The Alamo

The Alamo began as a Spanish mission and became, in 1836, the site of a thirteen-day siege that turned into one of the most famous last stands in American history. Roughly 200 Texian and Tejano defenders held the walls against a much larger Mexican army under General Antonio López de Santa Anna before the garrison was overwhelmed.

“Remember the Alamo” became the rallying cry of the Texas Revolution, which won independence from Mexico weeks later. The mission church that survives today is one of Texas's most visited historic sites and a symbol recognized far beyond the state.

Franciscan missionaries founded Mission San Antonio de Valero in 1718; it moved to its present site in 1724, where its stone chapel was built beginning in 1744. Secularized in the 1790s, the former mission was later garrisoned by soldiers, who gave it the name “Alamo,” Spanish for “cottonwood.”

In February 1836, during the Texas Revolution, a force under Mexican President and General Antonio López de Santa Anna besieged the Alamo, defended by a small garrison of Texian and Tejano volunteers that included William B. Travis, James Bowie, and Davy Crockett. After a thirteen-day siege, Mexican troops stormed the walls on March 6, 1836, killing nearly all of the defenders.

The defeat galvanized the Texian cause; “Remember the Alamo” became a battle cry at the Battle of San Jacinto weeks later, where Sam Houston's forces defeated Santa Anna and secured Texas independence. The Alamo church was preserved beginning in the late 19th century and today is maintained as a historic site and shrine in downtown San Antonio.