A Time to Stand (34 page)

Authors: Walter Lord

BOOK: A Time to Stand

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Dawn, March 6, 1836, the massed bands of Santa Anna played these stirring notes. Called the
Degüello,
the music was a hymn of hate and merciless death, played to spur the Mexican troops forward in their final assault on the Alamo.

This flag of the New Orleans Greys was ripped down by Lieutenant Jose Maria Torres. The Mexican colors were raised instead, but Lieutenant Torres was shot and killed in the process. Santa Anna later sent the flag back to Mexico City, where it lies today—crumbling to pieces in brown wrapping paper.

First word of the Alamo’s fall was brought to Gonzales on March 11 by Andres Barcena and Anselmo Borgara, two Mexican refugees. Above is an extract from the interview with Barcena conducted by Houston’s aide Major Hockley. Below, Hockley confers with the General during the retreat that followed.

News of the massacre was a sensation throughout the United States. At a time when any headline was a novelty, this choice item—taken from the Columbia, Tennessee,
Observer
of April 14, 1836—was bound to stir immense excitement, propelling a flood of aid and volunteers to Texas.

Exactly a week after news of the Alamo’s fall reached New Orleans, this recruiting poster appeared on the city’s streets. Appeals to idealism were all very well, but the broadside wisely included specific details on the free land that awaited the volunteers.

Six weeks after the massacre, Houston’s little army pounced on the Mexicans at San Jacinto. The Texans’ battle cry was “Remember the Alamo!” and the enemy thoroughly understood what was meant. As indicated in this taunting cartoon published in New York, many of Santa Anna’s men surrendered, desperately pleading, “Me no Alamo.”

In 1846 a U.S. Army survey included this print of the ruined Alamo church (above). It was soon picked up by
Gleason’s Pictorial,
embellished with romantic trappings, and passed on to an eager public (below). The epoch of the Alamo had already caught America’s imagination, and the end is not yet in sight.

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cover design by Connie Gabbert

978-1-4532-3844-8

This edition published in 2012 by Open Road Integrated Media

180 Varick Street

New York, NY 10014

www.openroadmedia.com