(from Wikipedia)
The Battle of the Alamo was fought in February and March 1836 in San Antonio Texas. The conflict, a part of the Texas Revolution, was the first step in Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's attempt to retake the province of Texas after an insurgent army of Texan settlers and adventurers from the United States had driven out all Mexican troops the previous year. Mexican forces began a siege of the Texian forces garrisoned at the Alamo Mission on Tuesday, February 23. For the next twelve days, Mexican cannons advanced slowly to positions nearer the Alamo walls, while Texian soldiers worked to improve their defenses. Alamo co-commander William Travis sent numerous letters to the acting Texas government, the remaining Texas army under James Fannin, and various Texas communities, asking for reinforcements, provisions, and ammunition. Several times small groups of Texians ventured outside the Alamo walls, occasionally skirmishing with Mexican soldiers. Mexican forces received reinforcements on March 3. The Texians were reinforced at least once, when 32 men from Gonzales entered the fort, and may have received additional reinforcements. Additional Texas settlers and American adventurers gathered at Gonzales to prepare for the march to San Antonio.
In the early morning hours of March 6 the Mexican army prepared for a final assault. At 5:30 a.m. soldiers, divided into four columns, rushed towards the Alamo. Untrained soldiers in the columns may have fired hastily, killing or wounding their comrades. The Texians repulsed the initial attack as well as a second attempt. During the third Mexican advance, three columns of Mexican soldiers became massed against the Alamo's north wall. Santa Anna sent the reserves to the same location. Mexican soldiers soon scaled the wall and opened the gates to the rest of the army. Most of the Texian soldiers retreated into the long barracks or the chapel; several small groups who were unable to reach these points attempted to escape and were killed outside the walls by the waiting Mexican cavalry. Fighting within the Alamo shifted to hand-to-hand combat. The battle ended by 6:30 a.m.. Between five and seven Texians may have surrendered; if so, they were quickly executed on Santa Anna's orders. Most eyewitness accounts counted between 182 and 257 Texian dead, while most Alamo historians agree that 400–600 Mexicans were killed or wounded. Of the Texans who fought during the battle, only two survived: Travis's slave, Joe, was assumed to be a noncombatant, and Brigido Guerrero, who had deserted from the Mexican Army several months before, convinced Mexican soldiers that he had been taken prisoner by the Texians. Women and children, primarily family members of the Texian soldiers, were questioned by Santa Anna and then released.
On Santa Anna's orders, three of the survivors–Joe, Susanna Dickinson, and her daughter Angelina–were sent to Gonzales to inform the Texas settlers of the Alamo's fall and to deliver a warning to the remainder of the Texian forces that the Mexican army was unbeatable. After hearing this news, Texian army commander Sam Houston ordered that the men who had gathered in Gonzales to aid the Alamo retreat; this sparked the Runaway Scrape, a mass exodus of citizens and the Texas government towards the east (away from the Mexican army). News of the Alamo's fall prompted many Texas colonists to join Houston's army. On the afternoon of April 21 the Texian army attacked Santa Anna's forces in the Battle of San Jacinto. During the battle many Texians shouted "Remember the Alamo!" Santa Anna was captured and forced to order his troops out of Texas, ending Mexican control of the province, now known as the Republic of Texas.
By March 24 a list of names of the Texians who died at the Alamo had begun to be compiled. The first history of the battle was published in 1843, but serious study of the battle did not begin until after the 1931 publication of Amelia W. Williams's dissertation attempting to identify all of the Texians who died at the Alamo. The first full-length, non-fiction book covering the battle was published in 1948. The battle was first depicted in film in the 1911 silent film The Immortal Alamo, and has since been featured in numerous movies, including one directed by John Wayne. The Alamo church building has been designated an official Texas state shrine, with the Daughters of the Republic of Texas acting as permanent caretakers.
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