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.
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.
