f them, and they were
attacked by General Santa Anna with an army of several thousand men. But
they were commanded by Colonel Travis, a brave young Texan, and among
them was the famous David Crockett, a great hunter, and Colonel James
Bowie, who invented the terrible "bowie-knife," and other bold and
daring men who had settled in Texas. They had made a fort of an old
Spanish building called the Alamo.

The kind of men I have named do not easily give up. The Mexicans poured
bomb-shells and cannon balls into their fort, battering down the walls
and killing many of them, but they fought on like tigers, determined to
die rather than surrender. At length so many of them were dead that
there were not enough left to defend the walls, and the Mexican soldiers
captured the Alamo. The valiant Crockett kept on fighting, and when he
fell, the ground before him was covered with Mexican dead. Then Santa
Anna ordered his soldiers to shoot down all that were left. That is what
is called the "Massacre of the Alamo."

It was not long before the Americans had their revenge. Their principal
leader was a bold and able man named Samuel Houston. He had less than
eight hundred men under him, but he marched on the Mexicans, who had
then about eighteen hundred men.

"Men, there is the enemy," said brave General Houston. "Do you wish to
fight?"

"We do," they all shouted.

"Charge on them, then, for liberty or death! Remember the Alamo!"

"Remember the Alamo!" they cried, as they rushed onward with the courage
of lions.

In a little time the Mexicans were running like frightened deer, and the
daring Texans were like deer hounds on their tracks. Of the eighteen
hundred Mexicans all but four hundred were killed, wounded, or taken
prisoners, while the Americans lost only thirty men. They had well
avenged the gallant Travis and the martyrs of the Alamo.

The cruel Santa Anna was taken prisoner. He had only one sound leg, and
the story was that he was caught with his wooden leg stuck fast in the
mud. Many of the Texans wanted to hang him for his murders at the Alamo,
but in the end he was set free.

All this took place in 1835. Texas was made an independent country, the
"Lone Star Republic," with General Houston for President. But its people
did not want to stand alone. They were American born and wished to
belong to the United States. So this country was asked to accept Texas
as a state of the Union. Nine years after it was accepted as one