Sam Houston was made head of the Army. Stephen Harrigan, an acknowledged and respected Alamo-head by dint of his best-selling 2000 novel Gates of the Alamo, moderated a panel that featured state senator Jose Menéndez, whose district includes the Alamo, and George P. Bush, the grandson and nephew of his presidential namesakes and, more to the point here, the statewide officeholder whose agency manages the Alamo. Gettysburg, at least for most Americans, is remembered as a pivotal victory. But the answer goes deeper than emphasis to what the battle represents these days in our popular imagination. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. So deep did that message get in there that she still misidentifies the traditional Alamo heroes as being on the winning side. From October until early December 1835 an army of Texan volunteers laid siege to a Mexican army in San Antonio de Béxar. Congress says, Hey, Davy, we really support you but we’re not going to send you any troops. From Anglo and Hispanic students alike, she would always hear, “We won.”. Texas aged 18-29 are the least likely to know Mexico won the Battle of the Alamo (43 percent), and the most likely to think Texas won (31 percent), that the United States won 10 percent), and to say they don’t know at 17 percent, which I suppose is a way of answering the question correctly. He was ready to surrender San Antonio to the Texian Army. The martyrdom at the Alamo justified, if not demanded, violent revenge, and something new was created, in this case, the Republic of Texas. He published an account of the supposed condition of th… Please reload the page and try again. While the beginning of San Antonio dates back to the founding of Mission San Antonio de Valero in 1718, it was at the battle of 1836 where ordinary men in an act of extraordinary heroism brought glory and fame to the Alamo, so that today San Antonio is everywhere known as the Alamo City. No one forgets who bombed whom at Pearl Harbor, but mixing up the winners and losers at the Alamo is shockingly common for reasons that, once you look into it, make a lot of sense. During the following week, the German SS executed 263 Dutch in retaliation. Every society has had its blemishes, and you talk about slavery and that’s one of the big ones, and the biggest that we’ve had. Over the next two weeks, the two armies traded gunfire, but there were few casualties. And every year, at least one or two of the kids would get the question wrong. James White, a state representative who went to Houston public schools, undoubtedly took Texas history as a schoolboy before getting his doctorate and teaching Texas history himself. There just aren’t a lot of battlefields we preserve in the United States to remember the losers. Elected as Rhine-Palatinate state premier in 1969, Kohl ...read more, The U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision on Sanford v. Dred Scott, a case that intensified national divisions over the issue of slavery. To explore all newsletters, click here.By signing up, you agree to the terms of service and privacy policy. I’m proud of my Mexican family. The younger you are, the wronger you are, at least when it comes to the Alamo. On this day in 1835, Mexican General Martin Perfecto de Cos raises a flag of truce. “Remember the Alamo!” became their rallying cry as an urgent reminder to avenge their earlier defeat. When al Qaeda terrorists attacked the United States, remembering the Alamo became inevitably intertwined with never forgetting 9/11. The walls enclosing the gardens behind the Alamo today, as well as the gift shop and other structures around the complex, were added a century or more after the battle. Very logical reasons,” said Cure. White, whose Twitter profile picture showed him giving a thumbs up with Donald Trump, came in for a bit of clowning as you might expect. The Siege of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) describes the first thirteen days of the Battle of the Alamo. It’s not every politician who can bridge a divide as wide as racism, though it probably wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. Mexican troops breached the north wall and flooded into the compound, awakening many of the Texans inside. Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), a packed event at the Texas Tribune Festival in September 2016, Anti-SAWS petitioners aren’t giving up, though time may have run out, San Antonio nears deal for centralized system to facilitate resident engagement, SAISD students want more say in decisions related to pandemic, discipline, and student rights, Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic. The typical Texan mind is that Mexico lost the Alamo,” she said. “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”. Bush, of course, got his troop surge. No matter where you go in the world and you start talking, ‘Hey, where you from?’ if it’s a Texan the first thing they say is, ‘I’m a Texan.’ Have you noticed that? But the fact of the matter is I’m an American, and I’m a Texan, and I view history through that, but I want to be honest about it because I think everybody has room at the table, and I want to be mature enough to say, yeah, I lost there, but guess what? But it wasn’t for his absurdist belief that a show of economic defiance would lead a global revolt against an airborne virus. I’m proud of my Cuban family. Texas aged 18-29 are the least likely to know Mexico won the Battle of the Alamo (43 percent), and the most likely to think Texas won (31 percent), that the United States won 10 percent), and to say they don’t know at 17 percent, which I suppose is a way of answering the question correctly. And it’s why Sam Houston’s troops yelled “Remember the Alamo!” at the Battle of San Jacinto and not some appeal to independence or self-determination. Santa Anna lost this battle simply by stupidity. This seems to be kind of a curious proposition, almost a nonsensical proposition. The victory was a huge one for the morale of the Texans and led to the subsequent capture of the town of San Antonio. One reply, though, stood out. The Alamo is a story Texas has told to sort the good guys, who were the Anglo Texians, from the bad guys, or the Mexicans. This isn’t “kids today.” No one is getting off anyone’s lawn here. “They did lose the war, but they didn’t win that battle,” said the man at the back mic. Thirteen days earlier, on February 23, Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ordered a siege of the Alamo Mission (near present-day San Antonio), which had been occupied by rebel Texas forces since December. People go, ‘I’m a Texan.’ And, you know, me and my cousins got into a lot of arguments over this. Bowie and Travis were killed, as was Crockett, although reports differ as to exactly how and when. Meanwhile, commander of the Texas forces, Sam Houston had been building and developing his army in Harris County. Instead, the Texas Twitterati ridiculed White for apparently not remembering that the Mexicans defeated the Texians at the Alamo. “This is what I love about Texas. Menéndez shrugged, put his right hand on his chest – over his heart, if you will – and said, “I’m an American.” Again, the crowd laughed, and not because anyone was trying to be funny. The Siege of Béxar (or Béjar) was an early campaign of the Texas Revolution in which a volunteer Texian army defeated Mexican forces at San Antonio de Béxar (now San Antonio, Texas). Texas’ Ted Poe probably remembered the Alamo more than anyone in Congress and seemed to love nothing more than to link the Alamo to the war on terrorism. This piece originally ran in Jason Stanford’s newsletter, The Experiment. This confusion over who won and how this plays out in racial and ethnic identity caused an awkward encounter at a packed event at the Texas Tribune Festival in September 2016 on the campus of the University of Texas. The myth of heroism and bravery is so pervasive that it clouds how Texans remember the Alamo. The day before, the leader of Mexico and commander of its army operating in Texas had mounted a … What did the Texas volunteers believe at the end of the battle in San Antonio? It is still the basic account taught to schoolchildren in Texas, and in most other high school history courses. End of the Battle. On February 23, Mexican troops under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna entered San Antonio de Bexar, Texas and surrounded the Alamo Mission. It makes total sense.”. 1 of 2 Death doula Anna Adams sits in an office at Holistic Hospice in San Antonio on Oct. 28, 2020. The battle has been immortalized in several TV series and films, including 1960’s The Alamo, starring John Wayne as Davy Crockett. He was a Texan in Mexico but a Mexican in Texas. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! What were two things that Governor Smith of the provisional government and members of the general council quarreled about? An army of over 1,000 Mexican soldiers began descending on the makeshift fort and setting up artillery. It is also known as “The Battle of Bexar” and “The Assault on San Antonio”. Picture Davy Crockett at the Alamo. When the Battle of the Alamo ended at approximately 6:30 a.m. on March 6, 1836, fewer than fifty of the almost 250 Texians who had occupied the Alamo Mission in San Antonio, Texas, were alive. “You gotta remember, too: We lost,” he said. T Siege of Bexar: San Antonio de Bexar October 12 – December 11, 1835 In a six-week siege, Texans attacked Bexar and fought from house to house for five days. What actually happened gets blown up by the story’s cultural payload, and historical literacy is the casualty. Remembering whether the Japanese or the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor doesn’t matter as much as the reason for remembering in the first place: to exact revenge through restorative violence. Resulted in the capture of horses and hay (grass). Sure, White got his facts backward. Clearly, the old white fella thought the brown-skinned Texas state senator who represented the Alamo was basically a Mexican. In its primitive form, the active ingredient, salicin, was used for ...read more, On March 6, 1902, the Madrid Foot Ball Club is founded by a group of fans in Madrid, Spain. You can’t draw a crowd in Austin to listen to a couple politicians agree with each other – and Menéndez and Bush certainly did that. Despite being clearly outnumbered, Alamo co-commanders James Bowie and William Travis insisted on remaining in place. “Why would we spend so much time talking about a loss? Travis replied by openi… The siege of Bexar (San Antonio) became the first major campaign of the Texas Revolution. The next battle was on an island in a bayou next to the San Jacinto River about halfway between San Antonio and the Louisiana border. New questions in History. More by Jason Stanford. Even to some at the time, it sounded too good to be true, and in the end, it was. When he was a kid she’d take him back there to visit relatives who would tease him that Texas lost the Battle of the Alamo. Antonio López de Santa Anna fell prisoner to the Texans on April 22, 1836. That’s a 12-year-old’s logic. It took place on October 28, 1835, on the grounds of Concepción Mission outside of San Antonio. Every year, he always put on his final exam who won the Battle of the Alamo. So he gets his BlackBerry out. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Dr. James Grant, an Englishman, some time before domiciliated about Monclova, and one of the legislators dispersed by General Cos, was the cause of this movement. March 6 marks the 183rd anniversary to the end of the 13-day siege that followed the Battle of the Alamo in … The Battle of the Alamo was fought during the Texas revolution at a small fort in San Antonio, Texas. Exactly half as many think the Republic of Texas won the battle, which has been compared to some of history’s most famous defeats: Thermopylae, Pearl Harbor, and 9/11. The question was asked, something along the lines of why didn’t the city preserve the Alamo intact as the city grew, and an answer was offered, which was something along the lines of because it just didn’t work out that way, and the man made a move to leave, not entirely satisfied nor surprised, before Collins spoke up with an impish tone. I got you at San Jacinto.”. Yes, that Phil Collins, but the focus here is on Menéndez, whose dad came from Cuba and mom from Mexico. In Orozco’s college classes, “Basically, they would say that Mexico lost. Map of the line of attack by Texans against the Mexican forces occupying Bexar, showing the layout of San Antonio de Bexar, including roads, major buildings, rivers, and creeks. There was an error, and we couldn't process your sign-up. It’s like, look, you’re an American of Hispanic descent, and I’m proud of my descent.