But he really has to get their imagination going, because the Alamo Chapel looks, and is, so small compared to the story. The actual battleground was so much larger. There is a move afoot within San Antonio, and many of us outside of there are supporting it, to RECLAIM as much of the original battlefield as possible, and rebuild a life size facsimile of what most of it would have looked like. Reclaiming the area where the tacky shops are directly across from it...which was the point of the west wall of the fortress. Closing streets, getting rid of the concrete and re-sod it with grass. Moving the large, beautiful Cenotaph in the middle of the plaza to another location. And turning it into a more realistic version of living history, to teach everyone the actual story. So many people come and are severely disappointed with what they find. THIS could change the entire experience.

***** Agreed it was so surprising how small it actually is compared to the perception from movies and such. Fortunately my buddy is a Texas history fanatic. I wish you all the best with trying to get the area fixed up, Texas and the nation deserve it.

I have, on numerous occasions, done what your buddy did.....to total strangers, that I hear them say they are disappointed, or don't seem to get the entire idea. It's a ghostly place that has a story to tell......

I too would be disappointed by not being able to video or photograph inside the chapel. If Google Maps is accurate, some of the businesses around the Alamo sound awesome. It has Haagen Das, a couple of steakhouses, and a biergarten.

Congratulations?

Why the asshole remark, Man? I'm proud that a member of my family fought for Texas independence.

Fuqua is an early colonial name in Virginia!

Galba Fuqua was 16. William Phillip King, Jr was 15. He took his father's place. Both boys were part of the 32 from Gonzales.

my 5x Great Uncle Ricardson Perry was young also he was only 18/19

Great thanks to you sir from San Antonio Texas

Que viva!! El Alamo que viva Texas!!

Saludos amigo des de. San Antonio Texas

No photos allowed...

Louie Neira Pretty sure the Alamo was there well before the mall and the gift shops.

you ignored the point just to make a snarky comment... good for you...

Reasonable. While it's blocked off on its own, the streets around it are mostly tourist shops, ala the ripley wax museum. Btw, nice seeing you fellow whovian

+Louie Neira A scared place?

meant sacred - blame spellcheck...

Yes Bowie shot and killed. He killed three of his slaves, two servants, one guy named Davy and then he ran out of bullets and begged for his life. He was spared but died the next day of natural causes. May he rest in peace for owning and killing slaves. Damn.

@@Art3615 that or he was shot in his sick bed as he was too ill to do anything else. Same with Davy Crockett. He surrendered & later executed.

@@Art3615 grow up

Early spring in April during Fiesta Week would be best or in the fall. Yes, the homeless shelters resides on the outskirts of the downtown area unfortunately. However, I'm sure you felt secured and treated respectfully by the people of San Antonio, please hurry back.

Texan That probably explains it. We were treated well. Food was great.

That’s a racist thing you just put here you dumb fuck. Someone’s gonna beat your fucking ass in if you say that out loud you fucking coward.

@@markordonez9220 Lighten up frances, its a (true) construction joke you fragile SJW , hahahahahah, grow a spine.

santana is a musician

What books are you reading? Everybody from Houston on down hated Travis.

+Luis Gonzalez , we actually did. The Louisiana purchase only included the top sliver of Mexico, and that's if you would expect the Mexicans to honor the sale, because Spain acquired it by invading Mexico, sold it to France. San Antonio (where the Alamo is), is much further south than the land bought by U.S. in the purchase (mighty fair 3 cents an acre). Frontiersmen simply trickled further and further south, demanding their inalienable (constitutional) rights. Mexico's response was appropriate; "J'ar you talking to me ese'". It was an invasion. We took most of Texas from the Mexicans.Sorry.And sorry to you Amigo's. Our bad.

What I find amazing is that the defenders of the Alamo were trespassers attempting to bring American style slavery to foreign soil.

@@jasonmarin5634 This is true some defenders owned slaves.

Charlie Prove it.

True story the real bones and ashes were burried in a nearby orchard 1 year after the battle. RIP defenders.

OK COMMIE GO TO HELL PUSSY !

You read your history book.

It's funny but although the Mexicans forbid slavery of blacks they captured native Americans and they were called servants. Different name same work.

you really come back every year to troll and youre not even good at it

@@jimdingle4521 That's okay, your good at it, you're the BEST in trolling!

@@SKY-jv9ue you're* you got it wrong the first time. Not only are you trash at trolling you're also dumber than a box of rocks

@@jimdingle4521 If I did not speak the truth out loud, the very rocks would cry out on my side! Take heed cowpoke.

BULL SHIT YOU FUCKING COMMIE !

Your an idiot, go back to watching CNN .

@@vikingirishman1 BS, you dumb azz trumpie!

@@redsammy7789 No, I'll watch trump and being a big dummy!

@@SKY-jv9ue You are right, watch him for 4 more years, then one of his sons for 8 years after that.

And Texas would be a better off as a Mexican state? Have you been to Mexico, one of the world's most corrupt countries, up there with Nigerian and Russia.

cameraman655 now now ,we cant fix stupid ..

The USA did not invade Mexico. The Mexican Government invited American Settlers to come and colonize Texas but first they had to become Mexican citizens. So yes, it was a slap in the face of those who's representation and rights they pledged their alliance to were thrown out by Santa Anna. Osk, I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but please don't try and make a point when you yourself don't know what you're talking about.

Alex Sundin Under Iturbide, American colonists had been allowed to settle in Texas. About the only condition to owning land was that all immigrant landowners had to be Catholic, an easy enough problem to overcome for non-Catholics. William Travis, for instance, became Catholic to purchase land, but remained a staunch Methodist until the day he died at the Alamo. Unfortunately, the fledgling Republic of Mexico was born bankrupt and ill-prepared for self-government. In fact, during its first 15 years of independence, it had 13 presidents. All of them struggled for power, shifting between the liberal-leaning Federalists and the dictatorial Centralists. The first president was a Federalist, General Guadalupe Victoria, a hero of the revolution who had changed his name from Miguel Felix Hernandez to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas, for his victory. It was he who established the liberal Constitution of 1824 that so infuriated Santa Anna and that would lead to the Battle of the Alamo 12 years later. It was also during this tumultuous struggle for control of Mexico’s presidency that the northern territory of Texas was mostly neglected. When Mexico redefined its territories in 1824, Texas was the only separate territory to lose its independence. It was joined to Coahuila and the capital was moved from San Antonio de Béxar to Saltillo. Armed citizens gathered in protest. In September 1835, they petitioned for statehood separate from Coahuila. They wrote out their needs and their complaints in The Declaration of Causes. This document was designed to convince the Federalists that the Texans desired only to preserve the 1824 Constitution, which guaranteed the rights of everyone living on Mexican soil. But by this time, Santa Anna was in power, having seized control in 1833, and he advocated the removal of all foreigners. His answer was to send his crack troops, commanded by his brother-in-law, General Martín Perfecto de Cós, to San Antonio to disarm the Texans. October 1835 found San Antonio de Béxar under military rule, with 1,200 Mexican troops under General Cós’ command. When Cós ordered the small community of Gonzales, about 50 miles east of San Antonio, to return a cannon loaned to the town for defense against Indian attack-rightfully fearing that the citizens might use the cannon against his own troops-the Gonzales residents refused. Come and take it! they taunted, setting off a charge of old chains and scrap iron, shot from the mouth of the tiny cannon mounted on ox-cart wheels. Although the only casualty was one Mexican soldier, Gonzales became enshrined in history as the Lexington of Texas. The Texas Revolution was on. On December 5, 200 Texan volunteers commanded by Ben Milam attacked Cós’ troops in San Antonio de Béxar, which was about 400 yards from the Alamo compound. The fighting in Béxar raged with a house-to-house assault unlike anything the Mexican army had ever before experienced. Cós finally flew the white flag of surrender from the Alamo on December 9. More than 200 of his men lay dead, and as many more were wounded. He signed papers of capitulation, giving the Texans all public property, money, arms and ammunition in San Antonio, and by Christmas Day, the Mexican army was back across the Rio Grande. To the Texans, who lost about 20 men, including Ben Milam, the victory seemed cheap and easy. The siege of Béxar and Cós’ surrender brought immediate retaliation from Santa Anna. He whipped together a force of 8,000 men, many of them foreign adventurers from Europe and America. One of his deadliest snipers was an Illinois man named Johnson! Santa Anna, the self-styled Napoleon of the West, marched at the head of the massive army; he was determined to stamp out all opposition and teach the Texans a lesson. The word went out to his generals: In this war, you understand, there are no prisoners. Although it was midwinter, Santa Anna pushed his army mercilessly toward Texas. The frigid, wind-battered deserts of northern Mexico took their toll. Men and animals died by the hundreds and were left on the trail, and the brigades strung out for uncounted miles. When the big siege guns bogged down in one of the many quagmires, Santa Anna pushed on without them. Nothing would stop him. Meanwhile, after the defeated Mexican force under General Cós had left San Antonio, Colonel James C. Neill had assumed command of the Alamo garrison, which consisted of about 80 poorly equipped men in several small companies, including the volunteers. The rest of the soldiers had returned home to their families and farm chores. In this command were an artillery company under Captain William R. Carey known as the Invincibles, two small infantry companies known as the New Orleans Greys under Captain William Blazeby, and the Béxar Guards under Captain Robert White. On January 17, 1836, Sam Houston, the commander of the revolutionary troops, sent Colonel Jim Bowie and 25 men to San Antonio with orders to destroy the Alamo fortifications and retire eastward with the artillery. But Bowie and Neill agreed that it would be impossible to remove the 24 captured cannons without oxen, mules or horses. And they deemed it foolhardy to abandon that much firepower-by far the most concentrated at any location during the Texas Revolution. Bowie also had a keen eye for logistics, terrain, and avenues of assault. Knowing that General Houston needed time to raise a sizable army to repel Santa Anna, Bowie set about reinforcing the Alamo after Neill was forced to leave because of sickness in his family. Colonel William Travis arrived in San Antonio on February 2 with a small cavalry company, bringing the total number of Alamo defenders to about 130. Although spies told him that Santa Anna had crossed the Rio Grande, Travis did not expect the dictator before early spring. He sent letter after letter, pleading for supplies and more men. He and Bowie also competed for command of the garrison before it was decided that Bowie would command the volunteers and Travis the regular army. On February 9, David Crockett and the 14 other Tennessee Mounted Volunteers (only three were actually from Tennessee) rode into San Antonio. Alarmed by the Mexican army on the outskirts of town, Travis vigorously renewed his pleas for help. His February 24 letter, To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World….I shall never surrender or retreat….Victory or Death! is considered one of the most heart-wrenching pleas ever written. Travis sent the message out with Captain Albert Martin. The day before, February 23, Santa Anna had reclaimed San Antonio. To the triumphant music of a military band, he took possession of the town, set up headquarters on the main plaza, and began the siege. He had his standard-bearers climb to the top of the bell tower of San Fernando Church and unfurl the scarlet flag of no quarter. Inside the Alamo, Travis and the Texans fired their message to Santa Anna with a blast from their 18-pounder. They had their music, too, with Davy Crockett’s fiddle and John McGregor’s bagpipes. In fact, Davy’s fiddle-playing and outlandish storytelling kept up the spirits of the besieged defenders. Santa Anna ordered his men to pound the fortifications with cannon and rifle fire for 12 days and nights. His idea was to wear out the defenders inside, giving them no chance for rest or sleep. He reasoned that a weary army would be an easy one to defeat. But the noise worked on his own army, too. Unable to hear clearly through the din, they allowed courier after courier to escape from the Alamo. On March 2, racing through the enemy’s lines, the last group to reinforce the Alamo arrived. These men were the relief force from Gonzales, the only town to answer Travis’ pleas to send help. The total number of Alamo defenders now stood at between 180 and 190. At 4 o’clock on the morning of March 6, 1836, Santa Anna advanced his men to within 200 yards of the Alamo’s walls. Just as dawn was breaking, the Mexican bloodcurdling bugle call of the Deguello echoed the meaning of the scarlet flag above San Fernando: no quarter. It was Captain Juan Seguin’s Tejanos, the native-born Mexicans fighting in the Texan army, who interpreted the chilling music for the other defenders. Santa Anna’s first charge was repulsed, as was the second, by the deadly fire of Travis’ artillery. At the third charge, one Mexican column attacked near a breach in the north wall, another in the area of the chapel, and a third, the Toluca Battalion, commenced to scale the walls. All suffered severely. Out of 800 men in the Toluca Battalion, only 130 were left alive. Fighting was hand to hand with knives, pistols, clubbed rifles, lances, pikes, knees and fists. The dead lay everywhere. Blood spilled in the convent, the barracks, the entrance to the church, and finally in the rubble-strewn church interior itself. Ninety minutes after it began, it was over. All the Texans died. Santa Anna’s loss was 1,544 men. More than 500 Mexicans lay wounded, their groans mingling with the haunting strains of the distant bugle calls. Santa Anna airily dismissed the Alamo conquest as a small affair, but one of his officers commented, Another such victory will ruin us. As many of the Mexican dead as possible were given the rites of the church and buried, but there were so many that there was not sufficient room in the cemetery. Santa Anna ordered all the bodies of the Texans to be contemptuously stacked like cord wood in three heaps, mixed with fuel, wood and dry branches from the neighboring forest, and set on fire-except one. Jose Gregorio Esparza was given a Christian burial because his brother Francisco was a member of General Cós’ presidio guards. Six weeks after the Alamo, while the Mexican wounded still languished in San Antonio, Santa Anna met his Waterloo at San Jacinto. The men who died inside the walls of the Alamo had bought with their lives the time needed for General Sam Houston to weld a force that won Texas its independence. The great sacrifice would not be forgotten by history, nor would the Alamo’s many legends and stories, most of which can never be proved or disproved because all the defenders died. One of the most enduring questions is whether Travis really did draw a line in the earth, the grand canyon of Texas, and ask all to step over who were willing to die for the cause. It is probably based on fact. Travis anticipated a battle to the death. Since he was also one for fairness, it’s logical to believe that he would give the men an opportunity to leave the ill-fated garrison. It is a fact that one man did leave. Louis Rose was from France, and he had already served in one bloody war as a noncommissioned officer in Napoleon Bonaparte’s army. Before the final assault on the Alamo he left, sustaining many leg wounds from cactuses and thorns during his escape that plagued him the remainder of his life. Asked why he chose not to stay with the rest, he replied, By God, I wasn’t ready to die. It is Rose’s tale of the line in the dust that has become legend. - See more at: www.historynet.com/battle-of-the-alamo#sthash.2BdRFiDA.dpuf

and where did it say that the government wanted them around ?because if so you have no idea dude

Roger Borroel how the fuck do you know that, I didn’t know you were there

U must be an Anglo believing all that BS about crockett, travis and Bowie! LMAOOOOO!

HOW do you know, were you there? You believe tales about the Alamo, not facts!

I have no idea where you get your "facts", but your facts are full of shit.

Roger Borroel no no that’s not true

Roger Borroel Liar.