Battle of the Alamo
1836 major battle of the Texas Revolution
The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event and military engagement in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna reclaimed the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar (now San Antonio).
About one hundred Texians had been garrisoned at the mission, and they were supplemented by around one hundred subsequent reinforcements, led by eventual Alamo co-commanders James Bowie and William B. Travis. On February 23, approximately 1,500 Mexicans marched into San Antonio de Béxar as the first step in a campaign to retake Texas.
In the early morning hours of March 6, the Mexican Army advanced on the Alamo. After repelling two attacks, the Texians were unable to fend off a third attack. As Mexican soldiers scaled the walls, most of the Texian fighters withdrew into interior buildings. On the basis of "perhaps" ten sources, William C. Davis posits three separate escapes of Texian combatants from the Alamo, consisting of perhaps 80 men. Phillip Thomas Tucker also sees three discrete Texian escapes, totaling as many as 120 men. Nearly all Texian combatants were killed.
The public source identifies “Battle of the Alamo” as 1836 major battle of the Texas Revolution. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Battle, Alamo and major.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Battle of the Alamo”, the useful work is to connect “1836 major battle of the Texas Revolution” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q235344. Authority coordinates are 29.426, -98.486. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1836.
Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Battle of the Alamo”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Battle of the Alamo primary sources, Battle of the Alamo archive and Battle research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Battle of the Alamo”?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Battle of the Alamo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.