"Remember the Alamo!" Topic

On this day 181 years ago the Alamo fell in a dawn assault. Remember the Alamo.

Fatal dawn.

Remember the Alamo!

Death to Santa Anna!

Travis was dumb.

Travis was dumb.

He certainly made a major mistake in not simply taking the artillery that he could and destroying the place. What saved his reputation was that Santa Anna made a bigger mistake by not leaving a small force to besiege the Alamo and taking the rest of his army after Houston.

He had plenty of chance to do things. But he just kept requesting aide. He could have left after he didn't get a response the first couple of times.

I'm not sure about time and logistics, but I always wonder if he knew if had a fort too big for too few men, why he didn't try to reduce the size of the fort. Form a strong hold out of the mission, main barracks, and i believe the stables. Then drop the walls and other buildings.

Take a look at Travis' background. He was a "soldier" and "commander" without any military training whatsoever and an apparent failure prior to emigrating to what was then Mexican territory. I don't doubt his bravery, but I do doubt he had any inkling of how to make a better defensive position out of the Alamo.

Well, if Travis had not made his glorious last stand, Texans would have had to remember what?---Goliad!

Travis and the Alamo command got caught napping when Santa Anna arrived weeks, if not months, before they believed he would; they expected to have a much larger army at Bexar (San Antonio) by the time a showdown would occur. Meanwhile, the garrison had been whittled down since the fall of Bexar to the rebels by men leaving on other missions or just plain slipping away. Once the Mexican vanguard showed up, nearly taking the defenders by surprise before they could even redeploy to the Alamo compound, it was almost impossible for the Texians to withdraw with any degree of certainty they wouldn't be cut down by cavalry or dispersed in the open countryside, let alone make off with any supplies or artillery pieces. Travis felt the best he could do under the circumstances was man the defenses that had been prepared -- largely by Cos earlier in 1835, and expanded on by his own engineer Green Jameson -- and send for a relief army. There's an interesting TMP thread dealing with whether or not the Alamo was defensible from just last month, I think.

Gamertom, you are describing pretty much everyone who came to Texas in that time period. Successful people stayed where they were and were, well, successful.

Holding on for nearly 2 weeks with some 185 to 200+ against thousands.

Waco, I don't know. Today people move all over the nation for better opportunities. You and I both arrest people we wish had stayed out of our state. However, successful folks also flood in which is really no different than what Texas experienced in the 1800s. Just a thought.

Here's that earlier thread: "Was the Alamo winnable by the defenders?"

TMP link

What's the name of that picture called? It's the best of the Alamo I have seen.

Remember the watering!

Haitiansoldier, that image is the Gary Zaboly painting "A Moment in Time: March 6, 1836"

His work, along with the painting by Mark Lemon "Storming of the Alamo, March 6th, 1836" are undoubtedly the two finest depictions of the entire Alamo compound during the battle.

We used these two as inspiration for our 15mm Alamo diorama (featuring Blue Moon model and figures from Old Glory)

more diorama images on our website:
link

Larry GettysburgSoldiers.com

Wow wonderful diorama!!!

Great diorama. Some good ideas for my Blue Moon Model.