WAS THE ALAMO A DEFEAT OR A VICTORY

After the Battle of Bexar, many Texans went home to see their families and plant their fields for a spring and summer harvest. They believed that the war was over. What did they think they had won?

A. Independence from Mexico

B. Free round trip tickets to Cancun

C. Separate statehood in the Republic of Mexico.(Split from Coahuila)

Colonel James Neill was left with only 104 men in San Antonio

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna is marching toward Texas.

He has 6,000 men at Saltillo, 200 miles south of the Rio Grande. He is very angry at General Cos and the Texans. Another 1,500 wait at the border with General Urrea.

General Cos General Urrea

Name 3 Mexican Generals.

Cos, Sesma & Santa Anna

Where is Sam Houston?

• Houston is in East Texas negotiating a treaty with the Cherokees and other tribes to prevent them from attacking from the rear if the Texans go to war with Santa Anna.

Sam Houston’s Plan:1. One big fight2. Pull Santa Anna into East Texas3. Stretch out supply lines- leave men to man

them4. NOT defend the Alamo

Sam Houston sends his old friend Jim Bowie to Bexar to remove the cannons then blow down the walls of the Alamo

January 19, 1836

• Bowie arrives with 30 men. Within a week he writes.

“Colonel Neill and myself have come to the solemn resolution that we would rather die in these ditches than give it up to the enemy.”

February 1, 1836

Santa Anna leaves Saltillo. At the border General Urrea takes 1,500 men along the coast of Texas.

Leaves 6,000 men with Santa Anna.

William Barrett Travis arrives at the old mission San Antonio de Valero.(The Alamo)

“I am unwilling to risk my reputation with such little means, so few men, and them so badly equipped.”

February 12, 1836

Travis has changed his mind.

“We consider death preferable to disgrace, which would be the result of giving up a post which has been so dearly won…I am determined to defend it to the last, and should Bexar fall, your friend will be buried beneath its ruins.”

Colonel Neill leaves dues to illness in his family.

Bowie and Travis take joint command. Bowie is ill with typhoid pneumonia.

Davey Crockett, the Tennessee frontiersman arrives with the

“Tennessee Volunteers.”He has his fiddle and the Kentucky

rifle named old Betsy.

“Make me a high private.”

February 16, 1836

Santa Anna is crossing the Rio Grande with 6,000 men. 150 miles to San Antonio.

1,800 Pack mules21 Cannons33 Four Wheeled Carts200 Two Wheeled Carts

Barren plains, middle of winter, oxen die, 500 men die.

Travis believes Santa Anna will not arrive before March5th

Travis sends first message to Fannin at Goliad to come to the Alamo with his 400 men. James Butler Bonham(messenger of the Alamo)

February 20, 1836

• Eyewitness account from Juan Seguin’s scouts that Santa Anna was seen crossing the Medina River. Travis still does not believe it.

• Not totally unprepared because of Green Jamison (architect of the Alamo) and Almeron Dickenson

MAP OF THE ALAMO

Strategic placement of the cannon. How did we get them? Battle of Bexar

Why fight?

Daniel Cloud 22 year old lawyer.

“If we succeed, the country is ours. If we fail, death in the cause of liberty and humanity is not a cause for shuddering.”

Travis believes that reinforcements will come from Gonzales, Goliad,

and San Felipe.

Any day now would be great!

February 23, 1836

Travis posts lookout on the San Fernando Church. Flash in the sun. Sent Smithwick and Sutherland to see. Flashing lights in the hills-Santa Anna’s Army

Almeron, Susannah, Angelina DickensonGo running into the Alamo.Gregorio, Ana Esparza and 4 children.Climbed in through the window

Messages sent out again by several scouts for help.

Juan Seguin, James Butler Bonham go to Gonzales, San Felipe, Goliad and places in between.

Crockett said:“ Give me and my Tennessee Boys a place to defend.”

Travis placed themOn the palisade

Mexican Army puts red flag up on the San Fernando Church.

No Quarter, No Surrender, No SurvivorsUnconditional surrender.Answer Single cannon shot (bring it on)

February 24, 1836

Bowie gives full command to Travis. Why? Typhoid Pneumonia

Famous letter from the Alamo.

Alamo is under siege. Constant bombardment. Everyday it will get closer. Send help.

March 1, 1836 3:00 AM

32 men from Gonzales led by Albert MartinLast messages to leave the Alamo. Sent to Washington on

the Brazos, Goliad (La Bahia) Bonham, carries 3rd message to Fannin

Travis: “the victory will cost the enemy so dear, that it will be worse for him than defeat.”

March 5, 1836

• Travis still is hoping that help will arrive from Goliad, but Bonham returns with word that Fannin was not coming. Fannin made one lousy attempt to come. A wagon wheel broke and an oxen escaped and he turned back the whole half mile he had gone. Bonham spit at his feet. Travis deserves to know your not coming.

Crockett

“ I think we had better march out and die in the open air. I don’t like being hemmed up.”

3 option….

Legend or Fact???

Travis calls all the men into the courtyard.Draws a line in the sand

“All who are willing to fight and die cross this line and stand with me.”

All but one crossed

First man to cross

Tapley Holland

Bowie

“Carry me across boys”

Only man to leave Louis Rose (Moses)

Soldier of the Alamo

March 6, 1836

Final Battle of the Alamo1 AM-Santa Anna’s men get up

4 AM-Ready

Dawn-Attack

Viva Santa Anna

El Degullo the fire and death song

Travis to the North wall “no rendirse muchachos, no rendirse!”

Bowie in the low barracks with his sister-in-law. Very ill but armed.

Crockett at the palisade.

Women and children in the chapel

Bonham, Esparza, Dickenson, Jamison on the top of the chapel.

Attacking at each point

• 5 columns of approximately 800 each• 2 North East & North West Walls• 1 East wall• 1 Palisade• 1 South wall• 300 Cavalry• Zapadores held in reserve-400 best men

1st Attack

Guns stacked next to Texans on wall. Mexican soldiers retreat. Stopped by cavalry (mounted soldiers) with flat side of swords. Carried ladders.

Travis shot in first attack when leaning over wall to shoot at Mexican soldiers at base of north wall.

2nd Attack

Mexicans retreat but more Texans dead on wall.

WE HAD TO RELOAD

3rd Attack

The two columns on the north side merge into one and come over the wall

Last only 15 more minutes.

The total battle lasted 90 minutes

Battle inside the walls

Turned the cannon around to the North Wall. Put in grape shot (chucks of horseshoes and nails etc.) Texans retreat to Long Barracks. Mexicans turn around cannon and blow open parapets at doors. Hand to hand, very bloody, room to room. Blood ran on floors. Mexicans had bayonets on the ends of their guns-Texans did not. Now no time to reload and used as clubs.

Bowie killed in Low BarracksLegend- Crockett goes down fighting in front of the chapel.Last place to fall is the chapel. BEDJ at the back. Robert Evans tried to blow up the magazine. Shot before he got there with torch. Jacob Walker runs into room with a message for Susannah Dickenson to give but killed. Mexican army finds women and children and Travis’s slave, Joe. They are taken into the courtyard. Susannah is shot in the shin.

By 6:30 AM March 6, 1836 it’s over

189 Texans dead. This includes nine Tejanos (Mexican Texans)

Why was Juan Seguin not killed? Not there.

1,200-1,500 Mexicans dead (or could it be only 600) Stories vary.

Enrique de la Pena wrote 6 men were captured one being Davey Crockett.

Santa Anna ordered them executed- shot and bodies bayoneted. Many believe this to be true. As Santa Anna rode through his dead soldiers he said:

“This is but a small affair.”

Over ¼ of his army was dead

Santa Anna told Susannah Dickenson to tell the Texans that unless they left Texas they would all be executed including women and children. He then released Susannah, Angelina, the Esparza family, and Joe. Approximately 7 to 13 people lived. (Different accounts)

Susannah makes it to Gonzales and tells Sam Houston what Santa Anna said. He orders the burning of Gonzales and the Runaway Scrape began as Texans fled their homes all over Texas.

It will all end

When Houston beat Santa Anna in the battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836.

While the battle of the Alamo was going on…

59 delegates declared Texas Independence on March 2, 1836 in Washington on the Brazos.