Siege of the West Wall
quote:The air was suddenly filled by the strident sounds of Mexican bugle calls
Stupid question, but in the 3rd picture, there is a guy standing at the wall playing a fiddle. What would that be for? Anyway, the depictions presented are fabulous and fun to look at. Thanks.
quote:
What if...
Fannin had departed Goliad when ordered? He had 500 (+/-). If he had left for Bexar when ordered, he would have been there b/f Santa Ana showed up.
Now with 700 (+/-) men, would the Alamo had fallen?
quote:This is very accurate by all accounts. The 180 or so men who manned these ramparts were a pretty disparate bunch. Some were illiterate frontiersmen others educated professionals, physicians, lawyers and even a Baptist preacher. They were as young as sixteen and as old as 59 years, they came from 18 states with three brothers from Tennessee, 28 came from England, Scotland and Ireland. Most were unknowns, part of the faceless crowd that passes unheralded through history. The Alamo and Gettysburg have to be the two most well known battles fought on American soil. But unlike Gettysburg which had thousands of Confederate and Union survivors-The Alamo had none who actually witnessed the final assault except the Mexican. Susanna Dickinson left the sanctuary of the chapel only after the battle had ended with all the defenders dead and her post testimony kept changing depending on who she was talking to, likewise the slaves of Bowie and Travis also survived and may have witnessed certain parts of the final assault but all we have is Travis's man "Joe" recording Travis's death after that he hid until the guns fell silent.quote:
What if...
Fannin had departed Goliad when ordered? He had 500 (+/-). If he had left for Bexar when ordered, he would have been there b/f Santa Ana showed up.
Now with 700 (+/-) men, would the Alamo had fallen?
Likely not.
Remember that the Alamo was a mission that was halfway converted to a fort - it was a very poor fort and the defenses were weak and haphazard.
Santa Anna was a very solid tactician for the day - odds are that had there been 700 defenders, he would have waged a war of attrition and simply starved them out. There was little supplies at the Alamo as it were for the 185 or so Texians, even had the additional 500+/- brought supplies, the Mexican forces would have been able to surround and siege the fort for a near infinite amount of time.
It would have taken longer, no doubt, but without a steady supply of material, arms, shot, powder and food, the Alamo was going to fall given the odds, even had Fannin arrived as he should have.
Now the benefit would have been that the Mexican army likely would have been significantly reduced in strength and numbers, and the revolution would probably have a completely different ending that doesn't include a 15 minute ass whipping at San Jacinto. I'd be Houston would have been able to take the fight to Santa Anna in a different place and sooner.