Research Paper on "Alamo and Texas History"

Research Paper 3 pages (1008 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Alamo and Texas History

The battle of Alamo and San Antonio played a critical role in Texas revolution. Rebellious Texans had captured the city of San Antonio de Bexar in December of 1835 and they had fortified the Alamo, a fortress-like former mission in the towns centre. Santa Anna was the Mexican general who made an appearance in short order at the head of a massive army and laid siege to the Alamo. His perceived cruelty during the battle was an inspiration to many Texians that included Texas settlers and adventurers from the United States. After five days of house to house fighting they forced General Martin Perfecto de Cos' and his soldiers to surrender the volunteers who became victorious then occupied Alamo which was already fortified by Cos' men and strengthened its defenses (Hardin, 2006).

February 23, 1836 saw the arrival of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's army outside San Antonio that almost caught the people by surprise since they marched through the driving snow and fowl weather and it was even a month earlier than the Texans has anticipated. The Texans and Tejanos had undauntedly prepared to defend Alamo together and they did that by holding out Santa Anna's army for 13 days (DRT, 2011) the commander of Alamo William B.Travis sent out couriers that carried pleas for help to communities in Texas but his calls were unanswered since the Texans did not have the strength to fight Santa Anna's larger army. On the eighth day of the siege a band of 32 volunteers from Gonzales arrived and this brought the number of defenders to almost two hundred ( DRT,2011) .Colonel Travis was forced to draw a line on the ground and ask any man who was willing to stay and fight to cross over the line all except one man did; this was following the possibility of help fading .the defenders viewed it, Alamo was the key to the defense of Texas and hence they were ready to give their lives as opposed to surrendering their position to General Santa Anna. Alamo's garrison includes Jim Bowie, a renowned knife fighter and David Crockett, a famed frontiersman and a former congressman Tennessee.

The final assault took place before the day break on the morning of March 6, 1836 as there was emergence of columns of Mexican soldiers from the predawn darkness and they headed for Alamo's walls. They had been slowly working their lines closer to the Alamo with their artillery reducing the mission's walls. Cannon and small arms there were fired from inside the Alamo beat back several attacks. The Mexicans the regrouped by scaling the walls and rushing into the compound. When they got inside they captured cannon on the long Barrack and church and the barricaded doors was blasted for them to open. There was a continued desperate struggle which eventually saw the defenders being overwhelmed. As soon as sunrise struck, the battle had ended and Santa Anna entered the Alamo in order to survey the scene of… READ MORE

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