On 23 February 1836 the Mexican army of President General Antonio López de Santa Anna marched into San Antonio de Béxar, and the Texian garrison under William B. Travis and James Bowie shut itself inside the old Alamo mission. So began a siege of 13 days. Before it ended in the storming of 6 March, Travis sent out the most famous letter of the Texas Revolution, addressed to the people of Texas and all Americans in the world. How many men held the Alamo, and how many attackers fell, is still argued over.
The enemy in sight
The defenders were taken by surprise. According to the Handbook of Texas, Travis had not expected Santa Anna to reach Béxar before 15 March. On the 23rd a number of civilians took refuge in the Alamo along with the Texian soldiers, and that day Travis signed for 30 head of cattle for the garrison. Travis sent a hurried note to Gonzales: “The enemy in large force is in sight. We want men and provisions. Send them to us. We have 150 men and are determined to defend the garrison to the last”.1
Santa Anna called on the garrison to surrender, and Travis answered with a shot from the Alamo's cannon. According to the Alamo's own account, Santa Anna's terms to the Texian envoy were surrender at discretion, leaving the defenders' fate in his hands, and he ordered a red flag flown from the San Fernando church as a sign that no quarter would be given.2
Victory or Death
Travis and Bowie had shared command since early February, Travis over the regulars and Bowie over the volunteers. On 24 February Bowie fell seriously ill, and Travis took sole command. That day he wrote to “the People of Texas & all Americans in the world”. The fort, he wrote, had “sustained a continual Bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours”. He would “never surrender or retreat”, and he signed off with “Victory or Death”. Above all, as the Handbook of Texas notes, the letter was a plea for help.3
Captain Albert Martin carried it out through the Mexican lines and reached Gonzales on the afternoon of the 25th. From there Lancelot Smither rode on with it to San Felipe, where it was printed as a broadside, and the Texas Republican published it on 2 March. Further copies were sent on from Gonzales to Nacogdoches and other towns in Texas. The original survives in the Texas State Library and Archives.4
Thirteen days
Mexican gunners set about battering down the walls. Help barely came. The Handbook of Texas says Colonel James Fannin planned to march from Goliad with 320 volunteers on 26 February, but the column got only as far as the San Antonio River, two miles from his fort, before he turned back. On 1 March, 32 men of the Gonzales ranging company slipped through the Mexican lines into the fort. On 3 March Travis wrote that he had lost faith in Fannin and looked to the colonies alone for aid.5
On 5 March Santa Anna announced an assault for the next morning, over the objections of officers who thought starvation would soon force a surrender. Around 5 a.m. on 6 March the columns attacked from four sides. The Handbook of Texas says the fight lasted no more than 90 minutes, and the story of the storming is told in our article on the Battle of the Alamo.6
Counting the dead
The numbers remain disputed. Travis himself spoke of 150 men at the start, and the Alamo's own account puts the garrison at almost 200 after the Gonzales men arrived. The Handbook of Texas says 189 defenders appear on the official list, but that research may raise the total to as many as 257. It puts Mexican killed and wounded at about 600, while noting that accounts vary. Several defenders who survived the fighting were executed on Santa Anna's orders, and whether Davy Crockett was among them is still debated.7
The Handbook of Texas rejects the idea that the defenders sought death. They had been ordered to hold the post until support arrived, and Travis kept calling for that support to the end. News of the fall set off a panicked flight of settlers known as the Runaway Scrape, and the cry “Remember the Alamo” followed the Texian army to its victory over Santa Anna at San Jacinto.8
