The Alamo was an old Spanish mission, converted into a fortress by Texan rebels during their war for independence from Mexico. The mission compound covered about 3 acres, surrounded by walls 12 feet high and 3 feet thick. It was not a strong defensive position - the walls were crumbling, the garrison was undermanned, and reinforcements never arrived.

The defenders were a mix of Texan settlers, American volunteers, and adventurers. William Barrett Travis commanded the regulars. Jim Bowie, legendary knife-fighter, commanded the volunteers. Davy Crockett, former Tennessee congressman and frontiersman, had arrived with a group of Tennessee volunteers. They knew they were outnumbered. They stayed anyway.

General Santa Anna arrived outside the Alamo on February 23, 1836, with an army that would eventually number about 1,800 men. He raised a red flag - no quarter would be given. Travis responded by firing a cannon.

The siege lasted 13 days. Travis sent out appeals for reinforcements - including his famous letter declaring he would never surrender: 'Victory or Death.' A small group of 32 men from Gonzales made it through enemy lines to join the defenders. No other help came. The Texan army was elsewhere, and the government was in chaos. The Alamo was on its own.

At 5:00 AM on March 6, Santa Anna ordered the final assault. Four columns, totaling about 1,400 soldiers, attacked the walls from multiple directions. The defenders, most of them asleep after days of tension, scrambled to their positions.

The fighting was fierce but brief. Mexican soldiers scaled the walls, poured through breaches, and overwhelmed the defenders. Travis was shot early, dying on the north wall. Bowie, bedridden with illness, was killed in his room. The final survivors retreated to the church. When it was over, every defender was dead. Mexican losses were reportedly 600 killed or wounded - though this number is disputed.

The fate of Davy Crockett became one of the Alamo's enduring mysteries. Some accounts say he died fighting; others claim he was captured and executed. A controversial Mexican officer's memoir, published years later, described Crockett's execution before Santa Anna. The truth will never be known.

Travis's 'line in the sand' - the moment when he supposedly drew a line with his sword and invited all who would stay to cross it - is almost certainly legend, appearing in accounts decades after the battle. But legends become their own truth. The Alamo's mythology is as important as its history.

Santa Anna believed the massacre would terrorize Texan rebels into submission. He was catastrophically wrong. 'Remember the Alamo!' became the rallying cry of the Texas Revolution. Six weeks later, Sam Houston's Texan army defeated Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto, shouting the names of the Alamo dead as they attacked. Texas won its independence.

The Alamo became a shrine to Texas identity - a symbol of defiant courage against impossible odds. It stands today in downtown San Antonio, surrounded by modern buildings but preserved as sacred ground. Over 2.5 million people visit annually to remember men who chose death over surrender 190 years ago.