San Antonio Light newspaper, April 2l, 1922, Friday.
The world has many mounments to victory, to the glory of conquest and national pride. Kings, potentates and people have builded sky-searching memorials commemorating their hours of greatness.
Greater, more heart stirring than all these is the Alamo. Alone it stands, a vine mantled ruin, as a monument to pure sacrifice, a mute testimonial of devotion to a principle.
In its history the Alamo has ever been an expression of man's searching for an ideal. When the conquistadores swept over the southwest, sword in hand, in a mad search for gold and loot, they were followed by another band seeking a conquest of souls.
The Franciscan padres came to plant the cross in the wilderness and train the savage natives in the ways of peace and industry.
One of their first missions was San Antonio de Valero. First founded near the gulf coast, it was later removed to its present site where it became known as the Mission of the Alamo, because of the gove of alamo, or cottonwood trees, which surrounded it? This was in 1718, more than two hundred years ago.
In those days a frontier mission was more than a church. It was an outpost of civilization around which farms, workshops, granaries and schools were grouped. A minuature town grew up around the Alamo in which the Indian converts settled. Other missions were founded nearby,a colony of Spaniards came from the Canary Islands and soon San Antonio, named for the old mission, became the headquarters of Spanish power in Texas.
As the power of the Spanish government increased, the authority of the padres waned. Indian wars followed and the inmates of the mission were at times forced to defend their walls from attack.
Worse still were the faction fights of the petty leaders. At one time a battle occurred between rival parties which raged along the river bank in front of the Alamo.
For over a hundred years the patriarchial life of a mission continued until Mexico rebelled against the red and gold banner of Spain and declared its independence. Separation from Spain increased rather than diminished the trouble of the little settlement. Revolutions followed and in each San Antonio was made the goal for an invading army.
Then followed, in 1836, the war for Texas independence. Invited by Mexico, many Americans had founded colonies in the state. These people were the pioneer type of American who entered the wilderness armed only with an axe and a rifle,and conquered an empire. Where they built their cabins they carried their principles of democracy.
Alarmed at the report that San Antonio was to be made the garrison for a hostile Mexican army, a band of American colonists marched on the town. They encountered the Mexicans on the rivger bank a few miles below the Alamo, and defeated them. A second fight followed.
Then followed a period of inaction. The Amercians were without organization or discipline and the little army began to break up.
It was old Ben Milam, a noted frontiersman, who roused them to action. Standing in the center of the camp he shouted:
"Who fill follow old Ben Milam into San Antonio?"
With a cheer the colonists fell into ranks and marched on the town. In a two days' battle, fighting from house to house, the Mexicans were driven from their posts and the Lone Star flag of the Texas republic was hoisted over the Alamo. Ben Milam was killed in the action.
Again followed a period of inaction. Then came word that General Santa Anna with more than three thousand soldiers was marching to recapture the town. A meeting was held in the Alamo and the Americans decided to defend the mission. The little garrison numbered only one hundred and eighty two men.
Colonel William Travis was elected to tommand. Colonel Bowie and the famous Davy Crockett wwere his lieutenants.
It is said that at that meeting colonel Travis line the company up in the Alamo and told them they were confronted by an enemy which vastly outnumbered them.
It was a hopeless fight and no dishonor would have attached to an evacuation before superior numbers. But the Americans were fighting for their liberty, in defense of a principle, and were willing to make the sacrifice.
The battle that followed was an epic of the white race. For eleven days Santa Anna attached the mission with his artillery and infantry while the cavalry circled the post at a distance to cut down any who might attempt to escape.
Again and again the Mexicans assaulted the mission, swarming through breaches in the walls or climbing the ramparts with ladders. Repeatedly the Mexican leader called on the garrison to surrener, but they refused.
The fight ended only when every man of that gallant company was killed near the door of the church fighting like a lion with a broken gun. From his bed Bowie killed several soldiers, until he was stabbed to death with bayonets. In dying he pulled one soldier down and killed him with his famous "Bowie" knife.
According to the reports of the Mexicans themselves, they lost nearly one third of their number.
Not a men of the Americans attempted to escape. Their bodies were piled in a heap near the corner of what is now Alamo Plaza and Commerce street, and burned.
These men were not fighting for money, or power. They were fighting for a principle and died for the faith that was in them. History does not record a nobler struggle.
On a monument which has been erected at the capital of the state which they founded, is engraved their epitaph:
"Thermopolae had its messenger of defeat: The Alamo had none."
But man cannot erect a monument which would fittingly commemorate their sacrifice. Their best memorial still stands in the old grey ruin, the foundation stone of Texas liberty, cemented by their blood.
By Major Edward S. O'Reilly.
