The Alamo in 1836

During the 1836 Siege and Battle of the Alamo, this area held corrals for cattle and horses, and small fortifications gave the Texans cover during the siege. The structures shown from left to right are the church, the Long Barrack, corrals, and a reinforced artillery emplacement, with the town of San Antonio de Valero visible in the background just west of the San Antonio River. A flag of no quarter flew over San Fernando Church. On February 24, 1836, William Barret Travis, lieutenant colonel commanding, wrote to the people of Texas and all Americans in the world that the Lord was on their side, that when the enemy first appeared they had not three bushels of corn, and that they had since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels and brought within the walls 20 or 30 head of beeves. On March 3, 1836, writing to the Convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos, Travis reported that a blood-red banner waved from the church of Bejar and in the camp above them as a sign that the war was one of vengeance against rebels, that they had been declared as such, and that the garrison had been ordered to surrender at discretion or be put to the sword.

San Antonio, Texas · United States