he Tejas: the French,
the Spanish, the Mexican, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate, the
Union. In such a struggle for ascendancy, needless to tell, much blood
was shed righteously and unrighteously; but of the battle fought at the
Alamo, no justification need be given. It is part of American history,
but it is the kind of history that in other nations goes to make battle
hymns. Details are in every school book. Santa Ana, the newly risen
Mexican dictator, had ordered the 30,000 Americans who lived in Texas,
to disarm. Sam Houston, Crockett, Bowie, Travis, had sprung to arms with
a call that rings down to history yet:

"Fellow citizens and compatriots," wrote Travis from the
doomed Alamo Mission, to Houston and the other leaders
outside, "I am besieged by a thousand or more Mexicans under
Santa Ana. I have sustained a continued bombardment for
twenty-four hours and have not lost a man.... The garrison
is to be put to the sword if the place is taken. I have
answered the summons with a cannon shot and our flag still
waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender, nor
retreat. I call on you in the name of liberty, and of
everything dear to the American character, to come to our
aid with all despatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements
daily, and will no doubt increase to 3,000 or 4,000 in four
or five days. Though this call may be neglected, I am
determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die
like a soldier who forgets not what is due to his own honor
and that of his country--Victory or Death!

W. Barrett Travis
Lieut.-Col. Commanding."

In the fort with Travis were 180 men under Bowie and Crockett. The siege
began on Feb. 23, 1836, and ended on March 6th. Besides the frontiersmen
in the fort were two women, two children and two slaves. The Mission was
arranged in a great quadrangle fifty-four by 154 yards with _acequias_
or irrigation ditches both to front and rear. The garrison had succeeded
in getting inside the walls about thirty bushels of corn and eighty beef
cattle; so there was no danger of famine. The big courtyard was in the
rear. The convent projected out in front of the courtyard. To the left
angle of the convent was the chapel or Mission of the Alamo. Santa Ana
had come across the desert with 5,000 men. To the demand for surrender,
Travis answered wi