The Battle of the Alamo: a Research Paper by Vidura

The Battle of the Alamo

The Alamo was founded in 1718 as a Spanish mission called Francisco mission of San Antonio de Valero after that it was abandoned for about one hundred years before the battle of the Alamo, and right before that the Alamo was used by the Mexican army too as a base but was taken over and re-fortified by the Texans.

The Battle of the Alamo was caused by the revolution of Texas. The Texas revolution happened because Texas couldn’t gain statehood— its population was too low. Meanwhile, American settlers saw the good land and started moving into the Mexican-controlled territory. Because of this, the population of Texas increased drastically from 1823-1828. The Mexican government was not happy that the settlers were moving in because they could see that it was sparking a revolution. The Tejanos, on the other hand, were happy because they saw it as a chance for Texas to gain statehood. The Mexican government was angry, so to stop the revolution they made it so that no American settlers were allowed to enter the Mexican territory. That only made the settlers and Tejanos angrier, and that was the real reason for the Texas revolution. 

The battle of the Alamo lasted for many days and the number of people killed topped an astounding   1,800. The number of people injured were countless. All though we don’t know exactly how many people there where, we know that all of the 187 Texan defenders were killed, and in the fort only a few people such as slave and a woman with her child were spared. At the battle of the Alamo, the Texans did lose but they actually got more kills. But General Santa Anna fought hard to make sure all Texan troops were killed because he did not want one to be spared. He also did not want to keep any captives not even the Texan army generals (such as William Travis).  

David Crocket was a famous speaker, a congressman, and a very good hunter. He wanted move to Texas when he saw a nice plot of land, although his wife did not want to move and she thought that they were perfectly fine were they were. Later, when the Texas revolution started he and 12 of his men fought in it and died defending the Alamo from the Mexican troops. The reason he fought was because he could see that the Mexican government was being very unfair to the people living in Texas. David Crocket is now commonly known as Davy Crocket although back when he was still alive people always called him David, not Davy.

James Bowie was also a famous man even before the battle of the Alamo. His brother Reza Bowie invented the bowie knife which is still used today. James Bowie used the bowie knife while fighting at the Alamo and the other Texas volunteers used similar knifes. James Bowie spent most of his time growing up in Louisiana although he was born in Kentucky. He moved to Texas in 1830 were he married the vice governor’s daughter Ursula Veramendi. He was a nineteenth century, smuggler, pioneer, slave trader, soldier, and speculator.

Unlike David Crocket and James Bowie, William Travis was really famous before he dies at the Alamo. William Travis went to Sparta academy were he learned subjects such as Greek, Latin, History, and Mathematics. After his education was finished at the age of 18, he became an assistant teacher at Monroe County were fell in love with Rosanna Cato. William and Rosanna married in October 1828. Just a year after their marriage Rosanna gave birth to their first son Charlie. He took charge of the defenders of the Alamo when Colonel James Neill had to leave due to sickness in his family.

The defenders of the Alamo were mostly American settlers who moved to Texas and didn’t think the Mexican government was doing a good job ruling over the Texas province. The Alamo defenders were besieged for about thirteen days starting in late-February and ending in early march. On one of the walls, there were cut down trees and an armored deck with cannons. The defenders dropped loads like stones on the attackers below. One of the main defenses of the Alamo were the heavy cannons. The defenders also had ditches on many of the walls where the defenders could lay on their stomachs and shoot at the Mexicans.

General Santa Anna was also not just a general but the president of Mexico too. General Santa Anna had almost 2,400 troops in San Antonio, although more were also coming. One tactic the Mexican soldiers used was put ladders up to the walls; this meant that the front row of defenders would die. The reason so many Mexican troops died was because Santa Anna was careless. One time when the Mexican officers protested against the ladder tactic because it would lose too many men, he held up a piece of chicken that he was in the middle of eating and said: “What are the lives of soldiers more than so many chickens? I tell you, the Alamo must fall, and my orders must be obeyed at all hazards. If our soldiers are driven back, the next line in their rear must force those before them forward, and compel them to scale the walls, cost what it may (Walker, 47).”          

Children and women were also in the Alamo, so because the Mexican government didn’t want everyone to think they were careless, they had to be careful not to kill children and mothers who were civilians and didn’t pose any threat upon the Mexican government. The battle of the Alamo had many effects. First of all, it gave people something to fight for. At later battles, people were heard screaming, “REMEMBER THE ALAMO!” and having so much courage that they could destroy enemy lines easily. Because of this battle cry, the Texans were able to win battles easily.          

    At the battle of the Alamo, the Mexican army suffered over 600 hundred Casualties and all 187 Texan defenders were killed. That means that if there were the same amount of Texans as there were Mexican soldiers, the Texans would have won the battle of the Alamo which would have made it even more famous than it is today. The battle of the Alamo made its defenders into martyrs and heroes. The famous men Davy Crockett, William Travis, and James Bowie were among them. Texans could also have more to fight for then they did before.

  

Works Cited

Alphin, Elaine M, and Tim Parlin. Davy Crockett. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Co, 2003. Print.

Connor, Seymour V. "Alamo, The." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Grolier Online, 2014. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.

The Official Alamo Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.

Riehecky, Janet. The Siege of the Alamo. Milwaukee, WI: World Almanac Library, 2002. Print.

Walker, Paul R. Remember the Alamo: Texians, Tejanos, and Mexicans Tell Their Stories. Washington, D.C: National Geographic, 2007. Print.