The Alamo
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This Alamo trivia quiz has 100 free questions with answers and covers the mission and the battle from every angle: the 1718 founding of Mission San Antonio de Valero and where the name came from, the thirteen-day siege of 1836, Travis's Victory or Death letter, Bowie's illness, Crockett's disputed death, the survivors, Goliad and San Jacinto, and what happened to the buildings afterwards, from a wholesale grocery to a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It finishes with the Alamo in popular culture: John Wayne's epic, the 2004 flop, Ozzy Osbourne's arrest, Phil Collins's collection and Pee-wee's basement. The first questions suit anyone who has taken the tour; the last ones will test people who can name the man who buried the ashes. Every question is multiple choice with a short explanation after you answer. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Texian panic followed the fall of the Alamo, as settlers fled east ahead of the Mexican army?
The Runaway Scrape
Noncombatants sent to Gonzales spread the news of the defeat.
Q 02The Battle of the Alamo ended on which date in 1836?
March 6
The siege had begun on February 23, thirteen days earlier.
Q 03How many days did the siege of the Alamo last?
13
Roughly 1,500 Mexican soldiers marched into Béxar on the first day.
Q 04Who commanded the Mexican army at the Alamo?
Antonio López de Santa Anna
He was also the president of Mexico at the time.
Q 05Which two men served as co-commanders of the Alamo garrison?
James Bowie and William B. Travis
Bowie collapsed with illness on the second day of the siege, leaving Travis in sole command.
Q 06Mission San Antonio de Valero, which became the Alamo, was named after which saint?
Anthony of Padua
Mission San Antonio de Valero also honoured the viceroy of New Spain, the Marquess of Valero.
Q 07The word 'Alamo' is Spanish for which tree?
Cottonwood
The name likely came from a Mexican cavalry company from Alamo de Parras that used the old mission as a fort after 1803.
Q 08In what year was the mission secularized, ending its life as a religious outpost?
1793
It was abandoned and then converted into a fortress about ten years later.
Q 09When Mexican troops arrived, they raised a blood-red flag. What did it signify?
No quarter would be given
Travis answered the flag with a blast from the Alamo's largest cannon.
Q 10Travis's famous February 24 letter pleading for reinforcements was addressed to whom?
The People of Texas and All Americans
Historian Mary Deborah Petite calls it 'one of the masterpieces of American patriotism'.
Q 11Travis's letter from the Alamo is popularly known by which two-word phrase from its signature?
Victory or Death
Copies were reprinted across Texas, the United States and Europe.
Q 12The famous frontiersman who reached the Alamo in 1836 brought volunteers from which state?
Tennessee
He was a former US congressman who left for Texas after narrowly losing re-election in 1835.
Q 13Which of these is NOT a fate historians debate for the coonskin-capped ex-congressman at the Alamo?
Escaped to Mexico
Wikipedia's summary is blunt: it is unclear whether he died in battle or was executed after being captured.
Q 21Roughly how many Mexican soldiers took part in the final assault on March 6?
2,000
Fewer than 1,800 attacked in four columns while 500 cavalry ringed the fort to stop anyone escaping.
Q 22Despite bitter cold on the morning of the assault, Mexican soldiers were ordered not to wear what?
Their overcoats
The coats might impede their movement; clouds hid the moon as they crept forward at 5:30 a.m.
Q 23Most eyewitnesses counted how many Texian defenders killed?
Between 182 and 257
Mexican casualties were about a quarter of the 2,000-strong assault force.
Q 14Fess Parker wore the coonskin cap in a 1954-55 Disney miniseries about which Alamo defender?
Davy Crockett
The series originated 'The Ballad of Davy Crockett' and its first three parts were cut into a feature film.
Q 15Jim Bowie's fame and knife grew out of an 1827 sandbar brawl near which Mississippi town?
Natchez
A duel between two other men degenerated into a melee in which Bowie, shot and stabbed, killed a sheriff with a large knife.
Q 16Why was Bowie not in command during most of the siege?
He was bedridden with illness
Two doctors, including the fort's surgeon, could not diagnose what was wrong with him.
Q 17Before the revolution, Jim Bowie took which nation's citizenship and married its vice-governor's daughter?
Mexico
He married Ursula Veramendi, daughter of the province's Mexican vice-governor.
Q 18Which Tejano officer did Travis send out for reinforcements on February 25, saving his life?
Juan Seguín
He returned in 1837 to bury the defenders' ashes and later became mayor of San Antonio.
Q 19The only reinforcements to reach the Alamo, roughly 32 men, came from which Texas town?
Gonzales
Colonel Fannin's 320 men set out from a nearby town but turned back after less than a mile.
Q 20Which lone defender is said to have refused to cross Travis's line in the sand?
Louis 'Moses' Rose
Most scholars dismiss the story, which surfaced decades later in a third-hand account.
Q 24Which defender's body was spared from the funeral pyres because his brother served in Santa Anna's army?
Gregorio Esparza
Francisco Esparza received permission to give his brother a proper burial.
Q 25Susanna Dickinson survived the battle with her infant daughter. What was the daughter's name?
Angelina
Santa Anna offered to adopt the child and educate her in Mexico City; Dickinson refused.
Q 26Santa Anna spared Travis's enslaved servant Joe for what purpose?
To persuade other slaves to back Mexico
Each surviving woman was given a blanket and two silver pesos.
Q 27Master of ordnance Robert Evans died trying to do what as the fort fell?
Blow up the powder magazine
He was shot with his torch inches from the powder; the blast would have killed the women and children in the sacristy.
Q 28A cold front on February 25 dropped temperatures at the Alamo to about what?
39 °F
A 'blue norther' caught both armies unprepared, and Mexican troops kept the Texians from gathering firewood.
Q 29Three weeks after the Alamo, more than 400 Texian prisoners were executed on Palm Sunday at which town?
Goliad
Colonel James Fannin was among those shot; 'Remember Goliad' joined 'Remember the Alamo' as a battle cry.
Q 30Sam Houston avenged the Alamo at San Jacinto in 1836. Roughly how long did the battle last?
18 minutes
Texians shouted 'Remember the Alamo!' as they overran the surprised Mexican camp.