The Siege of the Alamo
Garrison life had become tiresome and the Americans had given themselves over to a careless indulgence and a life of festivity. Pickets had grown careless. The men were weary of…
From: 1836 C.E. To: 1836 C.E.
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“The Siege of the Alamo” from Historical Sketch and Guide to the Alamo by Leonora Bennett, 1904.
The Mexican army camped on the Medina, where Arredondo had so signally defeated Toledo, and sent out advance guards to learn where the Americans might be found, to ascertain their number and otherwise gain information in regard to their situations. The garrison was not well outposted, and finding the coast comparatively clear the Mexicans moved forward to the Alazan, three miles West of the town.
Garrison life had become tiresome and the Ameri- cans had given themselves over to a careless indulgence and a life of festivity. Pickets had grown careless. The men were weary of waiting, and their existence was a lazy one.
Without means of communication with the frontier they were not prepared for the enemy. Reinforcements had been expected, preliminary to a march to the West, and the little troop had been alternately impatient and indifferent about their arrival so long had it been delayed and so often had they been disappointed. The contentions among the leaders and council had postponed the organization of an army, and the infection of unrest and indifference to strict military rule had permeated the garrison of the Alamo.
Mission of the Alamo. Image from book.
Thus it happened that the Mexican army drew so near unannounced and unknown. They chose the night for their coming, to make their march unseen more sure, and by dawn on the 23rd of February were discovered swarming the prairies West of the San Pedro and filing down the banks of the more distant Alazan.
The alarm was given from the mission on Main Plaza by a sentinel stationed on the tower, and created the greatest consternation in the sleeping little city. Travis and Bowie could hardly believe it, so strong had been their dependence upon their government and the council. Trusty couriers, Dr. Sutherland, surgeon to the band, and a volunteer named Smith, were dispatched to learn the truth or falsity of the alarm and were not long in discovering, from Desiderio Hill, just West of the San Pedro, that an army before which the garrison would be powerless was already drawn up in battle array. With the coming of that dawn came the fate of the American battalion. They could not retreat in honor, nor were they horsed for a flight. There was nothing left but to do the best they could, behind the sturdy walls of the fortress, into which they were quickly filed.
Today we see around the Alamo a busy city. Then there was but here and there a little adobe on that side of the river, the town having been built on the West banks, the mission on the opposite side. Where Travis Park now is was prairie, and all along the river on the Eastern side grazed little bunches of cattle. Men had scurried here and there, gathering as many of these together as was possible in the time at command, and as Santa Anna invaded the city from the West the American forces drove their herd into the enclosure and closed the heavy gates of the Alamo behind them for the last time.
The fiat had gone forth. During all the fierce skirmishes between the opposing forces, with the single exception of the capture of San Antonio by the colonists, massacre had followed surrender. It was a war of no quarter, a struggle to the death. Travis and Bowie—and the brave little band with them—knew when they drew the gates that it was the end, unless reinforcements from the East should come very soon. Within the Alamo the supplies of the fortress were but a few bushels of corn and the beeves which had been run in that morning. For the latter there was no feed beyond enough for a day or two, and without means of communication with the seat of government the abandonment of the garrison must have been resignedly complete.
Every American but one had entered the fort. Dr. Sutherland had been dispatched upon the fleetest horse at command for reinforcements. San Felipe was a long distance away. Only a straggling settler here and there lived West of the Brazos. The frontiersmen had suffered more severely at Goilad and the Medina than those from the colonies further to the East. The courier had a long way to go before he could reach a settled section. His mission was hopeless, and though he rode the death ride fearlessly the garrison lived not to learn the result of his effort.
Message of Defiance and Death
Hardly had the gates been closed and barricaded before messengers from Santa Anna arrived demanding surrender. Travis had a cannon on the roof and answered the demand by a shot. The Mexican had taken possession of the Mission San Fernando, and upon its tower, from which the sentinel had given the first warning of his approach, he ran up a blood-red flag. The heroes of the Alamo saw it and knew what it meant. The messenger of their death waved before them in the gentle breezes of the Southern morn.
The river lay between, and ran more water than now. An army could not be forded, and thus delay occurred. The answer which Travis had sent him told Santa Anna that he had a struggle ahead, so his engineers were put to work constructing a bridge, far enough down the river to be beyond the reach of the American guns.
To get timber for the bridge a detachment of men was sent to attack the walls of the mission from the rear, but the galling fire of the riflemen within less than an hour sent thirty of them to their death and they were withdrawn, a cordon being swung to the North and East, on what is now known as Dignowity Hill, to prevent the possible retirement of the garrison in that direction.
The state of siege necessitated concert of action within the Alamo. Travis was formally placed in command, with Bowie as second officer in case of his death. Crockett, who had come from Tennessee after his defeat for re-election to the American Congress, upon his arrival had been tendered the command by Travis, but he declined the honor and responsibility. “I am among you to live or to die; I have come to your country to identify myself with your interests, and the only honor I desire is that of assisting to defend, as a fighter in the ranks,. the liberties of my fellow citizens and the freedom of this beautiful country," was his patrotic reply.
Davy Crockett was a character of whom history has recorded many an incident. Tall, lithe, athletic, as courageous as a lion, he had been a Tennessee frontiersman of whom the state had been proud. He had led his fellow settlers many a time against the Indian's and outlaws who had infested that state in early times, and had finally, in the days of peace, been sent to the American Congress, There he was a striking character, in his buckskin dress and coonskin cap, with his favorite rifle always by him. He had the courage of his convictions and followed the dictates of his conscience rather than the mandates of his party, his favorite motto, which made him famous, "Be Sure You Are Right, Then Go Ahead," being his guide in all his transactions, and he was not returned a second time. He had proclaimed in his canvass that if defeated he should go to Texas and take up the cause of Liberty there, and had kept his word.
Crockett had no ambitions to lead the Texans, he preferred to follow. But from the moment he set foot on Texas soil he had been an enthusiastic devotee of the cause of the Texans, and now, at the crucial moment, was a fighter among fighters, a private among privates, yet a counsellor among counsellors within the walls of the cradle of the liberty of the Lone Star Re- public.
Seriousness of the Siege Understood
Within the Alamo there could be no misunderstanding of the seriousness of the siege. Travis comprehended the situation and saw that it was desperate. Unless relief should come there could be but one result.
A consultation decided that assistance must be secured, and one of the bravest of the brave defenders of the Alamo, Col. James B. Bonham, a South Carolinian who had colonized to Texas, volunteered to undertake the hazardous task of getting through the enemy's lines and carrying the message of distress to Col. Fannin at Goliad. Under cover of darkness he made his way through the pickets, and once well out on the prairie rode with the swiftness of the wind in the interests of his compatriots and their cause, making Goliad on the morning of the 25th and earnestly laying the situation before the commander of the post at that point.
Fannin had but a small force and it took time to gather together enough men to make the effort worth the while. On the 28th he started with a troop of cavalry and several cannon. But the traveling was heavy, the wagons were in bad condition, and headway was made too slowly for Bonham, who galloped back alone and under cover of night, as when he left, succeeded in returning to the Alamo with his announcement of reinforcements within a short time.
But Urrea was marching upon Goliad and the news was carried to Fannin, compelling him to return with haste to his own garrison, and thus the Alamo heard nothing from aid from that direction.
Meanwhile the courier who had first set out for San Felipe had succeeded in arousing the garrison at Gonzales and thirty-two courageous volunteers broke through the Mexican lines on the eighth day of the siege and got within the enclosure, where they were enthusiastically received by Travis, who yet hoped that enough might come from various garrisons and settlements to enable him to hold the fortress against the enemy.
But in this hope he was to be disappointed. The Mexicans were pressing hard and drawing closer and closer. The distances between the colonists' posts were great, and traveling was bad. Couriers were the only means for the transporting of dispatches, and they were often shot down and failed to reach their destination. The country was sparsely settled and with difficulty could even small bands of fighting men be gathered. It was the destiny of fate that the Alamo was not to be relieved. The hundred, and seventy-seven brave heroes who were besieged within the massive walls of the church and fortress were to be immolated upon the sacred altar of liberty, and the day of their immolation was near.
Patriotic and Pathetic Appeal.
The Mexicans had not yet attacked the fort, so Travis wrote a patriotic and pathetic appeal on the 24th of February and sent a second courier out of the walls in the hope that he might get with safety to the settlements and be able to arouse the scattered colonists to a concerted reinforcement and defense of the city. His appeal speaks the story of his courage better than any words a historian might pen, reading as follows:
"Commandancy of the Alamo, Bexar, February 24, 1836.
"Fellow-Citizens and Compatriots: I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained a continued bombardment for twenty-four hours, and have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion; otherwise the garrison is to be put to the sword if the place is taken. I have answered the summons with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then I call on you in the name of liberty, of patriotism, and of everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all dispatch. The enemy are receiving reinforcements daily, and will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. Though this call may be neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible, and die like a soldier who forgets not what is due to his own honor and that of his country. Victory or death!
W. Barrett Travis,
"Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding."
P. S.—The Lord is on our side. When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn. We have since found in deserted houses eighty or ninety bushels, and got into the walls twenty or thirty head of beeves. T."
On the first day of March Travis made still another attempt to get in communication with the council, then in session in the town of Washington, in which he told his compatriots of the situation and announced his intention of holding out to the last whether relief should come or not.
"Blood-red banners fly from the church at Bexar (Cathedral San Fernando) and the camp entirely surrounding the Alamo are tokens that the war is one of vengeance against the 'Rebels.' I shall continue to hold the Alamo until I get relief from my countrymen, or shall perish in the attempt."
Evidently anticipating the inevitable he wrote a friend to take care of his little boy, adding in the letter: "If the country should be saved I may make him a splendid fortune; but if lost, I perish and he is the son of one who died for his country."
This boy, then a lad of tender years, was later a member of the Texas legislature, a captain in the United States army, and at one time belonged to Colonel Sidney Johnston's regiment.
These letters were sent by couriers who never returned. The distances they had to travel were so great that the Alamo had fallen probably even before they got to their destination.
Bennett, Leonora. Historical Sketch and Guide to the Alamo. James T. Roney & Co., 1904.
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