Alamo

Alamo, 18th-century Franciscan mission in San Antonio, Texas, U.S., that was the site of a historic resistance effort by a small group of determined fighters for Texan independence (1836) from Mexico.

The building was originally the chapel of the Mission San Antonio de Valero, which had been founded between 1716 and 1718 by Franciscans. Before the end of the century, the mission had been abandoned and the buildings fell into partial ruin. After 1801 the chapel was occupied sporadically by Spanish troops. Apparently, it was during that period that the old chapel became popularly known as “the Alamo” because of the grove of cottonwood trees in which it stood.

In December 1835, at the opening of the Texas Revolution (War of Texas Independence), a detachment of Texan volunteers, many of whom were recent arrivals from the United States, drove a Mexican force from San Antonio and occupied the Alamo. Some Texan leaders—including Sam Houston, who had been named commanding general of the Texas army the month before—counseled the abandonment of San Antonio as impossible to defend with the small body of troops available, but the rugged bunch of volunteers at the Alamo refused to retire from their exposed position. On February 23, 1836, a Mexican army, variously estimated at 1,800–6,000 men and commanded by Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna, arrived from south of the Rio Grande and immediately began a siege of the Alamo. Estimates of the size of the small defending force (including some later arrivals) usually vary between 183 and 189 men, though some historians believe that figure may have been larger. That force was commanded by Colonels James Bowie and William B. Travis and included the renowned frontiersman Davy Crockett. At the beginning of the siege, Travis dispatched “To the People of Texas & all Americans in the world” an impassioned letter requesting support. For 13 days the Alamo’s defenders held out, but on the morning of March 6 the Mexicans stormed through a breach in the outer wall of the courtyard and overwhelmed the Texan forces. Santa Anna had ordered that no prisoners be taken, and virtually all the defenders were slain (only about 15 persons, mostly women and children, were spared). The Mexicans suffered heavy casualties as well; credible reports suggest between 600 and 1,600 were killed and perhaps 300 were wounded.

Although the Texan defenders suffered defeat, the siege at the Alamo became for Texans a symbol of heroic resistance. On April 21, 1836, when Houston and a force of some 900 men routed 1,200–1,300 Mexicans under Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto, the Texan forces shouted, “Remember the Alamo!” That popularized battle cry later was used by U.S. soldiers in the Mexican-American War (1846–48).

For many years after 1845—the year that Texas was annexed by the United States—the Alamo was used by the U.S. Army for quartering troops and storing supplies. In 1883 the state of Texas purchased the Alamo, and in 1903 it acquired the title to the remainder of the old mission grounds. The Alamo and its adjacent buildings have been restored and are maintained as a state historic site. They are managed on a daily basis by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (1891), a women’s organization composed of descendants of Texan pioneers. In 2015 the Alamo along with four other 18th-century Spanish missions nearby and a historic ranch to the southeast in Floresville were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.