Thirteen Days Of Glory - Day Thirteen

March 6

2:00 a.m. Santa Anna and Gen. Juan N. Almonte discuss battle plans.

3:00 a.m. Mexican troops move into positions. Gen. Martin Cos leads the northwest corner, Gen. Duque is at the northeast, Col. Romero takes the east, and Gen. Morales is at the south. Gen. Rameriz Sesma’s cavalry is there to prevent the men in the Alamo from escaping.

4:00 a.m. Silence

5:00 a.m. The men on guard duty in the Alamo hear the first musical strains of the Deguello being played. The Deguello...no prisoners. The four Mexican columns of troops move into position while Travis’ second in command runs in to tell him the Mexicans are attacking. ’No reindirse, muchachos!’ Travis yells, ’No surrender, boys!’ Travis is included in the first ones to meet his death.

6:30 a.m. The last battle is over.

8:00 a.m. Santa Anna has already written a letter of victory.

On the 6th of March, a little after midnight, the Alamo was surrounded by the entire Mexican army. The cavalry were placed behind the infantry, to cut them down if they gave way. The latter were provided with scaling-ladders. The enemy, thus forming a circle facing the fort, advanced rapidly under a tremendous fire from the Texan rifles and artillery. Just at daylight the ladders were placed against the walls, and an attempt made by the enemy to enter the fort, but they were driven back by the stern defenders within. Again the charge was sounded, and a second effort made to reach the top of the walls, but again the assailants were repulsed. For a few minutes there was a pause. By the presence, threats, and promises of Santa Anna, a third assault was made, and with more fatal success.

The enemy, reaching the tops of the ladders, wavered and fell, but their places were supplied by the hundreds pressing onward and behind them on each ladder. At length, killed, cut down, and exhausted, the Texan defenders did not retreat, but ceased to keep back the Mexicans. Instantly the fort was filled by the latter. The survivors within the walls still continued to do battle. They clubbed their guns, and used them till they were nearly all cut down. It is said that a few called for quarter, but the cry was unheeded. One would suppose that admiration for such unequaled heroism would have saved these few. Travis and Crockett fell ... Colonel Bowie, who had been for some days sick in his bed, was there butchered and mutilated.

Thus fell the Alamo and its heroic defenders; but before them lay the bodies of five hundred and twenty-one of the enemy, with a like number wounded. At an hour by sun, on that Sabbath morning, all was still; yet the crimson waters of the aqueduct around the fort resembled the red flag on the church at Bexar! The defenders of Texas did not retreat, but lay there in obedience to the command of their country; and in that obedience the world has witnessed among men no greater moral sublimity.

Those in the fort that survived were Mrs. Dickinson (wife of Lieutenant Dickinson, who fell in the defense), her child, a negro-servant of Colonel Travis, and two Mexican women of Bexar.

The bodies of the Texans, after being stripped and subjected to brutal indignities, were thrown into heaps and burnt.

The enemy's victory was complete, yet his force was as sixteen to one, and his loss in slain nearly three times the entire number of the defenders. From the known character of Santa Anna, he doubtless rejoiced. Believing the war at an end, and Texas at his feet, he so announced it in his dispatches to his subordinates at home. And the authorities and people there believed it, and so congratulated him.

Those congratulations would prove to be premature. About six weeks later Santa Anna got his butt well and truly kicked by Sam Houston at the battle of San Jacinto - the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution that established the Republic of Texas.

One of my all-time favorite entertainers is Marty Robbins. One of my all-time favorite Marty Robbins songs is the Ballad of the Alamo. The guy could flat out write, sing, and pick. Just listen to the flamenco-style guitar work.