Today In History: March 6, 1836 - The Fall of The Alamo

My cousin Isaac Ryan died there, on the north wall, near the cannon. His name is on a plaque there. I am supposed to be scanning and mailing all of his papers to the Alamo. I keep forgetting. I have his parents' marriage license and his baptism certif.

My cousin....

RYAN, ISAAC (1805-1836). Isaac Ryan, Alamo defender, son of Jacob and Marie (Hartgrove) Ryan, was born at St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, on March 1, 1805. He took part in the siege of Bexar and served in the Alamo garrison as a member of Capt. Robert White's infantry company, the Bexar Guards. Ryan died in the battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836.

http://www.the-alamo-san-antonio.com/html/alamo-heroes.htm

"There I was, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, staring down Santa Anna, outnumbered a hundred-to-one!"

Thanks! We'll never forget!

Should name them all: heroes every one.

From Abamillo, Juan, of Texas, to Zanco, Charles, of DENMARK!

http://www.thealamo.org/defend.html

Well, it was 4 PM, so the Mexicans would've been "napping" whether they were tired or not. That's siesta. Santa Anna was otherwise occupied, I'm sure you've heard.

Miss Emily West, liege to Col. James Morgan (so, sometimes identified as Emily Morgan) of Morgan's Point, was entertaining el jefe en flagranto y con opium, which helped hasten his surrender.

Miss Emily, who was of mixed blood, is known to many as The Yellow Rose of Texas, and was the sweetest little rosebud that Texas ever grew (though she was from New Haven, CT, possibly Jamaica before that). A heroic Texian.

"Many thanks to those brave souls from Tennessee!"

. . . and Vermont, North Carolina, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Scotland, Virginia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Ireland, New Jersey, Germany, Massachusetts, New York, Louisiana, Ohio, Connecticut, Wales, Illinois, Rhode Island, Georgia, Mississippi, Maryland, and Denmark -- not necessarily in that order.

Those were the homes of the heroes of the Alamo, God bless them all.

BTTT

All "G.T.T."

The background of the Austin Colony was that Mexico--and Spain befoe them-- was not strong enough to hold Texas against the Indians, particularly the Comanche. The Anglos were invited to establish what amounted to a buffer state. They were famous as "indian fighters." The Comanches were known as the Lords of the South Plains, and the deserved the title. For a small "tribe" they were immensely effective, controlling the huge area between the Arkansas River and the Gulf. More like their range, since they were relatively few in number. Best horsemen in the world. They looked like Mongols and rode like them, even better horsemen that the Mexicans--which is saying a lot. Anyway, the Mexicans brought in the Anglos and found they were unruly.
Santa Anna realized they had to be tamed--they along the the Tejanos, the Mexicans in the region who did not like his dictatorship. So be made up a strike force and crossed over in Texas in the dead of winter--no small feat.
And reached San Antonio faster than the Texians could react. Houston wanted the garrison in San Antonio to abandon their "fort" and pull back to join him. Didn't happen, in part because Crockett showed up with a small force.

"Just curious to what Texans think about the issue. I myself see a more valid reason for this as Manifold Destiny and as a natural consequence of what nations did at the time."

I don't know how serious you are about this:
"Manifold Destiny and as a natural consequence of what nations did at the time.." is not all that clear.

But "manifold destiny" could not apply beyond as a reference to the nature of the individuals involved...not some American plot to take land from a peaceful neighbor.
The majority of those defending the Alamo and fighting on afterward (to victory) were more pioneers and individualists than anything else. There were a goodly number of mexican born pioneers in that mix!

The 'war' started when the M - oops - mexican government reneged on promises, dropped the constitution and rules under which the Texacans/Texans had settled...
The original fight was over having the ground rules changed under them.
In that regard, not much different from another 'revolution' 25 or so years later, even though it was in another country.

"Manifest destiny" and "slavery" just make it more palatable in today's polite society.

"Manifold destiny" versus "Manifest destiny"

Oddly enough,
on re-reading,
I got it right.

(whoopie)

All "G.T.T."

Yep. And never left, clearing paths for the rest of us.

My great Uncle was stationed on the USS Texas and I have an early Panorama photo of the ship and crew.

And if Fannin hadn't been so scared of his own shadow and if he'd actually sent the requested reinforcements, the Alamo might have held and Santa Anna might have been defeated then and there. With no supplies (he was foraging off the land and had no supply lines), he would have been presented with a quandry. Either surround the fort with a token force and bypass them (thus losing much 'face' and becoming a laughingstock in his mind) or sit there and wait until he'd scavenged the country bare and risk an assault by a prepared and entrenched enemy.

Urrea's forces were another matter - but in the end Fannin turned out to be a completely useless commander; he frittered away his life and the lives of the troops in his care, so it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

And over and above all, there's no real reason why anyone should have to wonder what tyranny the Texians were subject to. They laid it all out in the Texas Declaration Of Independence, which still rings down the century plus since it was first set to paper.

I posted it here earlier: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1588615/posts

Amen, done, and done - from the website you linked:

	Defender's Name	Birthplace
	Abamillo, Juan	TX
	Allen, Robert	VA
	Andross, Miles DeForrest	VT
	Autry, Micajah	NC
	Badillo, Juan A.	TX
	Bailey, Peter James III	KY
	Baker, Isaac G.	AR
	Baker, William Charles M.	MO
	Ballentine, John J.	PA
	Ballantine, Richard W.	Scotland
	Baugh, John J.	VA
	Bayliss, Joseph	TN
	Blair, John	TN
	Blair, Samuel	TN
	Blazeby, William	England
	Bonham, James Butler	SC
	Bourne, Daniel	England
	Bowie, James	KY
	Bowman, Jesse B.	TN
	Brown, George	England
	Brown, James	PA
	Brown, Robert	unknown
	Buchanan, James	AL
	Burns, Samuel E.	Ireland
	Butler, George, D.	MO
	Cain, John	PA
	Campbell, Robert	TN
	Carey, William R.	VA
	Clark, Charles Henry	MO
	Clark, M.B.	MS
	Cloud, Daniel William	KY
	Cochran, Robert E.	NH
	Cottle, George Washington	MO
	Courtman, Henry	Germany
	Crawford, Lemuel	SC
	Crockett, David	TN
	Crossman, Robert	PA
	Cummings, David P.	PA
	Cunningham, Robert	NY
	Darst, Jacob C.	KY
	Davis, John	KY
	Day, Freeman H.K.	unknown
	Day, Jerry C.	MO
	Daymon, Squire	TN
	Dearduff, William	TN
	Dennison, Stephen	England or Ireland
	Despallier, Charles	LA
	Dewall, Lewis	NY
	Dickinson, Almeron	TN
	Dillard, John Henry	TN
	Dimpkins, James R.	England
	Duvalt, Andrew	Ireland
	Espalier, Carlos	TX
	Esparza, Gregorio	TX
	Evans, Robert	Ireland
	Evans, Samuel B.	NY
	Ewing, James L.	TN
	Faunterloy, William Keener	KY
	Fishbaugh, William	unknown
	Flanders, John	MA
	Floyd, Dolphin Ward	NC
	Forsyth, John Hubbard	NY
	Fuentes, Antonio	TX
	Fuqua, Galba	AL
	Garnett, William	VA
	Garrand, James W.	LA
	Garrett, James Girard	TN
	Garvin, John E.	unknown
	Gaston, John E.	KY
	George, James	unknown
	Goodrich, John C.	VA
	Grimes, Albert Calvin	GA
	Guerrero, José María	TX
	Gwynne, James C.	England
	Hannum, James	PA
	Harris, John	KY
	Harrison, Andrew Jackson	TN
	Harrison, William B	OH
	Hawkins, Joseph M.	Ireland
	Hays, John M.	TN
	Heiskell, Charles M.	TN
	Herndon, Patrick Henry	VA
	Hersee, William Daniel	England
	Holland, Tapley	OH
	Holloway, Samuel	PA
	Howell, William D.	MA
	Jackson, Thomas	Ireland
	Jackson, William Daniel	KY
	Jameson, Green B.	KY
	Jennings, Gordon C.	CT
	Jimenes (Ximenes), Damacio	TX
	Johnson, Lewis	Wales
	Johnson, William	PA
	Jones, John	NY
	Kellog, John Benjamin	KY
	Kenney, James	VA
	Kent, Andrew	KY
	Kerr, Joseph	LA
	Kimbell, George C.	PA
	King, William Philip	TX
	Lewis, William Irvine	VA
	Lightfoot, William J.	VA
	Lindley, Jonathan L.	IL
	Linn, William	MA
	Losoya, Toribio	TX
	Main, George Washington
	Malone, William T.	GA
	Marshall, William	TN
	Martin, Albert	RI
	McCafferty, Edward	unknown
	McCoy, Jesse	TN
	McDowell, William	PA
	McGee, James	Ireland
	McGregor, John	Scotland
	McKinney, Robert	TN
	Melton, Eliel	GA
	Miller, Thomas R.	TN
	Mills, William	TN
	Millsaps, Isaac	MS
	Mitchell, Edwin T.	unknown
	Mitchell, Napoleon B.	unknown
	Mitchusson, Edward F.	VA
	Moore, Robert B.	VA
	Moore, Willis A.	MS
	Musselman, Robert	OH
	Nava, Andrés	TX
	Neggan, George	SC
	Nelson, Andrew M.	TN
	Nelson, Edward	SC
	Nelson, George	SC
	Northcross, James	VA
	Nowlan, James	England
	Pagan, George	unknown
	Parker, Christopher Adam	unknown
	Parks, William	NC
	Perry, Richardson	TX
	Pollard, Amos	MA
	Reynolds, John Purdy	PA
	Roberts, Thomas H.	unknown
	Robertson, James Waters	TN
	Robinson, Isaac	Scotland
	Rose, James M.	OH
	Rusk, Jackson J.	Ireland
	Rutherford, Joseph	KY
	Ryan, Isaac	LA
	Scurlock, Mial	NC
	Sewell, Marcus L.	England
	Shied, Manson	GA
	Simmons, Cleveland Kinlock	SC
	Smith, Andrew H.
	Smith, Charles S.	MD
	Smith, Joshua G.	NC
	Smith, William H.	unknown
	Starr, Richard	England
	Stewart, James E.	England
	Stockton, Richard L.	NJ
	Summerlin, A. Spain	TN
	Summers, William E.	TN
	Sutherland, William DePriest	unknown
	Taylor, Edward	TN
	Taylor, George	TN
	Taylor, James	TN
	Taylor, William	TN
	Thomas, B. Archer M.	KY
	Thomas, Henry	Germany
	Thompson, Jesse G.	AR
	Thomson, John W.	NC
	Thruston, John, M.	PA
	Trammel, Burke	Ireland
	Travis, William Barret	SC
	Tumlinson, George W.	MO
	Tylee, James	NY
	Walker, Asa	TN
	Walker, Jacob	TN
	Ward, William B.	Ireland
	Warnell, Henry	unknown
	Washington, Joseph G.	KY
	Waters, Thomas	England
	Wells, William	GA
	White, Isaac	AL or KY
	White, Robert	unknown
	Williamson, Hiram James	PA
	Wills, William	unknown
	Wilson, David L.	Scotland
	Wilson, John	PA
	Wolf, Anthony	unknown
	Wright, Claiborne	NC
	Zanco, Charles	Denmark
	___?___, John	a Black Freedman

Manifold Destiny should be Manifest Destiny.

Manifold denotes the exhaust system on your car, while Manifest is clearly evident.

I would especially direct your attention to John McGregor.

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/MM/fmccl.html

I don't know, but I think that Santa Anna brought up his force very quickly, and the Texians didn't have enough men to man the walls. Got to give him credit for generalship and his men for their bravery. His mistake was fchasing the Texians too far. The closer he got to the Lousiana border, the closer he got to the American forces there, and remember: Andrew Jackson was president and he didn't respect Spanish boundaries. Never can prove it, but Houston was probably Jackson's agent provocateur

Defender's Name

Birthplace