Roy Sorrels - The Legend of the Alamo. Stories in American History

All of the Texas defenders would be killed. Remember the Alamo would become the battle cry for Texas independence.

The battle for the Alamo has become one of the most famous conficts in American history. In 1836, General Santa Anna led troops in a battle to capture the Alamoa Spanish-built mission in San Antonio. This battle escalated between American pioneers and Mexican troops into a fight for Texan Independence from Mexico.

In The Legend of the Alamo: Stories in American History, author Roy Sorrels narrates the battle for control between Texans and Mexicans. He describes the famous men who defended the Alamo, including: Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, Jim Bowie, and William Travis. Remember the Alamo would become a battle cry for Americans fighting for the independence of Texas from Mexico.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Roy Sorrels is a freelance writer who lives in a small town in central Mexico. He has written everything from romance novels to murder mysteries to books about American and Mexican History.

The Alamo

General Antonio Lpez de Santa Anna and his army of four thousand Mexican solders marched north on that frosty winter of 1836 toward San Antonio. Inside the Alamo, a former Spanish mission complex turned into a fortress, the Texas defenders gathered ready to fight. Few of them had realized how quickly Santa Anna could bring a large army over such a great distance. Now they were to feel the full extent of his determination and anger.

Winning the battle against Mexican General Martin Perfect de Cos and taking San Antonio and the Alamo in December 1835 had been simple. The Texans had won easily, driving the Mexican general and his army back into Mexico in disgrace. Then winter had come and many thought that there would be no more fighting for the time being. So many of the Texas troops simply wandered off or headed home to their families.

The defenders inside the Alamo were not preparing as well or as carefully as they could have been. This was partly due to inexperience and lack of organization, but also because they generally held the Mexican Army in contempt.

While Santa Anna moved north, no one in Texas seemed to be paying much attention. Even Sam Houston, by now in charge of the Texas army, went off to negotiate a treaty with the Texas Cherokee to keep them neutral in the conflict.

Jim Bowie and his company of twenty to thirty men arrived at the Alamo in late January. They had to decide whether or not to blow it up so that it would not fall into Mexicos hands. Lieutenant Colonel James C. Neill, who was in charge, did not paint a very encouraging picture for Bowie. Only about 115 soldiers were still at the Alamo, and some of them were still recovering from the battle against General Cos. Suppliesand more importantly, ammunitionwere low.

Even though Bowie had permission to destroy the Alamo, both he and Neill elected not to do so. Bowie wrote to the Texas government: The salvation of Texas depends in great measure in keeping Bejar [San Antonio] out of the hands of the enemy. Colonel Neill and myself have come to the solemn resolution that we will rather die in these ditches than give up this post to the enemy.

The next day, Lieutenant Colonel William B. Travis and thirty cavalrymen arrived at the Alamo. Texas Governor Henry Smith had given Travis orders to help reinforce the Alamo. In the battle that would follow, all of the Texan defenders would be killed. Remember the Alamo would become the battle cry for Texas independence.

When the first American settlers arrived, the vast land known as Texas was almost empty. In all that vastness there were no major cities as we know them today. There were a few Spanish colonial settlements and a sparse scattering of missionssmall religious settlements founded by Catholic priests to try to convert the Native Americans to Christianity.

Comanche, Lipan Apache, and other tribes wandered freely, as they had for hundreds of years. Few roads crossed the enormous emptiness, only rough paths that the buffalo followed.

Although the huge space was almost empty, it was at the same time filled with danger. Across the broad plains, danger lurked in possible attacks from the Comanche and Apache. The very emptiness of the land was dangerous in itselfthere were few doctors to call on if someone got sick or broke a bone. A simple cut could become infected and cause death.

Yet the settlers came as early as 1810. They came in small family groups and as solo frontiersmen, hardy and sturdy. They sought freedom from too much government and not enough opportunity. The hunger for land of their own was one of the qualities that defined Americans of the time.

This huge expanse into which they moved was then part of the colony of New Spain.

In 1519, Hernando Corts, a Spanish soldier and adventurer, had been sent across the sea by the Spanish rulers in search of gold and silver. The Spanish economy of the time, and the European economy as well, was hampered by the lack of silver and gold to make into coins. An economy that barters its product for gold can only develop so far without more and more gold, so the Europeans needed more currency.

Although seemingly empty to the first whie settlers, Texas was inhabitated by Native Americans and plenty of wildlife. The vast land held many dangers for the settlers.

Hernando Corts, an adventrurer from Spain, conquered the Aztec in the sixteenth century. This led to three hundred years of Spanish control of Mexico.

Corts, driven by this hunger for gold and silver, conquered the land that had been ruled by the Aztec throughout Mexico. His troops brought with them their fine Spanish horses. Indeed, it was partly because the Spaniards were mounted and the Aztec were not that the Europeans were able to march west from Veracruz and overpower the mighty Montezuma, king of the Aztec Empire.

The land of the Aztec then became a colony of Spain. Spanish missionaries, often at the point of a sword, set out to convert the Native Americans to Christianity. Thousands of Aztec and members of other tribes diedmany from diseases that the Spaniards brought with them and many more from working under slave-labor conditions to mine silver and gold.

Over the next couple of hundred years, the Comanche, as well as the Apache and some other Plains tribes, obtained horses descended from the noble Spanish steeds. The Comanche soon became expert riders. Children, women, and men all rode; and they rode very well. Horses allowed them to follow the gigantic buffalo herds and hunt them more easily. For the Comanche, living was relatively easy because the buffalo provided them with an abundant supply of food. The buffalo also provided hides for warm clothing and buffalo chipsdried manurefor fuel.

The Comanche never planted a seed and never settled down in villages. Their horses made it possible to hunt the buffalo and other gameincluding prong-horn antelope, deer, rabbits, elk, and turkeysand to roam far and wide.