Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, March 6, 1836 From a letter to Jose Maria Tornel Victory belongs to the army, which at this very moment, 8 o clock AM, achieved a complete and glorious triumph that will render its memory imperishable.the Fortress is now in our power, with its artillery, stores, etc. More than 600 corpses of foreigners were buried in the ditches and entrenchments We lost 70 men killed and 300 wounded. Ramón Martínez Caro, 1837 From his Verdadera Idea de la Primera Compaña de Tejas y Sucesos Ocurridoes Despues de la accion de San Jacinto Early in the morning of the 6 th our force numbered 1400 men in all. we shall always deplore the costly sacrifice of the 400 men who fell in the attack. The enemy died to a man and its loss may be said to have been 183 men, the sum total of their force.* *In the report made on that date to the supreme government by His Excellency it is stated that more than 600 of the enemy were killed. I myself wrote that report and must now confess that I put down that number at the command of His Excellency. In stating the truth now, I must say that only 183 men were killed. Susanna Dickinson, March 24, 1836 From an article in the Telegraph and Texas Register At daybreak on the 6 th the enemy surrounded the fort with their infantry, with the cavalry forming a circle outside to prevent escape on the part of the garrison: the number consisted of at least 1000 against 140! Susanna Hannig (Dickinson), 1875 According to James M. Morphis in The History of Texas from its First Discovery and Settlement As we passed through the enclosed ground in front of the church, I saw heaps of dead and dying. The Texans on average killed between eight and nine Mexicans each 182 Texans and 1,600 Mexicans were killed.
From a speech to a secret session of the Mexican Congresse 1830, The sentiments of which were widely echoed in Mexican papers and pronouncements Mexicans! Watch closely, for you know all too well the Anglo-Saxon greed for territory. We have generously granted land to these Nordics; they have made their homes with us, but their hearts are with their native land. We are continually in civil wars and revolutions; we are weak, and we know it and they know it also. They may conspire with the United States to take Texas from us. From this time, be on your guard! From Stephen F. Austin s speech to the citizens of Louisville, February 1836 To suppose that such a cause will fail when defended by Anglo-Saxon blood and by Americans, and on the limits and at the very door of this free and philanthropic and magnanimous nation, would be a calumny against republicanism and freedom, against a noble race. Stephen F. Austin, on Mexicans They are a strange people, and must be studied to be managed. They have high ideas of national dignity, should it be openly attacked, but will sacrifice national dignity, and national interest, too, if it can be done in a still way, or so as not to arrest public attention. Dios catiga el escándolo más que el crimen (God punishes the exposure more than the crime) is their motto. The maxim influences their morals and their politics. I learned it when I was there in 1822, and I now believe that if I had not always kept it in view, and known the power which appearances have on them, even when they know they are deceived, I should have success to the extent I have done in Americanizing Texans. From a history of Texas used in 19 th century Texas schools The strongest cause in bringing the Texas Revolution, however, was the lack of sympathy between the Mexican people and the Anglo-Saxon colonists. They could not understand our methods of government and we could not endure their idea of a republic.
Walt Whitman The Anglo-Saxons lacking grace To win the love of any race; Hated by myriads dispossessed Of rights the Indians East and West. These pirates of the sphere! Brave looters Grae, canting, Mammonite freebooters, Who in the name of Christ and Trade (Oh, bucklered forehead and brass!) Deflowered the world s last sylvan glade! William Barrett Travis, February 24, 1836 From a letter to the People of Texas and all Americans in the World I am determined to sustain myself as long as possibly & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due his honor & that of his country. Victory or death. PS. The Lord is on our side. When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn. We have since found in deserted houses 80-90 bushels and got into the walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves. Louis (Moses) Rose, 1873 According to William P. Zuber in his Escape from the Alamo Colonel Travis then drew his sword and with its point traced a line upon the ground extending from the right to the left of the file. Then, resuming his position in front of the center, he said, I now want every man who is determined to stay here and die with me to come across the line. Who will be first? March! Colonel Bowie, who could not leave his bed, said, Boys, I am not able to go over to you, but I wish some of you would be so kind as to remove my cot over there. No, aid Rose, I am not prepared to die and shall not do so if I can avoid it. Suiting the action to the thought, he sprang up, seized his wallet of unwashed clothes, and ascended the wall. Susan J. Hannig (Susanna Dickinson), April 28, 1881 According to an article in the San Antonio Express But about one hundred and sixty sound persons were in the Alamo, and when the enemy appeared, overwhelmingly upon the environs of the city to the west, and where the international depot now stands, the Noble Travis called up to his men, drew a line with his sword and said: My soldiers, I am going to meet the fate the becomes me. Those who will stand by me, let them remain but those who desire to go, let them go and who crosses the line that I have down, shall go.
Colonel Sidney Sherman, commanding the 2nd Texas Regiment at the San Jacinto. Remember the Alamo! Remember the Tejanos! John Phillip Santos Court documents reveal that decades after the battle, the heirs of the Tejano dead still sought to receive the land promised to them as recognition of their ancestors sacrifice Texas Monthly Juan Seguín Revolution Remembered I had to leave Texas, abandon all, for which I had fought and spent my fortune, to become a wanderer. Remember the Tejanos! John Phillip Santos For many Mexican Americans, the Alamo isn t a symbol of heroic valor, it s a reminder of betrayals and usurpations, of how a people came to be exiles in their own land. A recently opened exhibit, Standing Their Ground: Tejanos at the Alamo, seeks to adjust the stalwart s version of the siege of the Alamo as Anglo versus Mexican by highlighting the presence of Tejanos among the ill-fated band of insurrectionists. Beyond the Alamo: Forging Mexican Ethnicity in San Antonio, 1821-1861 Raúl A. Ramos Texas Monthly
In 1877, when the Army moved out [of the Alamo], the Catholic Church sold the Long Barrack, or convento, to a French businessman named Honore Grenet, who drastically renovated the old structure, added wooden porches, balconies and even fake cannon turrets reminiscent of a medieval castle and operated a museum and general store. After his death in 1883, the building was sold to the Hugo & Schmeltzer Company, a wholesale grocery firm that expanded its use as a general merchandise store. When the owner of the convent, or Long Barrack [of the Alamo], discussed plans to sell the building to make way for a new hotel in 1903, Adina de Zavala, a San Antonio schoolteacher and local preservationist, started a public campaign to save the historic building. TheAlamo.org TheAlamo.org Unidentified Mexican Soldier, April 5, 1836 From an article in El Mosquito Mexicano [The Texans] no longer exist: they all died, all and up to now I have seen burned (to avoid putrefaction) 257 bodies not counting the previous ones of the thirteen days, or those being caught, who attempted to escape. The chief they called Travis died like a brave man with his gun in his hand, in back of a cannon; but the wicked and boastful Santiago Bowie, died like a woman, almost hidden under a mattress. Joe, April 11, 1836 From a letter by an unidentified correspondent to the editor of the New Orleans Commercial Bulletin The Honorable Davy Crockett died like a hero, surrounded by heaps of the enemy slain. Colonel James Bowie was sick and unable to rise. He was slain in his bed; the enemy allowed him a grave probably in consideration of his having been married to a Mexican lady
Apolinario (Polin) Saldigna, March 1, 1882 According to William P. Zuber in an article in the Houston Daily Post Four soldiers brought a cot, on which lay a sick man, and set it down by the captain and one of them remarked, Here, captain, is a man that is not dead He is no other than the infamous Colonel Bowie. [The captain and Bowie verbally fight] Then [the captain] caused four of his minions to hold the sick man, while a fifth, with a sharp knife, split his mouth, cut off his tongue, and threw it upon the phile of dead men. Then, in obedience to motion of the captain s sword, the four soldiers who held him, lifted the writhing body of the mutiliated, blreeding, tortured invalid from his cot, and pitched him alive upon the funeral pile. At that moment, a match was touched to the bodies. Susanna Hannig (Dickinson), 1875 According to James M. Morphis in The History of Texas from its First Discovery and Settlement Col. Bowie was sick in bed and not expected to live, but as the victorious Mexicans entered his room, he killed two of them with his pistols before they pierced him through with their sabres. What inconsistencies do you see in these documents? What are potential causes for the inconsistencies? How do personal biases/agendas affect the mythology of the Alamo, both in the past and today? What inconsistencies do you see in these documents? What are potential causes for the inconsistencies? How do personal biases/agendas affect the mythology of the Alamo, both in the past and today?
A Texas history Teacher to Paul Hutton after he suggested that Crockett surrendered More than 2.5 million visitors come to the Alamo every year. I will NEVER teach my students what you wrote. A real Texan would not... You wrote that the evidence of Crockett s surrender came from a Mexican diary. Well, that isn t good enough. TheAlamo.org [Adina de Zavala] secured a promise from the owner of the Schmeltzer Company for a chance to buy the property for $75,000. Looking for money, she visited the nearby Menger Hotel in hopes of stirring up opposition to possible competitors, but instead happened upon Clara Driscoll, the wealthy daughter of a San Jacinto veteran and successful South Texas rancher. Passionate about preservation, Driscoll joined De Zavala and was able to advance the money to buy the old structure on behalf of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT), a heritage group dedicated to honoring the men and battlefields of the 1836 revolution In 1889, the historic buildings that had become the Hugo and Schmeltzer grocery store stood idle- condemned by the city. Alamoplazaproject.com TheAlamo.org
How has the importance of the Alamo building changed over time? Is there a difference between visitors from Texas and visitors from outside the state? The Alamo and Hugo and Schmeltzer Building, ca. 1890 How would the legacy of the Alamo change if the building was demolished and a hotel erected in its place? Institute of Texan Cultures