000 Mexican soldiers arrived to reinforce Santa Anna. On 6 March at 5.30 am, four columns of Mexican infantry attacked the Alamo from different directions. The first two assaults were repulsed by Texan rifle and artillery fire, while the third assault managed to penetrate the Alamo’s north wall. In the fighting, William Travis was killed, and the Plaza’s artillery was turned around to deal with the attack, with the Mexicans coming over the western wall. The surviving Texans fell back to the barracks and chapel. After an hour of room-to-room fighting, James Bowie was killed while the remaining Texans in the chapel conducted a heroic last stand with their last available artillery piece before being overwhelmed. Throughout the battle, 180 Texans were killed, while around 600 Mexicans were killed or wounded.
What changed as a result?
The Siege of the Alamo was a Mexican victory. However, three days before the Alamo fell, a convention was summoned to sign a draft copy of the Texan declaration of independence. Despite this, the war continued until the Mexicans were defeated by Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto on 21 April. Santa Anna was captured during the battle and signed the Treaty of Velasco a month later, bringing the war to an end, although Mexico refused to recognise the sovereignty of Texas until it was annexed by the United States in 1845. The Alamo has since become a byword in American culture for heroic resistance against overwhelming odds in the name of liberty, with some Texans at the time comparing it to the Battle of Thermopylae of 480 BCE. On 18 March 1836, David G. Burnet stated:
“The fall of the Alamo is the surest guarantee of our ultimate success. The Spartan band who so nobly perished there, have bequeathed to us an example, which ought and will be imitated; and have inflicted on the enemy a terror and a loss that are equivalent to a defeat” (Jenkins, 1990, p.300).
Bibliography
David, Saul. War: The Definitive Visual History. New York, Dorling Kindersley, 2009.
Grant, R.G. 1001 Battles That Changed the Course of History. London, Cassell Illustrated, 2011.
Grant, R.G. Battle: A Visual Journey Through 5,000 Years of Combat. London, Dorling Kindersley, 2005.
Jenkins, John H. “The Thermopylae Quotation.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 94, no. 2 (1990): 298–304. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30241363
Sanchez-Navarro, Jose. “Plan of the Alamo.” Wikimedia Commons. Last revised March 12, 2006. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AlamoplanF0385.jpg