50 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'.