100 Fun Facts About The Alamo

Which Texian panic followed the fall of the Alamo, as settlers fled east ahead of the Mexican army?

Noncombatants sent to Gonzales spread the news of the defeat.

The Battle of the Alamo ended on which date in 1836?

The siege had begun on February 23, thirteen days earlier.

How many days did the siege of the Alamo last?

Roughly 1,500 Mexican soldiers marched into Béxar on the first day.

Who commanded the Mexican army at the Alamo?

He was also the president of Mexico at the time.

Which two men served as co-commanders of the Alamo garrison?

Bowie collapsed with illness on the second day of the siege, leaving Travis in sole command.

Mission San Antonio de Valero, which became the Alamo, was named after which saint?

Mission San Antonio de Valero also honoured the viceroy of New Spain, the Marquess of Valero.

The word 'Alamo' is Spanish for which tree?

The name likely came from a Mexican cavalry company from Alamo de Parras that used the old mission as a fort after 1803.

In what year was the mission secularized, ending its life as a religious outpost?

It was abandoned and then converted into a fortress about ten years later.

When Mexican troops arrived, they raised a blood-red flag. What did it signify?

Travis answered the flag with a blast from the Alamo's largest cannon.

Travis's famous February 24 letter pleading for reinforcements was addressed to whom?

Historian Mary Deborah Petite calls it 'one of the masterpieces of American patriotism'.

Travis's letter from the Alamo is popularly known by which two-word phrase from its signature?

Copies were reprinted across Texas, the United States and Europe.

The famous frontiersman who reached the Alamo in 1836 brought volunteers from which state?

He was a former US congressman who left for Texas after narrowly losing re-election in 1835.

Which of these is NOT a fate historians debate for the coonskin-capped ex-congressman at the Alamo?

Wikipedia's summary is blunt: it is unclear whether he died in battle or was executed after being captured.

Fess Parker wore the coonskin cap in a 1954-55 Disney miniseries about which Alamo defender?

The series originated 'The Ballad of Davy Crockett' and its first three parts were cut into a feature film.

Jim Bowie's fame and knife grew out of an 1827 sandbar brawl near which Mississippi town?

A duel between two other men degenerated into a melee in which Bowie, shot and stabbed, killed a sheriff with a large knife.

Why was Bowie not in command during most of the siege?

Two doctors, including the fort's surgeon, could not diagnose what was wrong with him.

Before the revolution, Jim Bowie took which nation's citizenship and married its vice-governor's daughter?

He married Ursula Veramendi, daughter of the province's Mexican vice-governor.

Which Tejano officer did Travis send out for reinforcements on February 25, saving his life?

He returned in 1837 to bury the defenders' ashes and later became mayor of San Antonio.

The only reinforcements to reach the Alamo, roughly 32 men, came from which Texas town?

Colonel Fannin's 320 men set out from a nearby town but turned back after less than a mile.

Which lone defender is said to have refused to cross Travis's line in the sand?

Most scholars dismiss the story, which surfaced decades later in a third-hand account.

Roughly how many Mexican soldiers took part in the final assault on March 6?

Fewer than 1,800 attacked in four columns while 500 cavalry ringed the fort to stop anyone escaping.

Despite bitter cold on the morning of the assault, Mexican soldiers were ordered not to wear what?

The coats might impede their movement; clouds hid the moon as they crept forward at 5:30 a.m.

Most eyewitnesses counted how many Texian defenders killed?

Mexican casualties were about a quarter of the 2,000-strong assault force.

Which defender's body was spared from the funeral pyres because his brother served in Santa Anna's army?

Francisco Esparza received permission to give his brother a proper burial.

Susanna Dickinson survived the battle with her infant daughter. What was the daughter's name?

Santa Anna offered to adopt the child and educate her in Mexico City; Dickinson refused.

Santa Anna spared Travis's enslaved servant Joe for what purpose?

Each surviving woman was given a blanket and two silver pesos.

Master of ordnance Robert Evans died trying to do what as the fort fell?

He was shot with his torch inches from the powder; the blast would have killed the women and children in the sacristy.

A cold front on February 25 dropped temperatures at the Alamo to about what?

A 'blue norther' caught both armies unprepared, and Mexican troops kept the Texians from gathering firewood.

Three weeks after the Alamo, more than 400 Texian prisoners were executed on Palm Sunday at which town?

Colonel James Fannin was among those shot; 'Remember Goliad' joined 'Remember the Alamo' as a battle cry.

Sam Houston avenged the Alamo at San Jacinto in 1836. Roughly how long did the battle last?

Texians shouted 'Remember the Alamo!' as they overran the surprised Mexican camp.

How was Santa Anna captured the day after San Jacinto?

Other Mexican prisoners gave him away by crying out in recognition of their commander.

'Remember the Alamo' served as the official motto of Texas until which year?

The phrase and the mission itself still appear on the reverse of the Texas state seal.

The distinctive curved 'hump' on top of the Alamo church facade was added by whom, in 1849?

The church was a roofless ruin during the battle; the gable concealed a new pitched roof.

In 1883 the Catholic Church sold the Alamo chapel to the State of Texas for how much?

The state hired Tom Rife to give tours but made no effort at restoration.

Before the state bought the remaining buildings, the Long Barracks were used as what?

The mercantile firm Hugo & Schmeltzer ran the store from the old convent.

Which group did the Texas legislature name custodian of the Alamo in 1905?

Control passed to the Texas General Land Office in 2015 after more than a century.

In July 2015 the Alamo and four other San Antonio missions received what designation?

It had already been a National Historic Landmark since 1960 and a Texas State Shrine.

Who designed the Alamo Cenotaph in Alamo Plaza, completed in 1940?

It commemorates the Texians and Tejanos who died in the battle.

Who directed and starred as the frontiersman hero in the 1960 epic The Alamo?

Richard Widmark played Bowie and Laurence Harvey played Travis.

The 1960 film The Alamo was nominated for seven Oscars. Which one did it win?

Its haul of nominations over Psycho and Spartacus was attributed to John Wayne's intense lobbying.

Which song from Dimitri Tiomkin's score for the 1960 film became a much-covered standard?

The Brothers Four took their version to number 65 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Who played the coonskin-capped frontiersman in the 2004 film The Alamo?

Quaid played Sam Houston, Patric was Bowie and Wilson was Travis.

The 2004 film The Alamo lost its studio roughly how much money?

Later reviews praised its historical accuracy compared with the 1960 version.

Which rock star was arrested in 1982 for urinating on the Alamo Cenotaph?

He spent 15 minutes in a holding cell and paid a $40 fine.

Which British musician, a lifelong Alamo obsessive, donated his artifact collection to Texas in 2014?

He also narrated a light-and-sound show about the battle and wrote The Alamo and Beyond: A Collector's Journey.

In Pee-wee's Big Adventure, a phony psychic tells Pee-wee his stolen bike is where?

The joke: the Alamo has no basement.

Which US president did Santa Anna warn that foreign recruits fighting in Texas would be treated as pirates?

The Tornel Decree of December 1835 defined such invaders as pirates, who at the time were executed on capture.

The Tejano captain who carried Travis's plea out of the Alamo was reburied in 1976 in which town named for him?

He had died in Nuevo Laredo in 1890; the reburial was part of the US Bicentennial.

Which Alamo commander left on February 11, 1836 to gather reinforcements, handing command to Travis?

He had warned the government the garrison could not survive a siege longer than four days.

What did the first film about the battle, made in 1911 by Gaston Méliès, call itself?

Nearly a century of films and TV followed, most of them, in Wikipedia's words, spreading 'myths and legends'.

How did William B. Travis answer the Mexican army's arrival at the Alamo on the siege's first day?

A cannon blast from the fort's biggest gun, an 18-pounder, was his answer. Jim Bowie thought it hasty and quietly sent an envoy to ask about terms.

According to Alamo legend, William B. Travis drew a line in the dirt with what, asking volunteers to cross?

His sword traced the line in the tale. The story rests on the word of one man who slipped away before the final assault and told it to the family who took him in.

During the 1836 battle, the famous Alamo church was an unfinished ruin missing which basic feature?

A roof was never finished. The church was planned with three floors, a large dome and two bell towers, but it stood open to the sky during the battle.

Mexican president Santa Anna styled himself which conqueror 'of the West' before invading Texas in 1836?

Napoleon was the comparison he chose himself. Captured after San Jacinto, he reportedly told Sam Houston that the man who beat the Napoleon of the West was born to no common destiny.

Years after the Alamo, Santa Anna brought which tree sap to New York, helping launch modern chewing gum?

Chicle failed as the rubber substitute he hoped to sell for carriage wheels. His American assistant Thomas Adams then turned the idea into a chewing gum business.

Which future US president recruited cavalry volunteers in 1898 at the Menger Hotel bar, beside the Alamo?

Theodore Roosevelt recruited his Rough Riders at the Menger, which opened in 1859 and still stands next door to the old mission.

Within weeks of its fall in 1836, the Alamo was being compared to which ancient last stand?

Thermopylae, where a small Greek force died holding a pass against Persia, became the standard comparison in both English and Spanish writing on the battle.

Alamo lore says a sergeant from Nacogdoches answered a famous frontiersman's fiddle with which instrument?

Bagpipes were his reply. John McGregor, born in Scotland, is said to have held musical duels with the garrison's best-known fiddler.

At what time of day did the Mexican army storm the Alamo, hoping to catch its garrison asleep?

Before dawn, at about 5:30 a.m., the columns crept forward in silence. Three sentries outside the walls were killed in their sleep before anyone raised the alarm.

Before the Alamo, Jim Bowie and his brothers smuggled enslaved people with which Gulf Coast pirate?

Jean Lafitte was their partner from 1818. Bowie made three trips to the pirate's base on Galveston Island and put the profits into land speculation.

What did delegates at Washington-on-the-Brazos adopt on March 2, 1836, while the Alamo was still under siege?

A declaration of independence was adopted on March 2 and signed the next day, after corrections. The delegates then stayed on to write a constitution as the siege went on.

Alamo commander William B. Travis trained in Alabama for which profession before leaving for Texas in 1831?

Lawyer was his trade, learned under the leading attorney in Claiborne, Alabama. By spring 1831 his debts had landed him in court, and he left for Texas.

Jim Bowie, later an Alamo defender, led an 1831 expedition hunting a legendary lost mine of which metal?

Silver was the prize at the lost San Saba mine. Bowie's small party never found it, but fighting off a much larger raiding party on the way made his name across Texas.

Alamo defender Jim Bowie lost his wife Ursula and her parents in 1833 to an epidemic of which disease?

Cholera reached them in Monclova, where Bowie had sent the family precisely to keep them out of the outbreak's path as it spread through Texas.

Which star of The Rookie reunited with director John Lee Hancock to play Sam Houston in The Alamo (2004)?

Dennis Quaid took the part after Russell Crowe left the project. Viggo Mortensen was also considered for the general before Quaid signed on.

Most Mexican infantry in Santa Anna's 1836 Texas campaign carried which ageing British-made musket?

Brown Bess muskets armed the Mexican ranks, and their officers knew the weapon was outranged by the guns the Texians carried.

William B. Travis posted a lookout in the bell tower of which San Antonio church as Santa Anna approached?

San Fernando's bell tower was the highest point in town. A coffin dug up before its altar in 1936 was claimed to hold defenders' remains, though historians doubt it.

Which young Texas heiress, later called the Savior of the Alamo, paid most of the $75,000 to buy its convent?

Clara Driscoll put up the money from her own bank account when a hotel syndicate was circling the property. Texas reimbursed her in 1905.

Missionaries of which Catholic order founded Mission San Antonio de Valero, later the Alamo, in 1718?

Franciscans under Father Antonio de Olivares started the mission with only three to five converts brought from an older mission farther south.

What did preservationist Adina De Zavala do for three days in 1908 to save the Alamo's convent?

Barricaded herself inside, the 46-year-old said she was willing to die for the cause. Spectators and reporters from around the country turned up to watch.

Which Mexican general, Santa Anna's brother-in-law, surrendered the Alamo to Texians in December 1835?

Martín Perfecto de Cos was freed on a pledge not to fight the Texians again, then came back in spring 1836 commanding a column in the attack on the same fort.

Which Kentucky-born Texian was killed leading the December 1835 assault that drove Mexican troops out of San Antonio?

Ben Milam talked the weary volunteers out of abandoning the siege, then was killed in the street fighting. Milam County, Texas, is named for him.

Which Texian colonel set out with 320 men to relieve the Alamo but turned back within a mile?

James Fannin blamed his officers for the retreat, and they blamed him. Weeks later his own command was caught on the prairie at Coleto Creek and forced to surrender.

Which Alamo courier rode back through Mexican lines on March 3, 1836, to rejoin the doomed garrison?

James Bonham had been sent out to plead for help. He was told to tie a white handkerchief around his hat so the gate guards would know to let him back in.

In 1836 the town beside the Alamo was known as San Antonio de what, a name its county still carries?

Béxar began as a Spanish presidio founded in 1718 to protect the new mission. Bexar County keeps the name today, minus the accent.

Before the Texas Revolution, Texas was joined to which neighbour as a single Mexican state?

Coahuila and Texas were merged into one state under the federal constitution of 1824. Splitting the two apart was what Texians formally asked for at their 1833 convention.

The Alamo Cenotaph, a 60-foot marble shaft in San Antonio's Alamo Plaza, carries which formal title?

The Spirit of Sacrifice was dedicated in 1940 as a Texas centennial project. Several historians believe its carved roll of defenders includes men who did not die there.

Which Hollywood tough guy played knife-fighter Jim Bowie in the 1960 epic film The Alamo?

Richard Widmark co-starred with Laurence Harvey, the Lithuanian-born actor cast as the fort's young commander, William B. Travis.

The 1960 film The Alamo was shot on a full-size replica mission built near which small Texas town?

Brackettville rancher James Shahan hosted the set, later called Alamo Village, which went on to appear in other productions, including Lonesome Dove.

Which Oscar-winning director left the 2004 film The Alamo after pushing for a grittier, R-rated version?

Ron Howard wanted a violent epic in the style of Sam Peckinpah, on a budget of about $130 million. He stepped down as director but stayed on as a producer.

The treaties a captured Santa Anna signed with Texas president David G. Burnet in 1836 are named for which place?

Velasco gave its name to a pair of agreements, one public and one secret. The Mexican government ratified neither, arguing he had signed under duress as a prisoner.

Which Spanish-named bugle call did Mexican army buglers sound as their columns attacked the Alamo in March 1836?

El Degüello came to the Americas with Spanish troops, then was taken up by the patriot armies that fought them in the wars of independence.

Which Mexican officer's memoir, published in 1955, claimed some Alamo defenders were captured alive and then executed?

José Enrique de la Peña's account was long suspected of being a forgery, until a 2001 analysis found its ink and paper matched Mexican army supplies of the 1830s.

Alamo commander William B. Travis, raised in Alabama, was actually born near Saluda in which state?

South Carolina was home until he was nine, when the family followed an uncle to newly opened land in Alabama.

Which British actor headlined the 1969 comedy Viva Max!, about a Mexican general who re-occupies the Alamo?

Peter Ustinov shared the bill with Jonathan Winters and John Astin. The script came from a 1966 novel by James Lehrer.

William B. Travis first made his name in Texas during 1830s disturbances at which Gulf Coast customs port?

Anahuac was a customs post on Galveston Bay, at the mouth of the Trinity River. His part in the clashes there is credited with helping set the Texas Revolution in motion.

Santa Anna's artificial leg, seized by American soldiers in 1847, ended up in a military museum in which US state?

Illinois soldiers took the cork leg at the Battle of Cerro Gordo. A plainer peg leg captured with it was reportedly used by the troops as a baseball bat.

Which Texas state agency took over management of the Alamo in 2015 after a century of private custody?

General Land Office control followed a state investigation, which found that the previous custodians had mismanaged both the site and its funds.

Almaron Dickinson, whose wife Susanna survived the Alamo, was the officer in charge of what during the siege?

The artillery was his command. The last defenders to fall are said to have been the eleven men working two guns inside the chapel.

Santa Anna's army crossed which river in February 1836 on its winter march north to the Alamo?

Rio Grande crossings came after a hungry march. Many of the troops were raw conscripts, and camp followers ate into supplies so badly that rations were cut.

What freak weather struck Santa Anna's army in February 1836 as it marched north toward the Alamo?

Heavy snow, an estimated 15 to 16 inches of it, fell as Texas temperatures hit record lows. Hypothermia and dysentery took a heavy toll on the marching soldiers.

What disaster wrecked Mission San Antonio de Valero in 1724, forcing its move to the Alamo's present site?

A hurricane's remnants destroyed the early buildings. The mission had already moved once before, to a river bank that was less likely to flood.

Alamo: The Price of Freedom, a 1988 docudrama made for a San Antonio theater, used which giant-screen format?

IMAX was new to Texas at the time. The film's backers built the state's first IMAX theater in order to show it.

The Alamo's Long Barrack was restored and opened as a museum as San Antonio prepared to host what in 1968?

A world's fair called HemisFair '68 ran from April to October that year. The city's Tower of the Americas was built for it.

Which teen idol singer, later of the Beach Party films, played young defender Smitty in The Alamo (1960)?

Frankie Avalon played Smitty, the youngest of the film's defenders. He later turned up in Grease, singing Beauty School Dropout.

Which Alamo garrison member, sent off as a delegate before the fall, later gave English a word for unbranded cattle?

Samuel Maverick rode out on March 2 to take his seat at the convention. He later left his herd unbranded, so unmarked strays became known as mavericks.

The Alamo's heaviest gun reached Texas with which volunteer company, formed in a coffee house in 1835?

New Orleans Greys took their name from their grey fatigues. The two companies, about 120 men in all, were raised in that city to fight for Texas.

William B. Travis arrived at the Alamo in 1836 holding which rank in the new Texian Legion of Cavalry?

Lieutenant colonel was his commission, and he nearly refused the posting, writing to the governor that he was unwilling to risk his reputation on it.

Which star of TV's Have Gun – Will Travel had a cameo as Sam Houston in The Alamo (1960)?

Richard Boone's general needs the fort to buy him time to build an army. Boone appeared in more than 50 films and was best known for his Westerns.

Santa Anna lost a leg in 1838 fighting French forces at Veracruz in a war nicknamed for which food?

Pastry gave the war its name because a French pastry chef's complaint of mistreatment was among its causes. The amputated leg was buried with full military honors.