Forget the Alamo summary

Believe it or not, there was a time when Spain welcomed American settlers into Texas. The Anglo colonies actually helped Spain push back against the Native Americans that they viewed as troublemakers. Of course, US presidents like James Madison and James Monroe were eager to keep a toehold in the region in case an opportunity arose to redraw territorial boundaries. It was no secret that the Americans were hoping to add Texas to their growing list of territories.

The Mexicans also had their reason for inviting Americans to cross the border. They needed help throwing off the yoke of their Spanish oppressors and winning their independence. However, when Mexicans put out the call, there were a large number of smugglers, pirates, and soldiers of fortune who answered.

By its nature, Texas was a place for rebirth. If you’d struck out in the US territories, Texas offered a second chance with a clean slate. This was a good option for honest, hardworking families who needed a break, but it was also a tempting opportunity for scoundrels, con men, and grifters who’d reached the end of their rope in the US.

Two of the best-known scoundrels were Pierre and Jean Lafitte. Through their base on Galveston Island, off the coast of Texas, they sold stolen goods and flaunted the rules of slave trading, selling people for a dollar a pound. For cotton farmers looking to get started, it was an enticing bargain.

For a while, the Texas settlements thrived. But their future was uncertain. It was proving increasingly difficult to attract new settlers so long as Mexico held to its abolitionist stance. The sentiment was, as Stephen Austin wrote to a friend, “Texas must be a slave country.” In his view, it was a necessity of circumstances.

So, it wasn’t long before talks of rebellion were brewing among the Texians, as well as the Tejanos. It all led up to a series of events that culminated in the bloodbath at the Battle of the Alamo. But it needn’t have happened at all.

In 1835, things began to seriously escalate. That year, Santa Anna officially abolished federalism in favor of a centralist approach. For Texians, it was as if all hope was lost. Tejanos were also up in arms over Santa Anna’s increasingly authoritarian style of government.

Then, on August 1, 1835, Mexican Army General Martín Perfecto de Cos was handed an arrest warrant for William Travis, following Travis’s unprovoked attack on a few dozen Mexican troops in Anahuac. At the time, Texians were aghast at Travis’s behavior, but when news of General Cos’s impending arrival reached them, they rallied behind the claims that a Mexican invasion was underway.

Some folks will try to tell you that no one knows what really happened at the Alamo since everyone died. But that’s not really the case. Sure, just about everyone who was trying to defend the Alamo from the attacking Mexican Army, led by Santa Anna himself, did die a violent death. But over the years, a clearer picture of what happened has emerged, thanks in part to accounts written by Mexican soldiers that have only come to light in recent decades, as well as the initial accounts from the sole survivors.

The key message here is: The Battle of the Alamo was a military disaster that could have been avoided.

On March 5, 1836, the siege was on its 12th day. Every day, cannon fire and bullets had been steadily chipping away and ripping holes in the outside walls, which on their own stood only 12 feet tall. Those inside the Alamo compound could see the Mexican Army building ladders to scale the Alamo’s poor defenses.

On this day, according to two separate accounts from men in Santa Anna’s army, Travis recognized the certain doom they were facing. He sent out a Tejano woman to negotiate a surrender with Santa Anna. Travis’s terms were that they’d surrender, as long as no lives were taken. But Santa Anna wouldn’t have it. The time for negotiations had long passed. The only terms he’d accept now was unconditional surrender.

Both Joe and Susana Dickinson reached Sam Houston’s camp in Gonzales around March 11, 1836, having been found on the road by scouts on their way to San Antonio. Their stories confirmed the worst rumors General Houston had already heard about what happened at the Alamo.

It was hard to see it as anything but utterly demoralizing. Houston retreated, burned Gonzales to the ground and came up with another idea. He set up camp in a safe area and began running drills, training the volunteers that were now streaming into the army’s ranks. Fourteen hundred men were now ready to fight, all they needed was inspiration, and this is where the myth of the Alamo was born.

Upon Santa Anna’s defeat, Texas became an independent state for ten years before joining the US. Naturally, the mythology surrounding the Alamo became a vital part of the Texas origin story. It also continued to serve leaders as a go-to analogy for drumming up motivation. President Lyndon B. Johnson, a Texas native, used it frequently when referring to the early days of the Vietnam war. George W. Bush wasn’t afraid to invoke the Alamo, either.

Over the years, however, this popular myth meant that contributions of the Tejanos who were there fighting alongside the Anglo “heroes” got lost. Not only that, but in the late 1800s and early 1900s, non-white rebels were lumped in with the enemy. Derisive terms like “greasers” began to be used to describe all Mexicans, along with broad degrading attacks on their characters. All of this can be found in the early literature that helped solidify the Alamo myth.

Despite the pushback from those committed to the Alamo mythology they grew up with, progress has been made. While teachers are still mandated by state law to tell a “heroic” version of events, it’s one that now includes Tejano representation. Books challenging the myth have continued to be published and a historical consensus is being reached that debunks the idea that it was all about nobility and bravery. In general, Texas is indeed reckoning with the fact that the revolt had more to do with preserving the business of slavery than with stemming Mexican oppression.

Even the historical site of the Alamo, which used to be a shrine to the myth, has begun to tell a more accurate version of the tale. Though, once again, the Alamo has found itself becoming the focal point of a heated battle.