Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1895 — REMEMBER THE ALAMO. [ARTICLE]

REMEMBER THE ALAMO.

Heroic Defense of the Texan* Against the Mexicans. Sood Santa Anna approached with his army, took possession of the town, and invested the fort. The defenders knew there was scarcely a chance of rescue, and that it waa hopeless to expect that 150 men, behind defenses so weak, could beat off 4,000 trained soldiers well armed and provided with heavy artillery; but they had no thought of flinching, and made a desperate defense. The days went by and no help came, while Santa Anna got ready his lioes and began a furious cannonade. His gunners were unskilled, however, and he had to serve the guns from a distance, for when they were posted nearer the American riflemen crept forward under cover apd picked off the artillerymen. Old Crockett thus killed five men with one gun. But by degrees the bombardment told. The wails of the Alamo were battered and riddled; and when they had been breached so as to afford no obstacle to the rush of his soldiers, Santa Anna commanded that they be stormed. The storming took place on March 6, 1886. The Mexican troops came on well and steadily, breaking through the outer defenses at every point, for the lines were too long to be manned by the few Americans. The frontiersmen then retreated to the inner building, and a desperate hand to hand conflict followed, the Mexicans thronging in. shooting at the Americans with their muskets, and thrusting at them with lance and bayonet; while the Americana, after firing their long rittes, clubbed them and fought desperately, one against many; and they also used theirbowie knives and revolvers with deadly effect. The tight reeled to and fro between the shattered walls, each American the center of a group of foes ; but for all their strength and their wild lighting courage the defenders were 100 few and the struggle could have but one end. One by one the tall riflemen sucenmbed, aftfcr repeated thrusts with bayonet and lance, until but three or four were left. Then these fell, too, and the lust man stood at bay. II was old Davy Crockett. Wounded in a dozen places, lie faced his foea with his back to the wall, ringed around by the bodies of the men lie had slain . So desperate was the fight he waged that tho Mexicans who thronged round about him were beaten back for the moment, and no one dared to run in upon him. Accordingly, while the lancers held hktn where lie was, for, weakened by wounds and loss of blood, he could not break out through them, the musketeers loaded their carbines and ■hot him down, for Santa Anna declined to show him mercy. Some say that when Crockett fell from his wounds he was taken alive and was then shot by Santa Anna’s orders; but his fate cannot be told witli certainty, for not a single American waa left allye. At any rate, after Crockett fell tho fight was over. Every one of the hardy men who had held the Alamo lay still in death; yet they died well avenged, for four times their number of foes fell at their hands in the battle. Santa Anna had but a short while in which to exult over his bloody and hard won victory. Already a rider from the rolling Texas plains, going north through the Indian Territory, had told Houston that the Texane were up and were striving for their liberty. At once in Houston’s mind there was kindled a longing to return to the men of his race in the time of their need. Mounting his horse, he rode by night and day, and was hailed by the Texans as a heaven sent leader. He took command of their forces, 1,100 stark riflemen, and at the battle of San Jacinto he and his men charged the Mexican hosts with the cry of “Remember the Alamo!’' Almost immediately the Mexicans were overthrown with terrible slaughter. Santa Anna himself was captured, and the freedom of Texas yios won at a blow.