El+Alamo

El Alamo

Originally named Misión San Antonio de Valero, The Alamo served as a home to Missionaries and their Indian converts for nearly seventy years. In 1724 construction was started on the present site. In 1793 the lands of the five missions in San Antonio were distributed to the Indian population in the area. The existing Indian population cultivated the land. This was once the mission’s land, but now their own. This contributed to the growing community of San Antonio.

In the early 1800’s the Spanish stationed a Calvary unit at the former mission. The soldiers referred to the old mission as the Alamo (Spanish word for cottonwood) in honor of their hometown Alamo de Parras, Coahuila. San Antonio and the Alamo played a critical role in the Texas Revolution. The Alamo was used for defense against the Mexicans. On February 23, 1836, the arrival of General Antonio López de Santa Anna's army outside San Antonio nearly caught them by surprise. The Texians and Tejanos realized they had to fight together to defend the Alamo. The Alamo was key to the defense of San Antonio. They held the Mexican army off for thirteen days before being defeated. Among the Alamo's defenders were Jim Bowie, renowned knife fighter, and Davie Crockett, famed frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee.

Lee W. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamo_Mission_in_San_Antonio http://www.thealamo.org/main.html