13 DAYS OF GLORY: THE ALAMO, 1836

There are times when a defeat can become a triumph. Just as the heroic death of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae gave courage to the rest of Greece, so the last stand of a handful of brave Texians in a fortified Mission became a rallying cry for Texas independence: Remember the Alamo!

IN the predawn hours of March 6, 1836 the Mexican army of President and GeneralissimoAntonio López de Santa Anna stormed the battlements of the Alamo and slew the defending Texan garrison to a man.

This battle, though neither final or decisive, was the seminal moment in the Texas War of Independence. It bloodied the Mexican army and lent the Texans both a band of martyred heroes and an immortal rallying cry: “Remember the Alamo”!

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna attempted to establish a benevolent dictatorship in Mexico in the 1430s. Originally a believer…