Alamo. After the defeat of the Mexican army at San Jacinto on April 21, Andrade received orders to destroy the defenses of the Alamo and to retreat from Texas. Sometime between May 22 and 24, he carried out these orders. De la Peña (1975[1836]:188) says Andrade had worked his troops hard on repairs to the Alamo buildings, "he had labored to put the Alamo in the best possible condition for defense; this had already been improved when it became necessary to raze it; and few do not know the pain such an operation causes a soldier, a pain even greater to one who knows the duties of his profession well." Dr. J. H. Barnard described the Alamo as he saw it on May 24 as the Mexican garrison was leaving town, "the Alamo was completely dismantled, all the single walls were leveled, the fossee [probably fosses] filled up, and the pickets torn up and burnt" (Huson 1949:4445).

After the War of Independence, families who owned various portions of the old Alamo buildings slowly moved back into the area. These included the Losoyas, Trevinos, Castañedas, and Romanos. In 1841 Samuel A. Maverick, an early Anglo settler in San Antonio

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