All Defenders Fall: The Alamo Sacrifice Becomes a Cry

Santa Anna's Mexican army stormed the Alamo before dawn on March 6, 1836, overwhelming the 187 Texan defenders in a battle that lasted roughly ninety minutes. Every defender was killed. Within seven weeks, "Remember the Alamo" became the battle cry that rallied the Texan army to decisive victory, transforming a military disaster into the founding myth of an independent republic. The siege had lasted thirteen days. William Barret Travis, a 26-year-old lawyer commanding the Alamo garrison, had sent repeated dispatches pleading for reinforcements. His February 24 letter "To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World" became one of the most famous documents of the Texas Revolution: "I shall never surrender or retreat... Victory or Death." Roughly thirty-two volunteers from Gonzales managed to slip through Mexican lines to join the defenders, but the main Texan army under Sam Houston was too far away and too disorganized to mount a relief expedition. Santa Anna assembled between 1,500 and 6,000 troops — sources differ — and ordered the assault for the predawn hours of March 6. Mexican soldiers advanced in four columns from the cardinal directions. The first two assaults were repulsed by rifle and cannon fire from the Alamo's walls, but the third wave breached the north wall, and defenders fell back into the chapel and long barracks for a final stand. Fighting was hand-to-hand in the confined spaces. Among the dead were James Bowie, the frontiersman famous for his knife, who was killed in his sickbed too ill to stand; Davy Crockett, the former Tennessee congressman who had arrived at the Alamo only weeks earlier; and Travis, reportedly shot early in the battle while firing from the north wall. Mexican casualties were substantial, with estimates ranging from 300 to 600 killed and wounded. Santa Anna executed several defenders who survived the fighting, including, by some accounts, Crockett. Non-combatants — women, children, and Travis's enslaved man Joe — were spared and released. Sam Houston used the Alamo's sacrifice to unify Texan resistance. Six weeks later, his army routed Santa Anna's forces at San Jacinto in eighteen minutes, winning Texas its independence.