The Alamo

It's been a long time...183 years to be exact since the Battle of the Alamo. It's so surreal to sit and write this piece less than a mile away from the famed mission turned makeshift fortress during the fight for Texas independence. February 23rd to March 6th, 1836.I am sitting where skirmishes may have taken place and battle lines may have been formed for the assault on the Alamo. One can almost picture the battlefield and remove the modern buildings and roads that now crowd the old battlefield. Two hundred and sixty men looked out and saw roughly eighteen hundred men amassed against them. Calvary, artillery, and infantry...the 1836 equivalent of combined arms. And they held out for nearly two weeks.A reinforced company-sized force of Texians versus roughly two reinforced battalions of attackers...I wonder what went through the minds of the defenders? Did they know that it was only a matter of time before they were all put to the sword? Was the certainty of death the inspiration to fight tooth and nail, killing and wounding between 400-600 attackers? Was there hope that they could hold off the numerically superior force until reinforcements arrived? We know that according to legend, on March 5th, William Travis drew a line in the sand and asked those willing to die to cross and join him...only one man refused.The Alamo while ultimately a defeat became a rallying cry for the independence movement in Texas. Rather than deter men from joining the ranks of the fledgling revolution, General Sam Houston saw his numbers swell. The brutality of the siege at the Alamo emboldened the Texians, they wanted vengeance.These volunteers would soon find themselves gathered at San Jacinto a little over a month later, where they would not only defeat Santa Anna but also capture him as well. Due to the sacrifices at the Alamo and the massacre at Goliad, the Texians were able to achieve independence from Mexico.