By Keli Holt
The remaining survivors crouched into the corner of the chapel, struggling to see through the smoke. Then came the boom of their own cannons firing at the church doors. Davey Crockett looked at William Travis, commander of the Alamo garrison of Texas soldiers, wondering if their plea for reinforcements would be answered. Travis had signed his letter to the Texas Army with the pledge of “Victory or Death.” With each blast from the cannons, death inched closer.
Background:
By 1835, an independent Mexico was controlled by General Antonio López de Santa Anna. One of his main goals was to bring peace to northern Mexico (now the states of New Mexico, Texas, California and Arizona). During the Mexican Wars for independence (1810-1821), this area had devolved into violence. Despite controlling Mexico for almost 300 years, few Spanish had settled in this area. Spain’s policies banning all foreign trade ensured that northern Mexico remained too poor to attract migrants. It was the Native nations that still largely controlled the region as they had done for time immemorial.
Now these nomadic Native nations, primarily the Comanche, Navajo and Apache, had perfected the art of raiding with horses (introduced by the Spanish) and modern weapons (obtained through trade with French trappers and American migrants). The small Spanish (and later Mexican) settlements in New Mexico and Texas, which were still part of Mexico, were ripe for raiding as Mexico struggled to stabilize its government after centuries of Spanish rule and neglect. To try and bring peace to its northern borders so that the area could be settled with tax-paying citizens, the rulers in Mexico pursued several policies. First, they encouraged trade with American settlers who were moving westward at a fast clip by establishing the Santa Fe Trail to increase commerce.
Secondly, in 1823, Mexico made an agreement with Stephen F. Austin, an American, to bring American settlers into Mexican Texas. Mexico even agreed to suspend its ban on slavery, as most of the immigrants were slaveholders from the American South. Mexico hoped larger numbers of settlers would make northern Mexico more defensible from raiding.
By the time Santa Anna consolidated control of Mexico in 1835, thousands of Americans, both illegally and legally, had settled in Mexican Texas. Santa Anna wanted to make these Texans more Mexican and tax-paying citizens. However, many Texans had no desire to become Mexican, and they began to take steps to separate from Mexico.
Santa Anna also proved to be a brutal dictator. In May 1835, he crushed a Mexican revolt against his rule in Zacatecas and allowed his army to rape and pillage. Many Texans believed the time had come for either an independent Texas republic or to join forces with an expanding America.
In October 1835, Santa Anna sent troops to a small Texas town, Gonzales, to retrieve a cannon placed there by the Mexican military to defend against raiding. Gonzales, however, refused to return the weapon and the Mexican soldiers fired. The Texans referred to this small scuffle as their “Battle of Lexington and Concord” in reference to the skirmishes that launched the American Revolution. The Texans also drafted a Declaration of Independence from Mexico, with Santa Anna standing in for King George.
Santa Anna ordered his troops west, and a small contingent of the Texas Army under command of young William Travis took refuge in the abandoned mission called the Alamo. As the Mexican Army approached, Travis sent out letters pleading for reinforcements. However, Sam Houston, the commander of the Texas Army, ordered Travis and his soldiers to evacuate to East Texas. Travis ignored the command, and the Mexican Army surrounded the Alamo.
Ordered to attack, the Mexican Army used ladders to scale the walls, taking enormous casualties. However, their sheer numbers allowed the Mexicans to overwhelm the mission and trap the remaining survivors. Using the rebels’ own cannons, the Mexican Army blasted holes in the church doors and in close combat killed every Texan inside. Any survivors were executed the next day.
The women and children of the Alamo defenders fled to eastern Texas. Santa Anna hoped their tales of horror would end the rebellion. Instead, the Texans advertised in America for volunteers to fight Mexico. A few months later these volunteers forced Sam Houston to fight Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. The American recruits and Texans exacted a bloody reprisal upon the Mexican Army for the slaughter of the Alamo defenders. Santa Anna was captured and forced to cede Mexico’s claim to Texas.
From 1836 until 1845, Texas functioned as an independent country, albeit always under threat from Mexican invasion. In late 1845, lame duck President John Tyler pushed Texas annexation through Congress with a majority vote. While cries of, “Remember the Alamo,” helped make Texas a state, its admission as a slave state deepened the sectional divide between North and South, helping pave the way for the Civil War.
