Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Fall of the Alamo: Can anyone comment on this account?

I was just down there at dawn this morning.

Doesn't really matter if anyone surrendered at the very end when hopelessly surrounded. I'm a tad rusty on the Alamo specifics, but FWIW, Stephen Moore ("Savage Frontier") has this to say, quoting from among teh last letters sent out. This from forty-one year old Isaac Millsaps Millsaps had been among the first to join the Gonzales Mounted Ranger Company, hoping to protect his blind wife and seven children......

"The Mexicans are here in large numbers, they have kept up a constant fire since we got here.

Col. Bowie is down sick and had to be to bed. I saw him yesterday & he is ready to fight. He didn't know me from last spring but did remember Walsh. He tells us all that help will be here soon & it makes us feel good.

We have beef & corn to eat but no coffee; bag I had fell off on the way here so it is all spilt. I have not see[n] Travis but 2 times since here. He told us all this morning that Fannin was going to be here with many men and there would be a good fight....

There is no discontent in our boys. Some are tired from lack of sleep and rest. The Mexicans are shooting every few minutes but most fo the shots fall inside and do no harm. I don't know what else to say. They is calling for all letters."


Moore then writes....

Travis and roughly 188 brave Alamo defenders were overrun by the superior Mexican forces on March 6th. The fighting became hand-to-hand with the Texans killing as many as 1,544 enemy soldiers before being overwhelmed. Cannon fire kept Santa Anna from personally joining the fray until organized resistance had been crushed. Santa Anna ordered no prisoners, and at least six Texans in the hospital barracks were executed with bayonets.

The Unversity of Texas "Texas History Online" presents more moderate figures....

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qea02

On March 5, day twelve of the siege, Santa Anna announced an assault for the following day. This sudden declaration stunned his officers. The enemy's walls were crumbling. No Texan relief column had appeared. When the provisions ran out, surrender would remain the rebels' only option. There was simply no valid military justification for the costly attack on a stronghold bristling with cannons.

But ignoring these reasonable objections, Santa Anna stubbornly insisted on storming the Alamo. Around 5:00 A.M. on Sunday, March 6, he hurled his columns at the battered walls from four directions. Texan gunners stood by their artillery. As about 1,800 assault troops advanced into range, canister ripped through their ranks. Staggered by the concentrated cannon and rifle fire, the Mexican soldiers halted, reformed, and drove forward. Soon they were past the defensive perimeter.

Travis, among the first to die, fell on the north bastion. Abandoning the walls, defenders withdrew to the dim rooms of the Long Barracks. There some of the bloodiest hand-to-hand fighting occurred. Bowie, too ravaged by illness to rise from his bed, found no pity. The chapel fell last.

By dawn the Centralists had carried the works. The assault had lasted no more than ninety minutes. As many as seven defenders survived the battle, but Santa Anna ordered their summary execution. Many historians count Crockett as a member of that hapless contingent, an assertion that still provokes debate in some circles.

By eight o'clock every Alamo fighting man lay dead. Currently, 189 defenders appear on the official list, but ongoing research may increase the final tally to as many as 257.

Though Santa Anna had his victory, the common soldiers paid the price as his officers had anticipated. Accounts vary, but best estimates place the number of Mexicans killed and wounded at about 600.


600 is still a lot, and would fall in a believable 3 to 1 overall kill ratio by the defenders. I doubt that the Alcade had ever seen six hundred dead before, and numbers may have grown in memory.

Birdwatcher
Birdwatcher

We know some things and those things are all that matters.

Santa Anna was a tyrant. Texas rebelled against a tyrannical regime that did not allow them representation or protection yet expected tribute. Some hundreds of men died at San Antonio, Goliad, San Jacinto and all points in between fighting against that tyranny. Ultimately Santa Anna was shown to be the coward he was and regretfully was not hung.

Particulars about who died where, doing what, when make little or no difference to me in regard to the big picture of what the fighting was about or what was accomplished by the deaths of men who's shadow cast at noon is larger than most revisionists will ever hope to diminish with their lies.

To those who view Texas culture through racially polarized glasses..... Being white does not make a person a Texan any more than being brown makes them a Mexican. Texans, white, brown and all shades in between stood against the overwhelming force of tyranny and died like men in defiance of being subjugated by it. Make no mistake, we will do it again if need be.

Alan

Look anything like this, maybe?

Excellent pic. 4a.m.?

exactly and Messicans love to brag that they stopped there long enough to pizz on it!

While there is no doubt that it is not the destination that it once was, due to rudeness and lack of understanding not just from the Mexicans, but from just a general degeneration of things, I doubt many Mexicans have the cojones to do that. Maybe some of them piss on the floor in the bathroom when nobody is looking, but there isn't anybody pissing on the inner walls or anything like that.

There is no doubt that it looked much the same to the Mexican troops who awaited the order to assault the works well before dawn. Be advised that the hump for the bell tower on the mission is an affectation added in the 1840's by US Troops. It was not original construction and was not there when Santa Anna laid siege to the fortress.

As it stands now the Alamo is only a fraction of what it was. Go to some of the other missions in San Antonio that still have their outer walls and you get an idea of what the place looked like during the battle.
Today the surrounding city streets roughly outline the size of the original mission.

Yep! Many years ago a Texas legislator made this comment in Austin:

"We stole Texas from them damn Mexicans fair and square and they got no gripe coming!"

I agree!

DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS!

No they claim the outter front wall, early in the morning .. on their way to work or rip us off.

The Jose Enrique de la Pena account of Crockett and several of the Tennesseans being "captured" or "surrendering" has interested me since I became aware of With Santa Anna in Texas . I know many scholars challenge the work as a forgery. Personally , I don't know. However, logic leads me to believe it might be true. Remember that Crockett and his Tennesseans were defending the wooden palisade, just to the right of the old Mission front. The major attack came on the North Wall, all the way to the other end of the compound. The area where Crockett fought was the last to fall. It is generally considered that it took 90 minutes for the assault to be completed. These defenders had flintlocks; how many times do you think they fired them in this time frame? They were probably out of powder/ball, or the rifles were so fouled, they no longer functioned. The tomahawk and large(Bowie) knife were the "backup" weapons of the day. I suspect the Mexicans attackers were pretty tired also. I surmise they all just quit fighting at the end, as the Mexicans were probably not interested in "hand to hand" fighting with the Tennesseans. General Castrillon intervened on behalf of these last 7 Alamo defenders. Santa Anna ordered them executed.
The Alamo Mission was a ruin, without even a roof. It had not been used as a Mission in many years, prior to 1836.
One would really need to see a sketch of the compound as it existed in March of 1836. The diorama in the Museum is very helpful to see, if you go to the Alamo.
When I took my boys to the Alamo many years ago, the oldest, about 8 or 9, remarked: " I don't see how they had a battle with all these buildings around here!"
AKHnter: you have no valid information on this subject; go back in your hole. Having read many of your posts, it is clear to me you have no information of value on any subject you have posted on. I cannot fathom whether you are a total idiot or if just work real hard at appearing so!

What was said that got your dander up? Was it because you favor the mexicans and their return? Have you personally taken steps to stop the advance of the mexicans like the Alamo defenders did? I'll bet not. I see you as being a mexican apologist and mexican supporter. Don't worry though, there are plenty here on the Fire that will like your words because they are in support of illegalness and invaders from the south of the border. Are you of mexican blood and descent? Something tells me you have got skin in this game to be so defensive. Are you harboring mexicans?

I have alway wounder about a few things about the Alamo.

Why has the name of the General been changed? (Santa Anna)

Why did the Mexican army attack the USA?

They were pissed about the Germans attacking Pearl Harbor.

Texas was a Republic before joining the USA.Mexico did not attack The USA.Less than 20 years after Mexico became a country the people of Texas pulled away and formed The Republic of Texas.

Thanks I know very little about the Alamo.

So why did Mexico attack The Republic of Texas?

And yes I am to lazy to do a search and read up on the Alamo.

Texas was part of Mexico. we fought Mexico for our Independence and became the Republic of Texas.

How old are you?

Right...Texas was part of Mexico. In a nut-shell, the Government in Mexico was bad, Texas rebelled and broke away. Then Sam Houston sold Texas out to the United States.

God Bless Texas!
So much history! And I don't live too far from another great site... Gonzales.
"Come and Take It"