Today in History

March 6, 1836

Remember the Alamo

The territory of Texas was in the northern region of Mexico known as Coahuila y Tejas. Rebel forces in Texas wanted independence from Mexico. The Mexican government saw Texas as an important bulwark against the territorial expansion of the United States.

Lieutenant Colonel William Barret Travis was in charge of the old mission fort known as the Alamo. Defenders began to arrive from all over the United States and its territories. From Tennessee came frontiersman and politician Davy Crockett who had just lost his re-election campaign to the US Congress. Crockett had told his electorate "if they did not elect me they could go to hell and I would go to Texas!" From Louisiana came Jim Bowie with a small number of volunteers.

The 13-day siege of the Alamo began on Tuesday, February 23 and ended on Sunday, March 6, 1836. Travis wrote in his final letters from the fort: "The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion otherwise the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken — I have answered their demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls — I shall never surrender or retreat."

The deadly siege ended with the capture of the mission fortress and the death of nearly all of its Texan defenders, except for a few women, children and slaves.