The most controversial structure on the North American Continent. This is the Alamo

Originally named Mission San Antonio de Valero, the Alamo served as home to missionaries and their Indian converts for nearly seventy years. Construction began in 1718, however, in 1793 the Spanish abandoned their official claim to San Antonio's five missions and distributed the lands to the dwindling Indian converts. The Mission San Antonio de Valero, the Chapel of which was never completed, fell into disrepair and was virtually abandoned by the early 1800's. With the purchase of the Louisiana Territory in 1803 by the United States, Spain became increasing concerned about their own national security and hastily made plans to repel any possible American invasion by concentrating Spanish troops on the Texas frontier. One of the first reinforcement efforts commenced in 1803 with the arrival of a unit of Spanish cavalry, the Alamo de Parras Company. When the troops arrived they found no suitable quarters in the town of San Antonio so the commander moved the approximately two hundred men, women and children across the San Antonio River and into the practically abandoned mission of San Antonio de Valero. 

By 1805, the Spanish troops had made many repairs on the aging old mission and had even built a hospital in the upper level of the mission's convent. In 1809, rumors of an American invasion surfaced again and this prompted the troops to add battlements to the existing walls of the enclosure and to construct the southernmost wall with a large gate that separated one of the barracks from a guardhouse and jail. It is during this period that the troops first referred to the old mission as the "Alamo", the Spanish word for "cottonwood" (that grew in the area) and to honor their own hometown of Alamo de Parras in Coahuila. 

A series of internal revolts soon occurred between 1813 and 1817 that severely depleted the Spanish treasury in Mexico City and the Alamo was virtually abandoned thereby leaving the territory open to Indians and rebels who raided the area with virtual impunity. In order to check this problem General Joaquin de Arrendondo, the commander for Spain in Mexico, reluctantly entered into an agreement with Moses Austin in 1820 to permitted 300 families from the United States to settle on some 200,000 acres of land in the Texas Territory provided that certain conditions were followed by the new "norteamericano" immigrants.  Shortly after the agreement was made, Moses Austin died and his son, Stephen F. Austin, managed to get the land grant turned over to himself.  One of the conditions of the original agreement was that the settlers had to form their own militia and defend themselves in the Texas Territory with the additional requirements that they become Spanish citizens, embrace the Catholic faith and do not deal in slave trading. 

In 1821, Mexico achieved independence from Spain, via the Mexican Revolution, and after a brief interruption to the American colonization process, a charismatic 38-year old Agustin de Iturbide assumed control of the new Mexican Republic. One of his first actions was to honor one of his Colonels and military supporters, a supercilious 27 year old creole (Mexican-born Spaniard) with a promotion to Brigadier General.  This pretentious young officer was Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna Pérez de Lebrón. In 1823, Agustín de Iturbide, the self-proclaimed Emperor of Mexico, was himself deposed from power, with the assistance of no other then Santa Anna, and the Republic of Mexico was born and the liberal Constitution of 1824 was implemented. The Constitution of 1824, which was at first supported by Santa Anna, was a legal document, the first of the newly independent Republic of Mexico, under which American immigrants were invited to emigrate to the Republic. To them the document protected their right to settle in Texas and it was this document they swore they would defend.  The liberal policy of the Mexican government toward immigration, however, was by no means designed to embrace the masses of American immigrants that crossed the border into Texas in alarmingly large numbers. By this time, the population in the colonies, established by Stephen Austin, had increased to 4,000. Conversely, by this time, the Alamo was 100 years old. In October 1824, Guadalupe Victoria took office as Mexico's first president followed by Vicente Ramón Guerrero who was elected as Mexico's second president in 1829.  But revolution was brewing again.  

Although the 1824 Constitution directly benefited the Texas Colonist it did have drawbacks. it formed the two separate districts of Coahuila and Tajas (Texas) into one state and the American settlers, who now called themselves "Texains," did not take kindly to this merger. Out numbered 5 to 1 by the predominately Mexican population of Coahuila, the American settlers in Texas felt that their own interest would not be fairly represented in Mexico City.  Due to this merger, a number of American immigrants decided to take matters in their own hands and the Fredonia Rebellion soon followed. This ill-fated "revolt" was quickly suppressed by Mexican troops, but the effects would be long lasting. As for the ambitious Santa Anna, he became a national hero (The "Hero of Tampico") when Mexican military forces under his command helped defeat an invading Spanish force in 1829. Meanwhile, the old Alamo mission continued to be occupied by the mounted soldiers of the Alamo de Parras Company until 1830.

Following the Fredonia Rebellion, the Mexican government began to distrust the Americans and quickly moved to limit the number of immigrants flooding into Texas. In 1830, a law was passed that was intended to prevent further immigration into Texas by "Yankee" settlers even though American migration into other areas in Mexico, that did not border the United States, was still permitted. Additionally, the Mexican government imposed heavy taxes on the Texas settlers, and when smuggling increased the government established customs houses and government troops to enforce the new tax laws. These actions, viewed by the Texians as direct violations of the Mexican 1824 Constitution, caused many of the Colonist to consider a possible second revolt against the Mexican government.  To make matters worse, the numbers of American immigrants crossing into Texas increased dramatically as the word of cheap land and limitless wealth spread across the eastern United States and the Mexican government reacted by an increased troop presence.  These actions went far to fan the fires of revolution and during this period, a move was underfoot on the part of a group of radical "Texians" to secure independence from Mexico and to form the independent Republic of Texas. One of the primary leaders of this movement was a young firebrand from Alabama, and future commander of the Alamo garrison, William Barret Travis. In that same year, the Alamo mission was abandoned by the Alamo de Parras Company, for a period of two years, during the company's occupation of Fort Tenoxtitlan in Southeast Texas. As for Santa Anna, he remained on the fringe of the political wheel, carefully watching as the Mexican government struggled with the ever increasing problem of controlling the potentially volatile situation in Texas. 

Mexico's geography coupled with an inadequate transportation system influenced economic development in the nineteenth century by contributing, in part, to the state's lack of unity. The northern territory, which included Texas, was wide open for encroachment from outside of its borders. The government was in turmoil and the nation was virtually broke. Mexico's elite, miners and hacendados, liberated from their obligations to the Spanish Crown in 1821, asserted their unwillingness to forfeit revenue to the state in the form of tax-income, property or otherwise.  The only recourse left to the government remained customhouses and taxes imposed on foreign trade. This policy incited the Texians, who were granted impunity to taxes by the 1824 Constitution. Additionally, Mexico had insufficient troops to curtail rebellious the activities of the American Colonist north of the Rio Grande. Mexico's failure to implement a viable national political system and the United States' expansionist impulse, under President Jackson, doomed any attempt at favorable relations between the two Republics. Mexico, Jackson believed, did not possess the resources to put down a Texan rebellion.  Furthermore, the American President conceived a strategic plan to support the rebellious Texians, covertly of course, thereby eventually procuring Texas, by any means possible, wherein the acquired territory would be used buffer zone,   a "guard for the western frontier (of the United States) and the protection of New Orleans...." To President Jackson, supporting the Texas rebellion, though not openly, would eventually lead to the annexation of Texas, and this seemed to the president in the best interests of an expanding America. Hereinto, Texas was ripe for rebellion and both America's President Andrew Jackson and Santa Anna were keenly aware of this fact. So was Sam Houston, William Travis and other key members of the rebellious War Dog Party. Each side positioned itself for battle and the eventual fate of Texas. Mexico meant to assert its power and regain control of its Texas frontier while the Anglo-American "Texians" planned to Americanize Texas and seize her for their own. All it would take is the flint to strike the spark.  And It was now time for Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna Pérez de Lebrón, the Napoleon of the West and the Hero of Tampico, to make his move. 

In 1833, Santa Anna was elected president of the Republic of Mexico, but promptly declared himself retired "unless my country needs me" and turned over Mexico's governmental duties to his liberal vice president, Valentín Gómez Farías, while he retired to his hacienda at Magna de Clavo, near Veracruz. Within a year, however, he was back. Convinced that the present administration was destroying the very foundation of the country, he stormed back into capital and immediately expelled vice-president Farías. He then dissolved the liberal Federal Congress, stripped away the powers of the individual states and revoked all of the popular reforms legislated by Congress. Liberal governors were replaced and he expeditiously replaced the existing Federal system of government with his own Centralist regime. Then, in virtually one sweeping motion he proclaimed himself Mexico's savor, assumed dictorial powers and promptly overturned the Constitution of 1824, which he had claimed he ardently supported years before. The Texians, who previously supported Santa Anna's political ambitions, now saw him as their enemy and turned against him. In turn, Santa Anna vowed to "crush the rebellious foreign interlopers" and to solidify his country by "reclaiming" Mexico's countries northern territory (Texas) that was now in threat of seizure by a rebellious force of arms.      

Santa Anna's actions did not go down well in certain parts of Mexico. Aside from the settlers in Texas, who now gathered their meager resources to defend hearth and home, the wealthy Mexican land owners in the rich mining states of Queretaro and Zacatecas openly snubbed the new dictator of Mexico. Under the Centralist mandate, local militias were to be reduced to one militiaman for every 500 citizens or be disbanded. Most of the states followed these demand, but not Zacatecas. It's militia was the most lavishly outfitted and best in all of Mexico. It was also the largest, boasting 20,000 men in uniform, a fort and over twenty-five heavy pieces of artillery. Trained by a corps of top-notch foreign officers and lavishly equipped, it had one militiaman for every fifteen citizens and openly defied Santa Anna's directives. Santa Anna, now in the limelight, could hardly afford to back down from such a bold challenge by his own subordinate countrymen no matter how wealthy and influential they may be.  In May, with 3,500 Mexican regulars, he descended upon Zacatecas in a brilliantly executed military maneuver and defeated the larger militia force in a battle that lasted less than two hours. Following the battle, and to make his totalitarian authority creditable and respected, he let his troops have their way with the civilian population of Zacatecas. Historians estimate that over 2,500 "rebels" and civilians were killed in the ensuing rape, plunder and massacre of the city's population by his lawless troops. Property was destroyed, men were killed execution style and women were humiliated and treated "shamelessly".  General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's methods of dealing with those that opposed his authority was both both shameful and malevolent, but it also irresolutely established him as the most formidable "caudillo" in all of Mexico.  The battle, which was brilliantly executed, also provided his troops with invaluable combat training. Though all of MExico was shocked and horrified, they also got the message. The message was also not lost on the Texians, who now prepared themselves for a military expedition against them that they were sure would not be long in coming. The El Presidente of Mexico would not keep them waiting long.

In September 1835, General Martín Perfecto de Cos was sent by his brother-in law General Antonio López de Santa Anna to investigate the refusal of the Texians at Anahuac to pay the taxes imposed upon them by the Mexican Centralist government. General Cos dispersed the legislature of Coahuila and Texas, then in session at Monclova, and landed some 300 men at Matagorda Bay. He then marched in to San Antonio de Bexar, established his headquarters in the city and declared that he had come to end the rebellious resistance in the Mexican state of Texas.  General Co's force was augmented by members of the Alamo de Parras Company, who had returned to the Alamo in 1832 following their expedition to Fort Tenoxtitlan. In December 1835, Ben Milam led a force of about 104 Texian and Tejano volunteers against General Co's Mexican troops that were quartered in the city. Following some vicious house to house fighting, General Co's and his forces retreated to the protection of the 8 foot high walls of the Alamo mission. After five days of almost continuous shelling and musket fire, General Marín Perfecto de Cós was forced to surrendered his force of some 1,105 men on December 11th. The victorious Texians now occupied the Alamo, which had already fortified prior to the battle with Co's men and were firmly convinced that Santa Anna's threat to their safety had now been quelled.  Two fatal mistakes were then made. The first, that the Texians disbanded and returned home believing the Mexican government no longer posed a threat to Texas and second, theTexians underestimated the resolve of Santa Anna to satisfy his own egotistical ambitions and to preserve the integrity of the Mexican territory. 

When General Co's informed General Santa Anna of the situation in Texas the El Presidente reacted swiftly.  He gathered his army of about 6,000 men at San Luis Potosi and marched north toward Texas. The army snaked its way across the Mexican desert during one of the worst winters in recorded history and hundreds of Mexican soldiers perished in the bitter cold and merciless blizzards.  The main element of the army, which contained the heavy artillery, slowed down, as horses, live stock and men dropped from exhaustion and the bitterly cold temperatures. However, the advance column, under the direct command of General Santa Anna, pressed on. With the main element days behind and still slowly plodding after him, Santa Anna's advance column of some 2,000 men and small caliber cannons traveled 300 miles with astonishing speed and arrived at San Antonio Bexar on 23 February 1836. The night before, the Texians had attended a large "fantago" (party) in San Antonio and had Santa Anna arrived during the party the Alamo would have faded in history. Fortunately for the Alamo defenders, the Mexican army arrived  following day, but its premature arrival still almost caught the unsuspecting Texians by surprise. Warned of the advancing Mexican advance column, the Texians, along with a good number of family members, beat a hasty retreat to the protection of the old Alamo mission. Here, they prepared to make a stand. As Santa Anna gazed coldly at the old mission, and its defenders silently staring back defiantly from atop its battered walls, he could not help but remember the Battle of Madina,  in which he participated as a junior officer in the Spanish Army in 1813. He remembered  how the prisoners were massacred back then and how the traitors were treated at Zacatecas a short time earlier.  Now, in the same fashion, Santa Anna would give "no quarter" to the 180 some odd Texans that now rebelliously barricaded themselves within the Alamo mission. 

On February 22, the day before Santa's advance element arrived at San Antonio, David Crockett and 13 of his Tennessee Volunteers had arrived to help in the defend the Alamo. On 1 March, 32 more brave volunteers rode in from Gonzales by led by James Butler Bonham. In the company of such noted frontiersmen as David Crockett and James Bowie (pictured), the defenders withstood an almost constant bombardment and sporadic musket fire from the Mexican troops that practically encircled the Alamo. Undaunted, the Texians and Tejanos prepared to defend the Alamo together, as William B. Travis, the commander of the Alamo, sent out couriers carrying pleas for help from the nearby communities in Texas. On the eighth day of the siege, 32 volunteers from Gonzales rode into the Alamo and the on the 12th day legends tells of Colonel Travis drew a line on the ground and asked any man willing to stay and fight to the death to cross over it. All but one did. The defenders waited for reinforcements. but outside of the men from Gonzales, none would ever arrive. Meanwhile, Santa Anna continued to pound the Alamo with artillery shells. Possessing only small 6 pound cannons, his heavier field guns and the bulk of his army still frantically trying to catch up with him, Santa Anna pounded the thick walls causing little damage and no casualties. On the evening of Saturday, 5 March, Santa Anna's decided to storm the Alamo the next day and ordered his cannons to cease their bombardment. A eerie silence fell over the cold darkness that surrounded the Alamo for the first time in twelve days.  His aides pleaded with their commander to await the arrival of the heavier cannons wherein they could batter down the missions walls, and force the defenders to surrender, without loosing hundreds of soldiers in a frontal assault.   To the prospect of possible heavily casualties during an assault, Santa Anna dismissed any concern, referring to his soldiers as brave but expendable, little more then farm yard "chickens" in importance when compared to the glory that would be achieve by taking the Alamo at bayonet point. 

At about 5:30 AM, on the 13th day of the siege, the Mexican army silently crept to within 200 yards of the Alamo's thick walls in the pre-dawn darkness without being detected. It was a chilly Sunday morning, 6 March 1836. An excited Mexican soldier shouted "Viva Santa Anna...Viva Mexico." and the cheer was taken up by other nervous soldiers. As patriotic as the act may have been, it disclosed the close proximity of the Mexican troops to the Alamo walls and aroused the defenders from their fitful slumber. The Texians, groggy and disoriented, barely had time to man the walls.  Although the defender's cannons, loaded with grapeshot, ripped large gaps in the ranks of the attacking Mexican troops  and beat back several attacks, there were not sufficient men to effectively man all of the guns. Regrouping, the Mexicans attacked again, scaled the walls and rushed in mass into the Alamo compound. Once inside, they turned a captured cannon on the Conventio, blasting open the barricaded doors. Desperate hand-to-hand combat followed until the defenders were either shot, bayoneted or  overwhelmed.. As the deep reddish glow of sunrise pierced the eastern horizon, a little more than a hour after it started, the battle was over. Within the hour General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna Pérez de Lebrón triumphantly rode into the Alamo and surveyed the scene of his "victory". He is said to have commented...."It was but a small affair". History would prove him wrong at Jacinto. 

One of the most controversial historical subjects on the North American Continent. This is the Alamo

While the facts surrounding the siege of the Alamo continue to be debated, the old mission shall forever be remembered as a hallowed place where a heroic struggle against overwhelming odds occurred and were brave men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. For this reason the Alamo is not just the Shrine of Texas Liberty but a physical monument to the bravery and sacrifice by men who fought on both sides of the crumbling old walls.  The Texians were keenly aware that the Mexican forces were led by veteran commanders and that they were facing a professional and determined army. Additionally, the Alamo defenders lacked the numbers, the equipment or the experience of their antagonist. However, they were also firmly convinced in the righteousness of their cause and they believed they were fighting for hearth and home, that they were defending the land they carved from the wilderness not unlike their forefathers in the American Revolution. The Mexican leaders, on the other hand, were equally convinced that the Texians were land-grabbing rebels who were fanning the fires of insurrection. 

They were eager the squelch this revolt and to reestablish order within the legal boundaries of their nation and to defend their countries honor.  As the battle raged, each man, regardless of his military position or level of responsibility, fought for his own beliefs and honor. When the guns fell silent and the smoke clear, no man present would be the same. Some would be casualties, some would be prisoners and many would die, yet none were villains and all had one thing in common.........They were all Heroes.