To the Last Man: Defenders of the Alamo

In this installment of ‘When Character Counted,’ we remember the men who gave their lives for freedom and for each other.

"The Fall of the Alamo" by Robert Jenkins Onderdonk, depicts Davy Crockett's last stand against the Mexican Santa Ana and his men. Crockett is wielding his rifle like a club. Public Domain

Sunday, March 6, 1836. At around 5 a.m., Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna ordered the assault on the Alamo.  Approximately 1,800 Mexican troops advanced on the small American garrison, some 200 men, inside that mission fort. Though the Alamo’s defenders were exhausted from the 12 previous days of siege warfare, and with the walls of their fortress battered and beginning to break apart, their cannon and rifle fire twice staggered the Mexican advance. Then, the lines re-formed for a third time, the attackers charged forward, and soon they were inside the fort’s perimeter.

A daguerreotype of Antonio López de Santa Anna. Public Domain