World of Pots: The Alamo Story

When my family and I were in San Antonio in the US, we visited the Alamo and heard a story about the "Thirteen fateful days in 1836 ". Here is an account of what actually happened in 1836 in Alamo.

Originally named Mission San Antonio the Alamo served as home to missionaries and their Indian converts for nearly seventy years. In 1793, Spanish officials secularised San Antonio's five missions and distributed their lands to the remaining Indian residents. Theses men and women continued to farm the fields - once the Mission's but now their own - and participated in the growing community of San Antonio.

The Alamo in San Antonio

In the early 1800s, the Spanish military stationed a cavalry unit at the former mission. The soldiers referred to the old mission as the Alamo in honour of their hometown Alamo

The Five Spanish Missions

de Parras, Coahuila. The post's commander established the first hospital in Texas in the Long Barrack. The Alamo was home to both Revolutionaries and Royalists during Mexico's ten-years struggle for independence. The military - Spanish, Rebels, and then Mexican - continued to occupy he Alamo until the Texas Revolution.

San Antonio and the Alamo played a role in the Texas Revolution. In December 1835, Ben Milam led Texian and Tejano volunteers against Mexican troops quartered in the city. After five days of intense fighting, they forced General Martin Perfecto de Cos and his soldiers to surrender. The victorious volunteers then occupied the Alamo and strengtened its defences. On February 23, 1836, the arrival of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's army outside San Antonio nearly caught them by surprise. Undaunted the Texians and Tejanos prepared to defend the Alamo together. The defenders held out for 13 days against Santa Anna's army. William B Travis, the commander of the Alamo, sent forth couriers carrying pleas for help to communities in Texas. On the eight day of the siege, a band of 32 volunteers from Gonzales arrived, bringing the number of defenders to nearly two hundred. Legend holds that with the possibility of additional help fading, Colonel Travis drew a line on the ground and asked any man willing to stay and fight to step over - all except one did. As the defenders saw it, the Alamo was the key to the defence of Texas, and they were ready to give their lives rather than surrender their position to General Santa Anna. Among the Alamo's garrison were Jim Bowie, renowned knife fighter, and David Crockett, famed frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee.

The final assault came before daybreak on the morning of March 6 1836, as columns of Mexican soldiers emerged from the predawn darkness and headed for the Alamo's walls. Cannon and small arms fire from inside the Alamo beat back several attacks. Regrouping, the Mexicans scaled the walls and rushed into the compound. Once inside, they turned the captured cannon on the Ling Barrack and church, blasting open the barricaded doors. The desperate struggle continued until the defenders were overwhelmed. By sunrise the battle had ended and Santa Anna entered the Alamo compound to survey the scene of victory.

While the facts surrounding the siege f the Alamo continue to be debated, there is no doubt about what the battle has come to symbolise. People worldwide continue to remember the Alamo as heroic struggle against overwhelming odds - a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. For this reason remain hallowed ground and the shrine of Texas Liberty.

"If we succeed, the Country is ours. It is immense in extent, and fertile in its soil and will amply reward all our toil. If we fail, death in the cause of liberty and humanity is not cause for shuddering. Our rifles are by ourside, and the choice guns they are, we know what awaits us, and are prepared to meet it." ------ Daniel Cloud (one of the defenders), December 26, 1835.