The Final Assault
|
The battle of the Alamo began in earnest shortly before dawn on Sunday, March 6, 1836. Mexican soldiers, attacking in the dark in four separate columns, were repulsed twice with heavy losses before they finally succeeded in breaching the Alamo's outer walls. As depicted by numerous artists, the fiercest hand-to-hand combat took place inside the compound, where the defenders gave ground slowly through the rooms of the long barracks (formerly the mission convent) and in front of the chapel. After the Texan defenders had been annihilated, Santa Anna ordered their bodies cremated, denying them Christian burial in what many contemporaries considered his most atrocious crime. |