The Alamo

1836. Texas is in revolt against Mexico. In the town of San Antonio, fewer than two hundred Texian volunteers hold an old crumbling mission turned fort — the Alamo. Marching toward them is the Mexican president and general, Santa Anna, with thousands of soldiers.

The defenders are a mismatched band: the young, hot-headed commander William Travis, the famous knife-fighter Jim Bowie, and the frontier legend and former congressman Davy Crockett.

Santa Anna's army arrives and raises a blood-red flag from the church tower — the signal that no surrender will be accepted, and no prisoners taken.

William Travis

“They want our surrender, or our deaths. They'll get neither cheaply.”

Travis sends out a letter that becomes legend, addressed to "the People of Texas and all Americans in the world," pledging never to surrender or retreat — and signing it: "Victory or Death."

For thirteen days the Mexican cannon pound the walls while the defenders wait, hoping for reinforcements that, but for a few brave riders, never come.

Legend says Travis drew a line in the sand with his sword and asked any man willing to stay and die to step across it. Nearly all did.

Before dawn on March 6th, Santa Anna's columns rush the walls from every side in the dark.

The first waves are cut down by cannon and rifle fire, but there are too many. The soldiers reach the walls, scale them, and pour inside.

The fighting collapses into a desperate room-by-room struggle across the compound. By sunrise it is over. Travis, Bowie, Crockett — all the defenders — are dead.

Santa Anna had his victory, but it cost him dearly in men and time — and it gave Texas something more powerful than a fort: a martyr's story.

Six weeks later, Texian soldiers charged a surprised Mexican army screaming "Remember the Alamo!" In eighteen minutes they won the battle of San Jacinto — and Texas its independence. The men of the Alamo had lost the battle and helped win the war.