Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Texas War for Independence
Stephen F Austin traveled to Mexico City to plead the settlers' case for independence, but
was arrested and detained. William B Travis led a group of hot-headed Texians who'd
rather fight than allow more Mexican troops to arrive. Armed skirmishes throughout 1835
sparked the Texas War for Independence, which officially ran from September 30, 1835, to
April 21, 1836.
At the outbreak of war in December 1835, Texian troops (composed of Americans, Mex-
icans and a fair number of English, Irish, Scottish, Germans and other European settlers)
captured San Antonio, and occupied and further fortified the Alamo.
El Camino Real was a trail between Mexico and Louisiana that was well traveled by the Spanish, and later
by incoming US settlers. Historical markers along 34 miles of northeast Texas' Hwy 21, outside Alto, mark
part of the route.
Remember the Alamo!
'You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.' Davy Crockett, 1835
It's hard to tell the story of the Battle of the Alamo. There's hot debate about the number
of defenders and of Mexican troops and casualties, among many other details. Objective,
first-hand accounts are to date impossible to find.
It is generally agreed that on February 23, 1836, Mexican general Antonio López de
Santa Anna led anywhere from 2500 to 5000 Mexican troops in an attack against the
Alamo. The 160 or so men inside the fortress included James Bowie (of Bowie knife
fame), who was in command of the Alamo until pneumonia rendered him too sick; William
B Travis, who took command of the troops after Bowie's incapacity; and perhaps most
famous of all, David Crockett, called 'Davy' by everyone. Crockett, a three-time US con-
gressman from Tennessee with interesting taste in headgear, first gained fame as a fronti-
ersman and then for his public arguments with President Andrew Jackson over the latter's
murderous campaigns of Native American 'removal' in the southeastern USA. Less well
known were Bowie's and Travis' African American slaves, who fought alongside their
masters during the battle and were two of the only male survivors.
Travis dispatched a now-famous letter to other revolutionaries pleading for reinforce-
ments, saying that his men would not stand down under any circumstances - his call was
for 'Victory or death.' Because of slow communications, the only reinforcements that ar-
