San Antonio, Texas - Part One

This week we'll be looking closer at the magnificent and historic city of San Antonio, Texas.

Founded on the site of earlier Indian villages during the early 1700s, San Antonio holds a special place in both Southern and American history. Established by the Spanish as a mission center and presidio (fort), the city was already over 100 years old by the time of the Texas Revolution in 1835-1836. The remains of five beautiful old Spanish missions can still be seen in San Antonio, as can the historic "Spanish Governor's Palace" which appears to have been completed in 1749.

San Antonio, of course, was the scene of a monumental battle during the Texas Revolution when a small band of heroes defended the Alamo, a fortified old mission, against an also brave but overwhelming Mexican army led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. The Alamo fell on March 6, 1836 and the bodies of such noted American frontiersmen as Jim Bowie, David Crockett and William B. Travis were found in the rubble. They chose to go down fighting rather than surrender (Note: Please click here to read more about the true facts of Crockett's death).

The chapel and long barrack of the Alamo still stand in the heart of downtown San Antonio and the remains of the Alamo heroes are enshrined at the nearby San Fernando Cathedral.

There are many other points of historic interest in San Antonio, among them the Alamo Cenotaph and the city's famed River Walk. To learn more about this wonderful city, please check back over the coming days. Until then you can read more by visiting our new San Antonio pages at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/sanantonio.

Memorial Day, Part Five - The Alamo, Texas

Continuing our special Memorial Day series, there are few places in the world as recognizable or moving as an old mission chapel in the heart of San Antonio, Texas.

Since it fell to overwhelming odds on a cold March morning in 1836, the Alamo has been a focal point of emotion. And despite revisionist history that often seems pre-determined to tear apart its story rather than interpret it, the Alamo still stands as a dramatic symbol of liberty and a fight for independence.

Originally built during the 1700s as Mission San Antonio de Valero, the Alamo originally served as a place of peace. Resident friars ministered to local Native Americans, working to bring the Indians to Christianity and helping them raise better crops for the support of their community and families. Its Christian purposes fulfilled, the mission was abandoned by the Church in 1793 and for a decade was allowed to crumble.

In 1803, however, it gained new life as a military post. Assigned to the original garrison was the Second Flying Company from the Alamo de Parras area of Mexico. Some believe it was from the presence of this unit that the structure gained its present name, but others believe the name originated from the Spanish name for a grove of cottonwood trees that once grew on the site.

Captured in 1835 by Texas revolutionaries, the old mission soon became the scene of a monumental battle. In February and March of 1836, a small garrison of defenders held the crumbling mission against an overwhelming Mexican army led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. For thirteen days the mission held out against determined and brave attacks by Santa Anna's troops.

On the final day of the battle, Santa Anna attacked the Alamo from all four sides. Mexican soldiers went up and over the walls in a bloody battle to the death. By the time the bloodshed ended, only two men who took up arms in defense of the mission are known to have survived: a Tejano patriot who was confused for a Mexican prisoner of war and Joe, a man who had been a slave of Colonel William B. Travis until the fall of the Alamo. Several women and children also survived. Lying dead at their posts, however, were such men as the famed frontiersman David Crockett, Alamo commander William B. Travis, famed knife inventor Jim Bowie and many others.

The Alamo today is a shrine located in the heart of downtown San Antonio. To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/alamo1.