{"id":72856,"date":"2024-02-23T08:00:46","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T14:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/?p=72856"},"modified":"2024-02-23T06:05:54","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T12:05:54","slug":"know-your-texas-history-188-years-ago-today-the-siege-of-the-alamo-began-and-lasted-for-13-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/23\/know-your-texas-history-188-years-ago-today-the-siege-of-the-alamo-began-and-lasted-for-13-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Know Your Texas History: 188 Years Ago Today the Siege of the Alamo Began and Lasted for 13 Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Remembering the Alamo<\/a><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

February 23, 1836<\/a><\/b>\u00a0\u2014 Native Americans had lived in Texas for thousands of years, undisturbed until Spanish explorers arrived in\u00a01519<\/a>\u00a0and took control.\u00a0Mexico\u2019s war of independence pushed out the Spanish in\u00a01821<\/a>\u00a0and Mexican Texas was born.<\/h2>\n

To boost settlement, Mexican authorities encouraged immigration from the United States, the campaign becoming so successful that by\u00a01834<\/a>, over 30,000\u00a0Anglos lived in Texas, alongside 7,800\u00a0Mexicans. Having seen the imbalance developing, in\u00a01830<\/a>\u00a0the Mexican Government banned any further immigration by Anglo-Americans.<\/h2>\n

But in\u00a0December 1835<\/a>, a group of Texans who opposed Mexican rule drove Mexican troops out of San Antonio and settled in around the Alamo, a mission compound that had been adapted to military purposes around\u00a01800<\/a>.<\/h2>\n

It was an affront to Santa Anna<\/a>, a soldier and politician, who had become dictator of Mexico declaring that he would crush rebellions in Texas and other Mexican territories. In\u00a0January 1836<\/a>,\u00a0Santa Anna<\/a>\u00a0concentrated a force of several thousand men in the area around the Alamo.<\/h2>\n

Sam Houston<\/a>, a Tennessee senator, who had moved to Texas in\u00a01832<\/a>, became commander of the local army and ordered the Alamo to be abandoned.<\/h2>\n

But Colonel James (Jim) Bowie remained there with his men partly because he realised the fort\u2019s cannons could not be removed before\u00a0Santa Anna<\/a>\u00a0got there, and because he reasoned that holding off Santa Anna would give Houston time to raise an army of reinforcements.<\/h2>\n

Bowie and his 30 or so men were joined by a small cavalry company under Colonel William Travis, bringing the total number of Alamo defenders to about 140. One week later, the frontiersman\u00a0Davy Crockett<\/a>\u00a0arrived with 14\u00a0Tennessee Mounted Volunteers.<\/h2>\n

On\u00a0February 23<\/a>, Santa Anna began bombarding the Alamo with cannon and rifle fire. The siege lasted for 13 days, but on the second day Colonel Travis smuggled out a letter that read: \u201cTo the People of Texas and All Americans in the World\u2026. I shall never surrender or retreat\u2026. Victory or Death!\u201d<\/h2>\n

On March 1, another group of Texan reinforcements arrived, bringing the total number of defenders to around 185.<\/h2>\n

Then in the early morning of\u00a0March 6<\/a>, Santa Anna ordered his troops to storm the Alamo. Travis\u2019s artillery repelled two Mexican charges, but after about an hour of savage hand-to-hand fighting the Texans were overwhelmed, even though several hundred Mexicans were killed.<\/h2>\n

Santa Anna had ordered that no prisoners be taken, and so the only survivors of the Alamo were a handful of civilians, mostly women and children.<\/h2>\n

Six weeks later, shouting \u201cRemember the Alamo!\u201d the Texas militia under\u00a0Sam Houston<\/a>\u00a0launched a surprise attack against Santa Anna\u2019s forces. The resulting Battle of San Jacinto, near present-day Houston, Texas, left the Mexicans routed and hundreds taken prisoner, including Santa Anna himself. In exchange for his freedom, he signed a treaty recognising the independence of Texas.<\/h2>\n

Texas then became an independent republic, with\u00a0Sam Houston<\/a>\u00a0elected as its first president.<\/h2>\n

In\u00a01845<\/a>, it joined the Union as the 28th state.<\/i><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further Reading:<\/h2>\n

A Complete History of the First Revolution of the Sovereign Republic of Texas<\/a><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remembering the Alamo   February 23, 1836\u00a0\u2014 Native Americans had lived in Texas for thousands of years, undisturbed until Spanish explorers arrived in\u00a01519\u00a0and took control.\u00a0Mexico\u2019s war of independence pushed out the Spanish in\u00a01821\u00a0and Mexican Texas was born. To boost settlement, Mexican authorities encouraged immigration from the United States, the campaign becoming so successful that by\u00a01834,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[475,476,477,6096,9995,7117,14757,16552,3727,15903],"tags":[17114,8798,9606,5730],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72856"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72856"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72865,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72856\/revisions\/72865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}