1. THE ALAMO
fact v.s fiction

2. WHAT IS THE ALAMO?
the Alamo is a battle fought between the US and
Mexico for control of a fort that guarded one of two
roads into Texas. The americans fought to defend the
Alamo but were greatly outnumbered and eventually
overran.

3. WHAT WE BELIEVE
Col. David Crocket, Col. William Barrett Travis and
Jim Bowie were cast as heroes who came to fight for
freedom and against tyranny. Santa Anna became the
invader.

4. WHAT IS TRUE
Travis and Bowie were heroes at the Alamo but
scoundrels up to then. Travis fled wife, child and debts a
few years earlier. Crockett sought military glory to revive
a failed political career.
Travis was one of the first killed. His slave Joe survived. If
Bowie was alive when the battle started, he was bedridden
and dying. Crocket may have survived the battle and been
executed, facing death bravely.
“Before the fall of the Alamo in March 1836, Texas was
Mexican, not Spanish”

5. WHAT WE BELIEVE
The state's fourth-grade social studies textbook
presents as fact a well-worn legend that Lt. Col.
William Travis, commander of Texas troops during
the battle, drew a line in the sand with his sword and
told his men to cross if they were willing to die fighting
the Mexican army.

6. WHAT IS TRUE
NEVER HAPPENED

7. WHAT WE BELIVE
lyrics to a folklore song written of the Alamo:
“A courier sent to the battlements, bloody and
loud.With words of fare well in the letters he carried
were proud.‘Grieve not, little darlin', my dyin' if Texas
is sovereign and free.We'll never surrender and ever
will liberty be!’”

8. WHAT IS TRUE
no one went to the Alamo to die; they all thought they
were going to win.
"If volunteers from the United States will join their
brethren in this section, they will receive liberal
bounties of land. We have millions of acres . . .
unchosen and unappropriated."

9. INTERESTING FACTS
there a significant number of Tejanos--ethnic Mexicans living in
Texas--fighting in the fort alongside the Anglos
The first historian who dared suggest, in 1978, that Davy Crockett
was captured after the battle and executed--rather than fighting,
gloriously, to the end--received death threats. (Most experts now
agree with this interpretation.)
The defenders numbered close to 250 men, but were still far too
few to defend the grounds of the Alamo. Santa Anna spent 13 days
bombarding the walls. The defenders spent 13 sleepless nights
repairing them.
In films the battle is fought in daylight, but the real battle was over
by sunrise on March 6, 1836.