An enduring American legend, hear what actually happened at the Battle of the Alamo.
Fannin’s typically sluggish retreat left him out in the open and resulted in a March 19 battle near Coleto Creek only a few miles east of Goliad. Fannin’s men successfully repulsed repeated Mexican attacks but suffered many wounded troops that they could neither treat or transport. The following morning, with another Mexican attack imminent, Fannin surrendered with Urrea only promising that he would try to intercede with Santa Anna to spare any prisoners, although most of the Texians, who in a written agreement were officially categorized as prisoners of war, believed that they were to be pardoned.
While even some Mexican accounts have David Crockett inflicting dozens of casualties, many with his bare hands and a rifle butt, several eyewitnesses claimed he was actually captured alive and subsequently executed with the half dozen defenders Santa Anna personally ordered killed only minutes after the battle’s conclusion. Susannah Dickinson did say in several interviews that she saw Crockett’s mutilated body in the plaza, after the battle, his distinctive fur cap lying at his side.
Sam Houston emerged as the leading political figure in Texas, winning election over Stephen F. Austin as President of the Republic of Texas and ultimately Houston was elected to the US Senate. While loyal to the state of Texas, he personally opposed secession from the Union and died in 1863 before the end of the Civil War.
Charging out of wooded areas which concealed their initial advance, Houston’s troops, shouting Remember the Alamo and Remember Goliad inflicted a lopsided 18 minute victory, much of it spent massacring surprised and unarmed fleeing Mexican troops, over 600 killed and 700 taken prisoner. Santa Anna escaped for the moment; he was caught the following day, hiding along the river bank dressed in a private’s uniform and slippers. Only his value as the de facto ruler of the Mexico prevented his immediate execution.
Today, most of the former Alamo complex has been swallowed up by downtown San Antonio. The only remaining structures are the former mission chapel, familiar to most Americans and part of the Long Barrack, with two small courtyards in between. However, the distinctive oval roof line over the front entrance of the chapel building was not added until 1849. Initially, after the Texas revolution the military used the chapel as a warehouse, other parts of the complex were used by private interests for commercial purposes. The chapel eventually reverted back to the Catholic Church who sold it to the state of Texas.
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