Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies by David Fisher Read Free Book Online

Antonio had been occupied by more than a thousand Mexican soldiers. But after a five-day battle, the Mexican army had been defeated and had surrendered all property, guns, and ammunition to the Texans. The furious Santa Anna was determined to demonstrate to the settlers that resistance to Mexican rule was futile by retaking San Antonio—whatever the cost. He made it clear that there would be no quarter given, no prisoners taken; this would be a lesson the Texans would never forget. When 1,800 Mexican troops arrived in San Antonio on February 23, the 145 Texans—among them Davy Crockett—moved into the fortified mission called the Alamo.
    Historians have been studying—and debating—the details of the battle for the Alamo for years without reaching agreement as to precisely how it unfolded. Apparently Sam Houston initially told his commander in San Antonio, Colonel William B. Travis, to destroy the mission and withdraw, believing his troops lacked the manpower and supplies necessary to defend it. Had Travis been able to comply with those instructions, most of the garrison could have survived, but he allowed his men to vote on whether to stay—and rather than retreat, they elected to stay and fight. When Santa Anna arrived and demanded their surrender, Travis responded with a cannon shot.
    The Alamo was a small fortress, protected by limestone-block walls eight feet high and about three feet thick. Santa Anna’s army immediately began bombarding the mission, his artillery moving closer each day. On the twenty-fifth, an estimated three hundred Mexican troops crossed the San Antonio River and reached a line of abandoned shacks less than one hundred yards from the walls. It was an important strategic position from which to launch an assault; the Texans had to dislodge them. While the Alamo’s cannons and Crockett’s marksmen provided cover, a small group of volunteers reached the shacks and burned them down.
    Travis pleaded for reinforcements, warning that his troops were running out of ammunition and supplies. On the twenty-sixth, 420 men with four artillery pieces set out from the fort at Goliad to relieve the garrison. When this force was unable to successfully ford the San Antonio River, they turned back, although about twenty men volunteered to try to reach the Alamo.

“The enemy … treated the bodies with brutal indignation.” They were thrown onto a pile and burned. The remains are believed to be in this casket in San Antonio’s San Fernando Cathedral.
    Little is known about what was going on inside the Alamo during the siege, although one of the few survivors of the battle, a woman named Susanna Dickinson, wrote that Davy Crockett had entertained the garrison with his violin and storytelling. In records found after the massacre, Colonel Travis wrote of observing Crockett everywhere in the Alamo “animating men to do their duty.” It was also reported that Crockett had killed five Mexicans in succession as they tried to fire a cannon at the walls, and some claimed that he came within a whisker of killing Santa Anna, who had wandered into rifle range. There is some evidence that Crockett had managed to sneak out through Mexican lines to locate the small band of reinforcements waiting at Cibolo Creek and guide them into the Alamo. Several months after the battle, the Arkansas Gazette reported, “Col. Crockett, with about 50 resolute volunteers had cut their way into the garrison through the Mexican troops only a few days before the fall of San Antonio.” The meaning of that is clear, and it erases any doubts about his courage andhis integrity: Crockett had made his way out of what appeared to be a hopeless situation and could have escaped. Instead, he fought his way back inside to make a final stand with his men.

“Remember the Alamo” was the battle cry that led Sam Houston’s troops to victory at the Battle of San Jacinto six weeks later—and Americans have never forgotten the sacrifices made there.