Battle of the Alamo

Mostly it's a good story, providing a sense of honor to the Texas Revolution. But in the actual chain of events in 1836, its importance was this: by delaying Santa Anna's army in San Antonio, it enabled Sam Houston to gather and prepare a larger army which was able to defeat the Mexicans at San Jacinto and win Texas's independence a few weeks later.

William B. Travis

Jim Bowie (co-commander of the fort), Davy Crockett (king of the wild frontier), and James Butler Bonham (Lieutenant in the Texian Cavalry) are among the Texians who died at the siege of the Alamo.

The Mexican Army was taken by surprise and soundly defeated by the Texan Army at San Jacinto. It was more of a conclusion than a turning point. The Mexican victories at the Alamo and Goliad were the turning point because Texans wanted to avenge them. Also, Santa Anna began to believe that his army was invincible, and he became careless.

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The battle of the Alamo was a tactical defeat for the Texans, who were slaughtered to the last man. However, nobody ever expected the Texans to win the battle; it was a holding action, designed to delay the Mexican army under General Santa Ana.

During the two weeks while the Mexican army was attacking the defenders at the Alamo, the main force of the Texan army under Sam Houston was assembling. The delay at the Alamo proved deadly to the Mexican army, which was routed at the Battle of San Jacinto a month later.

Additionally, the viciousness of the Mexican army at the Alamo and at Goliad (under Santa Ana's orders, they had executed any prisoners) inflamed the Texan soldiers who overran the Mexican forces and returned the favor.

General Santa Anna.

General Sam Houston led his army east, avoiding a conflict with the main Mexican army. This gave him time to build up the army some. Eventually, the Mexican army and Gen. Houston's army met up near the present-day city of Houston.

Houston and his men won an overwhelming victory at the Battle of San Jacinto, capturing the leader of the Mexican army, Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who surrendered to Gen. Houston.

Dolphin Ward Floyd died at the Alamo on his 32nd birthday.

The result of the Mexican victory was that fallen defenders became heroes to the cause of Texan independence.

When Mexico won its independence from Spain, the fledgling country found itself with a large supply of Spanish weapons. By the time of the Texas Revolution there were still thousands of Spanish weapons in the armories of Mexico. Since Mexico had no major facilities for producing the additional weapons necessary for its army, it subsequently procured arms from other sources. Available records show that they possessed a number of arms orginating from different countries including the United States. In the mid 1820s Mexico bought a large number of British arms and issued these to its regulars and active militia battalions. It's doubtful that Mexico used any weapons other than those supplied by the British during the Texan campaign because weapons standardization for the purposes of supply and spare parts was a vital issue. Though there exists no precise description of these arms, some evidence has surfaced through archaeological research. This evidence suggests that Mexico armed its infantry with the India Pattern musket, a 39 inch barrel of .752-.760 caliber. It weighed nine pounds, eleven ounces and came with a seventeen inch socket bayonet that itself weighed one pound. In essence, it was a cheaply made version of the famous "Brown Bess". It was not subject to the same rigid standards and testing as the usual army muskets and many of these were quite inferior. Apparently, the Mexican army did not issue all the arms they bought but stored many of them in the armories and issued them as needed. So, the muskets carried by the Mexican troops would have been a mixture of used and new. The Mexican soldier received standard issue paper cartridges that contained about 165 grains of powder if they followed British standards. Even if you use a measure of powder for priming the pan, modern black-powder experts consider this a very heavy charge for this gun. It's important to remember that the powder used by the Mexican forces in 1836 was inferior to modern powder. The Texans found the Mexican powder to be of such low quality that many considered it useless. All this powder created a large amount of fouling in the barrel that impeded the loading of subsequent shots. To compensate for this, soldiers used an undersized ball of .69 caliber. The accuracy potential for the musket is better than some might think. With a tight fitting ball and patch, propelled by a moderate powder charge, a musket will regularly hit a target at 100 yards or more using only modest sights. It would be dangerous against infantry formations at a distance of possibly 300 yards. That's only the potential of the musket, not the reality of its use. Poor powder quality, a loose fitting ball and lack of sights, coupled with the lack of experience of the average foot soldier all added together to make the musket a very inaccurate weapon. As used during this period, it was good only for volley fire against masses of infantry and was only effective against individual targets at close range. One very good study suggests that volley fire against enemy formations (under 200 yards over open ground) would average between .5 to 5.5% of the rounds fired actually striking its intended target. That is why some experienced officers had their troops hold their fire until the enemy was as close as 40 yards. To compensate for the poor performance of the average musket, many commanders would have their troops load their muskets with "buck and ball." This is a load that uses the standard ball, but with at least three buckshot added. This load will drop the impact of the ball a little but will greatly increase the hit probability because of the spread of the buckshot. This type of load was very popular among many armies of the period. With buck and ball the musket was menacing at 100 yards or more and deadly at about 40. Travis' servant Joe said that the shot that struck him in the side was not a single shot, but rather one composed of buckshot. This supports the theory that at least some Mexican troops used "buck and ball" at the Alamo. In addition, archaeologists found a .35 caliber round ball during excavations at the Alamo. This was the approximate size of the buckshot used in the large caliber British muskets. Mexico did not arm its Cazadores (light infantry) with the standard infantry musket. Like many light infantries of the day, the Cazadores used light infantry muskets, which were lighter and of smaller caliber than the standard musket. The British frequently referred to these weapons as carbines because they were of carbine bore (.65 caliber). According to research done by Kevin Young, the Mexicans referred to light infantry muskets as Tercerlos. Except for a piece of a .65 barrel and a few .59 caliber balls found at the Alamo, there is no conclusive information on what types of light infantry muskets the Cazadores carried. The British preferred to keep their best weapons for themselves and sell the inferior India Pattern weapons, as they did to the Mexican government. Therefore, it's reasonable to assume that the light infantry muskets would also be of the India Pattern. The most likely candidate would be the India Pattern Sergeants Carbine. This musket was similar in appearance to the standard musket but had a 37 inch, .65 caliber barrel. It weighed seven pounds 12 ounces and had a 13 inch socket bayonet that weighed 12 ounces. The Cazadores received more marksmanship training so they might fight as skirmishers and light infantry. Their shooting skills, compared to that of the common soldier, were far superior. Again, this was due to exceptional training and tactics. The musket and load were not any better than what the regular infantry carried. Not all the Cazadores carried the light infantry musket. A few carried the Baker rifle. The Baker rifle was probably the best made arm carried by the Mexican forces. Evidence suggests that the Bakers used by the Mexicans were some of the early models. These rifles had a short 30 inch barrel fitted with good sights. The earliest models were of .70 caliber and fired the same .69 caliber ball as the standard musket, but the British soon abandoned this model in favor of the .625 caliber, which fired a .615 caliber ball. This .625 caliber rifle weighed eight pounds 14 ounces. Some of the rifles bought by the Mexicans came with a 23 inch sword bayonet, while others had no provision for a bayonet. Those that came with the bayonet were virtually useless with the bayonet attached. The firing trauma caused much damage to the bayonet's hook and spring mechanism. When the muzzle blast struck the guard on the handle, it caused so much damage that, after only a few shots, the bayonet would simply fall off. Even if the bayonet did not fall off immediately, the two pound weight of it made the rifle difficult to fire from an off hand position. The rifle itself was considerably more accurate than the issue musket but was not as accurate as the American long rifle. The exageratted slow twist of the barrel rifling helped prevent premature fouling but made the rifle inaccurate at longer ranges. The use of cartridges sped the loading of the rifle in battle but did not allow the rifleman to fire the most accurate load for his particular rifle. So, although it had its limitations, the Baker was a deadly weapon when used by a trained marksman at ranges of 100 yards or less.

"Álamo" in Spanish means "poplar" or "aspen", types of trees. It is pronounced "AH-lah-mow". Please see this site for confirmation of the translation:

http://www.answers.com/library/Translations

1836. The Mexican force has been estimated from 2,400 to over 5,000. The Alamo defenders was only about 185. On March 6 after 13 days of siege the Mexican army stormed the citadel. It took three assaults and close combat to take the mission. Best estimate of Mexican dead range from 600 to 1600. Six weeks later the Texans won and took Santa Anna was captured on April 21, 1836.

The Battle of the Alamo was a defeat at the hands of General Santa Anna who surrounded the Alamo Mission and killed most of the defenders inside. The defeat was heroic, however, and the Alamo became famous as a symbol of Texas courage and bravery.

The Battle of Goliad was the second skirmish of the Texas Revolution which ended in a Texan victory, not defeat. However, the Goliad massacre which occured about 5 months later was the execution of 342 Texas patriots by the Mexican Army. The brutal killing of the prisoners-of-war fueled anti-Mexican sentiments in Texas for many years to come.

It was originally built as a semi-fortified Catholic mission station called the Mission San Antonio de Valero in 1724 as part of a string of such missions built by the Spanish Empire in the province of Tejas (Texas). The mission was designed as a religious community for monks and priests as well as a school and administrative center for the local natives and settlers. The missions was abandoned by the church in 1793 and passed into secular hands before the famous battle in 1836.

The "official" numbers vary from 189 to 257 defenders. There were several noncombatants which are probably what cause the confusion. All the defenders died fighting except a half dozen that were taken prisoner who were taken to Santa Anna and hacked to pieces by his officers for Santa Anna's entertainment.

None were taken alive. Each Texan ( and other Americans too ) fought to the death rather than surrender.

The battle would last for 13 days. It occurred on February 23 - March 6, 1836.

Going to the Alamo cost Jim Bowie and Davie Crocket their lives.

However, admission to the Alamo museum is free.

The knife Jim Bowie carried has been lost to history. We can deduce from available information what the knife probably looked like but we will never know for certain what happened to the knife he carried. Jim Bowie apparently died in his room and this makes it likely that the knife was picked up by some one whose name has been lost to history. The knife was of good quality so it would not likely been thrown away.

march 1836 is when they won not april, april is when

The famous person who was killed at the Alamo wasJames Bowie.

In early March of 1836, Texas declared itself to be an independent republic and sought to separate themselves from Mexico. At this time, Santa Anna, the Mexican leader had established himself as dictator of Mexico. He quickly sought to end the rebellion in Texas, which had been part of Mexico. Santa Anna's troops headed for San Antonio, and there found Texans and others occupying the Alamo. The Texas troops there were heavily outnumbered and Mexican forces forced the fall of the Alamo to surrender on March 6, 1836.

Well it really depended on where that person was from. Like Davy Crockett most likely wore a leather vest because he was from outback were the people there mostly wore what animals provided. I recommend you watch John Wayne's The Alamo and the new The Alamo. Both very good movies with accurate ways those men wore back then.

It was James "Jim" Bowie.