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Day Thirteen – Sunday March 6, 1836

At Midnight on March 5, 1836, Santa Anna's troops began moving into position for their planned attack of the Alamo compound. For several hours, the soldiers lay on the ground in complete darkness. About 5:30 A.M., they received the order to begin the assault.

The massed troops moved quietly, encountering the Texian sentinels first. They killed them as they slept.

No longer able to contain the nervous energy gripping them, cries of "Viva la Republica" and "Viva Santa Anna" broke the stillness.

The Mexican soldiers' shouts spoiled the moment of surprise.

Inside the compound, Adjutant John Baugh had just begun his morning rounds when he heard the cries. He hurriedly ran to the quarters of Colonel William Barret Travis. He awakened him with: "Colonel Travis, the Mexicans are coming!" Travis and his slave Joe quickly scrambled from their cots. The two men grabbed their weapons and headed for the north wall battery. Travis yelled "Come on boys, the Mexicans are on us and we'll give them Hell! "Unable to see the advancing troops for the darkness, the Texian gunners blindly opened fire; they had packed their cannon with jagged pieces of scrap metal, shot, and chain. The muzzle flash briefly illuminated the landscape and it was with horror that the Texians understood their predicament. The enemy had nearly reached the walls of the compound.

The Mexican soldiers had immediate and terrible losses. That first cannon blast ripped a huge gap in their column. Colonel José Enrique de la Peña would later write "...a single cannon volley did away with half the company of Chasseurs from Toluca." The screams and moans of the dying and wounded only heightened the fear and chaos of those first few moments of the assault.

Travis hastily climbed to the top of the north wall battery and readied himself to fire; discharging both barrels of his shotgun into the massed troops below. As he turned to reload, a single lead ball struck him in the forehead sending him rolling down the ramp where he came to rest in a sitting position. Travis was dead. Joe saw his master go down and so retreated to one of the rooms along the west wall to hide.

There was no safe position on the walls of the compound. Each time the Texian riflemen fired at the troops below, they exposed themselves to deadly Mexican fire. On the south end of the compound, Colonel Juan Morales and about 100 riflemen attacked what they perceived was the weak palisade area. They met heavy fire from Crockett's riflemen and a single cannon. Morales's men quickly moved toward the southwest corner and the comparative safety of cover behind an old stone building and the burned ruins of scattered jacales.

On the north wall, exploding Texian canister shredded but did not halt the advance of Mexican soldiers. Cos's and Duque's companies, now greatly reduced in number, found themselves at the base of the north wall. Romero's men joined them after his column had wheeled to the right to avoid deadly grapeshot from the guns of the Alamo church.

General Castrillón took command from the wounded Colonel Duque and began the difficult task of getting his men over the wall. As the Mexican army reached the walls, their advance halted. Santa Anna saw this lag and so committed his reserve of 400 men to the assault bringing the total force to around 1400 men.

Amid the Texian cannon fire tearing through their ranks, General Cos's troops performed a right oblique to begin an assault on the west wall. The Mexicans used axes and crowbars to break through the barricaded windows and openings. They climbed through the gun ports and over the wall to enter the compound.

General Amador and his men entered the compound by climbing up the rough-faced repairs made on the north wall by the Texians. They successfully breached the wall and in a flood of fury, the Mexican army poured through.

The Texians turned their cannon northward to check this new onslaught. With cannon fire shifted, Colonel Morales recognized a momentary advantage. His men stormed the walls and took the southwest corner, the 18-pounder, and the main gate. The Mexican army was now able to enter from almost every direction.

In one room near the main gate, the Mexican soldiers found Colonel James Bowie. Bowie was critically ill and confined to bed when the fighting began. The soldiers showed little mercy as they silenced him with their bayonets.

The Texians continued to pour gunfire into the advancing Mexican soldiers devastating their ranks. Still they came.

When they saw the enemy rush into the compound from all sides, the Texians fell back to their defenses in the Long Barracks. Crockett's men in the palisade area retreated into the church.

The rooms of the north barrack and the Long Barracks had been prepared well in advance in the event the Mexicans gained entry. The Texians made the rooms formidable by trenching and barricading them with raw cowhides filled with earth. For a short time, the Texians held their ground.

The Mexicans turned the abandoned Texian cannon on the barricaded rooms. With cannon blast followed by a musket volley, the Mexican soldiers stormed the rooms to finish the defenders inside the barrack.

Mexican soldiers rushed the darkened rooms. With sword, bayonet, knife, and fist the adversaries clashed. In the darkened rooms of the north barrack, it was hard to tell friend from foe. The Mexicans systematically took room after room; finally, the only resistance came from within the church itself.

Once more, the Mexicans employed the Texians' cannon to blast apart the defenses of the entrance. Bonham, Dickinson and Esparza died by their cannon at the rear of the church. An act of war became a slaughter. It was over in minutes.

According to one of Santa Anna's officers, the Mexican army overwhelmed and captured a small group of defenders. According to this officer, Crockett was among them. The prisoners were brought before Santa Anna where General Castrillón asked for mercy on their behalf. Santa Anna instead answered with a "gesture of indignation" and ordered their execution. Nearby officers who had not taken part in the assault fell upon the helpless men with their swords. One Mexican officer noted in his journal that: "Though tortured before they were killed, these unfortunates died without complaining and without humiliating themselves before their torturers."

Santa Anna ordered Alcalde Francisco Ruiz to gather firewood from the surrounding countryside and in alternating layers of wood and bodies the dead were stacked.

At 5:00 O'clock in the evening the pyres were lit. In this final act, Santa Anna's "small affair" ended.

Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:

www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/858143/posts

At approximately 5 A.M. on March 6, 1836, four columns totaling about 1,100 Mexican troops move into postion to begin the assault on the Alamo.

From the northwest: General Martín Perfecto de Cós with two hundred fusiliers and rifleman of the Aldama Battalion and one hundred fusilers of the San Luis Potosi militia carrying ten ladders, two crowbars, and two axes.

From the north: Colonel Francisco Duqué with the Toluca Battalion (minus the grenadiers) and three fusilier companies of San Luis, about four hundred men in all, carrying ten ladders, two crowbars, and two axes.

From the northeast: Colonel José María Romero with fusilier companies of the Matamoros and Jimenez battalions, about thre hundred men, carrying six ladders.

From the south: Colonel Juan Morales with three rifle companies of the Matamoros, Jimenez, and San Luis battalions, totaling one hundred men, carrying two ladders.

Mauled by Alamo artillery and small-arms fire, the columns on the east, north, and west waver and fall back. The southeren column seeks shelter behind the jacales at the southwest corner.

The columns move forward again. Those on the east, north, and west converge to form an almost solid, confused mass huddling at the base of the north wall. With Colonel Duqué wounded and out of action, General Manuel Fernandez Castrillón takes command of the north column. At the southwest corner, Morales's men attack bravely but have not yet entered the compound.

View of Alamo Complex at time of Battle. Church is structure without roof on right. Notice gap in wall near star. To defend this gap, Colonel Travis placed Davy Crockett and his 12 Tennessee Volunteers

His ranks shredded by cannon blasts from the Fortin de Condelle, as well as by misdirected fire from the Toluca Battalion under Castrillón's command, General Cós makes an oblique movement to the right with his column and assaults a sizable portion of the west wall. Men wielding axes and crowbars break through the posterns and blocked-up windows; many more climb over the wall; and others push through the two ground-level gun ports. Colonel Romero makes a similar move to his left with most of his column and storms the two gun portions in the corrals.

Meanwhile, General Castrillón directs the assault of the north column up the wooden outerwork that covers the entire face of the north wall, but his men meet fierce resistance.

Santa Anna then sends in the reserves: the Zapadores Battalion and five grenadier companies of Matamoros, Jimenez, Aldama, Toluca, and San Luis, 400 men in all.

Seeing their flanks exposed by the ingress of the columns under Cos and Romero, the Texians defending the north wall abandon it and seek shelter in the second line of defense: the long barracks and other houses within the compound.

By this time Morales's men have also entered the fort, seizing the eighteen-pounder and the main gate positions. Mexican soldiers now pour unchecked into the Alamo from almost every direction. In the barracks and the chapel, the surviving Texians ensconce themselves for their last, brutal stand.

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on April 10:
0401 Theodosius II the Younger, Eastern Roman emperor
1512 James I king of Scotland (1513-42)
1583 Hugo Grotius Holland, jurist, father of international law
1755 Samuel Hahnemann German physician/originator of homeopathy
1794 Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry opened Japan
1797 Claude Ambroise Seurat Troyes France, (World's skinniest man)
1806 Leonidas Polk Lieutenant General (Confederate Army), died in 1864
1823 Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb Brigadier General (Confederate Army)
1827 Lewis Wallace Major General (Union volunteers)/lawyer/diplomat/governor NM/author (Ben Hur)
1829 William Booth founder (Salvation Army)
1833 David McMurtrie Gregg Brevet Major General (Union volunteers)
1833 James Edward Rains Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1862
1847 Joseph Pulitzer Hungary, publisher (St Louis Post-Dispatch, New York World)
1857 Henry Ernest Dudeney mathematician/puzzle maker
1882 Simon F H J Berkelbach Van der Sprenkel theologist (Fear & Religion)
1891 Tim McCoy Saginaw MI Cowboy Actor
1903 Clare Boothe Luce former US ambassador to Vatican
1910 Eddy Duchin Cambridge MA, society pianist/bandleader (Eddy Duchin Orchestra)
1912 Roy Hofheinz engineer (Houston Astrodome)
1915 Harry Morgan Detroit MI, actor (December Bride, MASH, Dragnet)
1921 Chuck Connors Brooklyn NY, actor (Rifleman, Branded, Cowboy in Africa)
1921 Sheb Wooley Erick OK, vocalist (Purple People Eater, Hee Haw)
1926 Johnnie Tillmon activist (National Welfare Rights Association)
1927 "Alvin" Junior Samples Cummings GA, country performer (Hee Haw)
1929 Max [Carl Adolf] Von Sydow Lund Sweden, actor (Hawaii, Exorcist, Dune, Dreamscape)
1932 Hari Rhodes Cincinnati OH, actor (Mike-Daktari, Roots)
1932 Omar Sharif [Michael Shalhoub] Alexandria Egypt, actor (Dr Zhivago, Top Secret)
1933 Robert Rhodes James historian (Gallipoli)
1934 David Halberstam New York Times international correspondent (New York Times/Pulitzer 1964)
1936 John Madden NFL coach (Oakland Raiders)/sports commentator (CBS, FOX)
1938 Don Meredith Mount Vernon TX, NFL quarterback (Cowboys)/Mon Night Football
1941 Paul Theroux American travel book writer (Mosquito Coast)
1951 Steven Seagal Detroit MI, actor(?) (Above the Law, Hard to Kill)
1961 Jeb Adams Hollywood CA, actor (Lieutenant Jeb Pruitt-Baa Baa Black Sheep)
1963 Kirk Lowdermilk NFL center (Indianapolis Colts)
1966 Neil Smith NFL defensive end (Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos-Superbowl 32)
1974 Sherry Johnson Owatonna MN, Miss Minnesota-America (1996)
1988 Haley Joel Osment Los Angeles CA, actor (Cole Sear-The Sixth Sense, Trevor 'Trev' McKinney-Pay It Forward)

Deaths which occurred on April 10:
0879 Louis II the stutterer, King of France (877-79), dies
0947 Hugo van Arles count of Arles/king of Italy, dies
1008 Notger bishop of Luik (972-1008), dies
1585 Gregory XIII [Ugo Buoncampagni] Italian Pope (1572-85), dies
1712 Yusuf Nabi Turkish poet (Hayriye), dies at about 77
1760 Gerard George Clifford head of East-Indian Company, dies at 75
1784 Simon Fokke book illustrator, dies at 71
1862 William Harvey Lamb Wallace US lawyer/Brigadier-General, dies at 40
1863 Giovanni B Amia Italian astronomer/physicist/botanist, dies at 77
1919 Emiliano Zapata Mexican leader, murdered at 39
1954 Auguste Lumière French photograph/movie pioneer, dies at 81
1956 Clarence Beaumont 1st batter in 1st World Series, dies at 75
1962 Stuart Sutcliffe original Beatles bassist, dies of brain hemorrhage at 21
1965 Linda Darnell dies from burns received in a fire at 41
1966 Christian J Modeste Dutch king of gypsies, dies at 71
1966 Evelyn Waugh British writer (Black Mischief), dies at 62
1975 Marjorie Main actress (Ma & Pa Kettle), dies at 85
1975 Walker Evans US photographer (Fortune Magazine), dies at 71
1991 Natalie Schafer actress (Mrs Howell Gilligan's Island), dies at 90 from cancer
1992 Sam Kinison loud mouth comedian, dies in a car crash at 38
1994 Victor Afanasiev Russia, editor-in-chief of Pravda (1976-89), dies at 71
1995 Chen Yun Vice-Premier of China (1949-75, 79-80), dies
1996 Jessica Dubroff attempting to be youngest pilot, dies in crash at 7

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1967 O'GRADY JOHN F.---NEW HYDE PARK NY.
[EJECTED NO RADIO CONTACT]
1968 CARVER HARRY F.---NEW ALBANY IN.
1968 PADGETT SAMUEL J.---TULSA OK.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
0837 Comet 1P/837 F1 (Halley) approaches within 0.0334 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth
0847 St Leo IV begins his reign as Catholic Pope
0879 Louis III, crowned King of France
1512 Pope Julius II opens 5th Council of Lateranen
1516 1st ghetto, Jews are compelled to live in specific area of Venice
1552 Henri II of France occupies Metz
1656 Dutch fleet occupiers Colombo Ceylon
1739 Dick Turpin executed in England for horse stealing
1741 Prussians defeat Austrians at Mollwitz
1790 US Patent system is established
1790 Robert Gray is 1st American to circumnavigate the Earth
1825 1st hotel in Hawaii opens
1825 Nicaraguan constituent assembly meets at León
1841 New York "Tribune" begins publishing under editor Horace Greeley
1845 More than 1,000 buildings damaged by fire in Pittsburgh PA
1849 Safety pin patented by Walter Hunt (New York NY); sold rights for $100
1863 Rebel General Earl Van Dorn attacks at Franklin TN
1864 Austrian Archduke Maximilian becomes emperor of México
1865 At Appomattox, General Lee issues General Order #9, his last
1866 American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) forms
1869 Congress increases number of Supreme Court judges from 7 to 9
1872 1st National black convention meets in New Orleans
1872 Arbor day 1st celebrated in Nebraska, later changed to April 22
1877 Federal troops withdrawn from Columbia SC
1877 1st human cannonball act performed in London
1884 US Senate accepts Belgian administration of Congo
1887 President Abraham Lincoln is re-buried with his wife in Springfield IL
1913 President Woodrow Wilson throws out 1st ball, Senators beat Yankees 2-1
1913 Walter Johnson begins string of 56 consecutive scoreless innings
1916 1st professional golf tournament held
1917 Munition factory explosion at Eddystone PA, kills 133 workers
1923 Hitler demands "hatred & more hatred" in Berlin
1924 Tubular steel golf club shafts approved for championship play
1925 Scribners publishes "The Great Gatsby" by F Scott Fitzgerald
1930 Synthetic rubber 1st produced
1932 Paul von Hindenburg re-elected President of Germany
1936 200" mirror blank arrives in Pasadena
1938 Austria becomes a state of Germany
1938 2nd government of Blum replaced by Daladier government in France
1938 New York makes syphilis test mandatory in order to get a marriage license
1939 Colijn's Dutch government opens camp Westerbork for German Jews
1940 Vidkun Quisling forms Norwegian "national government"
1941 German troops conquer Libyan county Cyrenaica
1942 Cigarettes & candy rationed in Holland
1943 12 Jewish patients of Herren Loo-Lozenoord escape Nazi's
1944 "Patrolling the Ether" is shown on 3 TV stations simultaneously
1944 Soviet forces liberate Odessa from Nazi's
1945 US troops land on Tsugen Shima Okinawa
1946 1st election for Japanese Diet
1947 Jackie Robinson became the 1st black in modern major league baseball (Dodgers)
1948 Jewish Hagana repels an Arab attack on Mishmar HaEmek
1953 "House of Wax", 1st 3-D movie is released (New York NY)
1955 Dr Jonas Salk successfully tests Polio vaccine
1957 Suez canal reopens for all traffic
1959 Japan's Crown Prince Akihito marries commoner Michiko Shoda
1960 Senate passes landmark Civil Rights Bill
1961 Adolf Eichmann tried as a war criminal in Israel
1961 New Washington Senators loses 1st regular-season game 4-3 to Chicago White Sox
1962 1st major league game in Houston, Colt 45s beat Chicago Cubs, 11-2
1963 Thresher, US atomic-powered submarine, sinks 220 miles east of Boston
1971 US table tennis team arrives in People's Rebublic of China
1972 7.0 earthquake kills 1/5 of population of Iranian province of Fars
1972 US, USSR & 70 other nations agree to ban biological weapons
1973 Kansas City opens its new park, Royals Stadium, with 12-1 rout of Texas Rangers
1973 Pakistan suspends constitution
1974 American Boccaccio Association is established
1974 Yitzhak Rabin replaces resigning Israeli PM Golda Meir
1974 Magicians Penn & Teller 1st meet
1977 Cleveland Indians set club record for longest, 9 inning game (3:17)
1979 J R Richard throws major league record 6 wild pitches in Astrodome
1981 "Caveman" with Ringo premieres
1981 Computer glitch keeps Space Shuttle Columbia grounded
1981 Imprisoned IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands elected to British Parliament
1983 Baltimore's Eddie Murray hits his 1,000 career hit
1983 Jordan's King Hussein ceases negotiations with PLO
1984 Damaged Solar Max satellite snared by Challenger shuttle
1985 At 80, Leo Sites becomes oldest bowler to score a 300 game
1986 Benazir Bhutto returns to Pakistan
1988 Herschel Walker performs the Fort Worth Ballet
1991 Last automat (coin operated cafeteria) closes (3rd & 42nd St, New York NY)
1992 25 die in a bus bombing in Sri Lanka
1995 NYC bans smoking in all restaurants that seat 35 or more
1995 Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan, announced his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination.
1996 President Clinton vetoed a bill that would have outlawed "partial birth" abortions. Congress was unable to override the veto.
1997 Onetime fighter pilot and former POW Pete Peterson was confirmed by the Senate as the first postwar U.S. ambassador to Vietnam.
1998 Anti-impotence drug Viagra appears on the market and becames one of the best-selling new medications of all time.
2001 The Netherlands legalized mercy killings and assisted suicide for patients with unbearable, terminal illness.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Philippines : Bataan Day
US : National Reading a Road Map Week Ends
National Anxiety Month

Religious Observances

Fifth Day of Passover
Holy Week Ends
Lutheran : Commemoration of Mikael Agricola, Bishop of Turku
Christian : Holy Saturday

Religious History
1816 In Philadelphia, church reformer Richard Allen, 56, was elected the first bishop of the newly-created African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. (Previously, in 1799, Allen had been the first black ordained to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church.)
1838 Birth of Edward Kremser, German chorister. Included among his numerous vocal and instrumental works is the enduring hymn tune KREMSER ("We Gather Together").
1933 Death of Henry Van Dyke, 81, an American Presbyterian clergyman and author. He is still remembered for two writings: a book, "The Story of the Other Wise Man" (1896), and a hymn, "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" (1908).
1945 U.S. Armed forces liberated the prison camp at Buchenwald, Germany. It was estimated that nearly 57,000 prisoners (mostly Jews) perished in the gas chambers of Buchenwald during its eight-year existence as a Nazi concentration camp.
1970 The Russian Orthodox Church in America was granted autocephalic independence by its Mother organization, the Russian Orthodox Church. Headquartered today in Syosset, New York, membership in this religious body currently numbers approximately one million.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"A wise man can see more from a the bottom of a well than a fool can see from a mountaintop."

What a Difference 30 Years Makes...
1970: Acid Rock.
2000: Acid Reflux.

New State Slogans...
Colorado: If You Don't Ski, Don't Bother

Male Language Patterns...
"You expect too much of me," REALLY MEANS,
"You want me to stay awake."

Female Language Patterns...
LOUD SIGH:
This is not actually a word, but is still often a verbal statement very misunderstood by men. A "Loud Sigh" means she thinks you are an idiot at that moment and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you over "Nothing".