The Battle of the New Alamo (Part Two)

Several Mexican soldiers drove prisoners toward the walls of the Alamo.

The prisoners cooperated fully. After all, they had just endured a hellish pursuit and wanted to stay alive, so they shouted with all their might.

"Colonel Travis and brothers of the Alamo, we're men under Colonel Maning! We were ambushed by the Mexican army. No one is coming to help you! Surrender!"

Colonel Travis and Bowie knew that if the prisoners kept shouting, the Alamo's defenders would break. Some were already wavering; after all, no one wanted to struggle on without hope.

All they could do now was silence those poor men forever. Colonel Travis took a puff of his cigar, then set it against the fuse of a cannon.

But at that moment, Crockett stopped him.

"What are you doing? I know these men. They're Colonel Maning's men."

"They're traitors!"

Travis shoved Crockett aside and lit the fuse.

A deafening boom rang out, and the prisoners who had come to urge their surrender fell silent forever.

Seeing this, Santa Anna was furious. He had shown them every possible kindness, yet they dared reject his goodwill!

Santa Anna wasn't the only one enraged. Gablenz and Stadion were furious too. These men had even killed their own people—they were utterly deranged. It seemed they would be unable to fulfill Archbishop Rauscher's instructions.

Just then, another letter from Archduke Franz Karl arrived.

At the name Franz Karl, Santa Anna's frown eased slightly.

The letter contained only one sentence.

"Siege the city, and you attack the walls; win the hearts, and you take the city."

Santa Anna laughed as he read it. He handed the letter to Gablenz and Stadion, praising Archduke Franz Karl as a genius.

Gablenz and Stadion knew that Archduke Franz Karl wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but they accepted the letter with curiosity.

After reading it, Gablenz and Stadion seemed to understand what he meant.

Once again, Santa Anna's messenger rode up to the walls of the Alamo.

"General Santa Anna orders you to let the women, children, and elderly leave the city. The general swears to God that they'll be safe. Once the civilians have evacuated, the Alamo will be subjected to a full bombardment."

This time, Travis didn't hesitate. He didn't know whether the Mexicans were plotting something, but if they truly launched a full assault, the Alamo would run red with blood. A soldier's honor wouldn't let him make the women, children, and elderly die alongside him.

James Bowie agreed with Travis. After all, war was a matter between men.

But Crockett disagreed. He believed that as long as the women, children, and elderly remained inside, the Mexicans wouldn't dare bombard the fortress. If they did, Santa Anna would have to answer for shelling civilians.

In the end, Travis's sense of military honor led him to reject Crockett's suggestion.

This was the second time Travis had angered Crockett, and the congressman was thoroughly displeased.

Two hours later, the women, children, and elderly had left the Alamo. Santa Anna sent his most capable aide to escort them to San Antonio.

The sixteen-pounder was ready. At the same time, a clear bugle call rang out, and the bombardment began.

This bombardment was far more accurate than the earlier one. While the civilians were leaving, Gablenz and Stadion had adjusted the guns' elevation and positions to ensure the cannons could hit their targets from the very first shot.

The sixteen-pound siege gun packed tremendous power. Its first shot brought down the southern tower, and the collapsing structure buried the squad of defenders stationed nearby.

But before the Alamo's defenders could dig the people out from beneath the rubble, shells came screaming in one after another.

Inside the Alamo Fortress, stones flew and flames leapt. Many people were injured by shrapnel and flying debris. Travis tried to organize a counter-barrage, but the enemy fire was too fierce for anyone to raise their heads.

The Mexican army's small-caliber cannons had all been loaded with incendiary shells. In this era, incendiary shells were a type of grenade filled with flammable substances such as grease. They set nearby objects alight when they exploded, though they were not very effective.

Still, they were more lethal than solid iron cannonballs and could keep the defenders rushing from one fire to another.

The sixteen-pounder's power was astonishing. Each shot could bring down a large section of the fortress; its force couldn't compare to that of a three-pounder.

A sixteen-pounder shot struck the fortress wall and brought down a huge section. The breach was so wide that not only infantry but even horses could easily pass through it.

Bowie immediately organized men to block the breach with wagons and furniture, though the Mexicans showed no intention of attacking at all.

"Damn it, do the Mexicans have an endless supply of ammunition? Are they planning to bury us under those heavy guns?"

Crockett passed by carrying a bucket of water.

"Quit complaining and put out the fires. Otherwise, we'll choke to death if the flames don't get us first."

The bombardment lasted two hours before the Mexican army stopped firing. It wasn't because they'd run out of ammunition or were preparing to storm the fortress; the gun barrels had overheated, and any more firing might cause them to explode.

Among the ruins, Crockett found his old servant.

"John, you old rascal. I knew you were still alive."

The old servant slowly opened his eyes, spat out a mouthful of debris, and gazed at his master with tears in his eyes.

"Mr. Crockett, I can't move my legs..."

Crockett paid no mind to his own hands, rubbed raw and bleeding. Instead, he comforted John.

"Don't worry. Once we get back to Tennessee, I'll find the best doctor. They'll be able to heal you."

But Crockett couldn't find his old servant's legs.

"Mr. Crockett, go home. The mistress is waiting for you."

With his consciousness fading, the old servant used the last of his strength to push Crockett away. At the same moment, the broken wall beside them finally gave way and crashed down heavily where Crockett had just been standing.

"No! John! Damn them! I'll fight those Mexicans to the death!"

Throughout the Alamo Fortress, soldiers who had lost family and friends let out furious roars.

"Right! Let's go out and fight! We're dead either way!"

"Let them see the courage of the cowboys of the West!"

"Kill them! Avenge them!"

"Revenge!"

A piece of shrapnel had pierced Bowie's leg, but he would rather charge out and fight to his heart's content than wait here to die.

Travis stopped them, though. He had seen that the Mexican troops were staying in their fortifications; charging out now would be no different from suicide.

"That's enough. Get back to your posts. Going out there would be suicide. General Houston will come to save us."

"Where is General Houston? Where are the reinforcements?" a soldier shouted angrily.

"We've been abandoned!"

"We're expendable!"

"I want to go home!"

Travis fired a shot into the air.

"That's enough! Santa Anna is a dictator, a savage. You'll die if you go out there. Can't you see that red flag? Once the Mexicans raise it, it means they won't take any prisoners. Believe me, General Houston will come to save us."

The story about the Mexicans' red flag was only a rumor. The Mexicans had flags of other colors too, including green and white—the colors of the Mexican flag.

In the afternoon, the Mexicans resumed their bombardment but launched no attack.

Santa Anna wasn't in a hurry, because he knew he could take the Alamo at any time.

The Alamo's defenders, however, couldn't stand being bombarded without fighting back. That night, Crockett gathered two dozen desperadoes and prepared to destroy the Mexican artillery positions, or at least damage the sixteen-pounder.

But the Mexicans had been ready for them. After an exchange of fire, Crockett and a few of his fellow Tennesseans fled back to the Alamo in a sorry state.

The Mexicans didn't pursue them, not because they had exceptional military discipline, but because they had no idea how many men they were facing.

Due to malnutrition, many Mexican soldiers suffered from night blindness. That was why several hundred men had exchanged fire with two dozen and managed to kill only a little over ten of them.

When Crockett returned to the Alamo, Colonel Travis was already dressed in his uniform.

"Do you know what you've done? You should be court-martialed. I could even shoot you right now."

"Colonel Travis, Crockett was only trying to help everyone. The Mexican cannons are too powerful. Fifty of our men died in the bombardment today, and there's hardly a single intact section of the front wall left. At this rate, we won't even have a place to shelter from the wind."

"Don't think I wouldn't shoot you just because you're a congressman. This is Texas!"

Those words left Crockett and the American volunteers deeply displeased.

On March 10, 1836, the bombardment continued.

Santa Anna invited Gablenz and Stadion to join him for lunch on a hillside, where they ate as they watched the shells rain down on the Alamo.

"These cannons are incredible. If the Mexican army were equipped entirely with guns like these, we'd never have to fear the Americans again."

Gablenz and Stadion grumbled inwardly. "If any army took dozens of these things on the road, it would move slower than a crawling tortoise."

They merely smiled without answering, since neither of them would turn down an opportunity to make money.

But what happened next took them completely by surprise.

"I'd like to hire you both as my military advisers. You may choose your titles and compensation. As president of Mexico, I'll meet any request that lies within my power."

Gablenz and Stadion were about to speak, but Santa Anna cut them off.

"Let me tell you, Mexico has the largest silver mines in the world—unmatched by any other country. You'll surely say that those mines aren't in the hands of the Mexican government.

"That's true, but once this war is over, I'll take the army home and crush those who oppose me.

"I'm willing to become a friend of Archduke Franz Karl. I'll make Mexico a member of the civilized world and the Austrian Empire's most loyal ally.

"Your talents as commanders surpass those of all my subordinates. Even I'm no match for you. I don't think you're merely military observers, either. You're real generals, aren't you?"

With that last remark, Santa Anna openly exposed the identities of Gablenz and Stadion. They knew that if they rejected his "kind offer," they might meet with an "accident" on the road.

Gablenz and Stadion still had one question: why did Santa Anna think so highly of that not particularly bright archduke?

"We'll need to write a letter to Archduke Franz Karl and get his approval."

"No problem. I'm sure Archduke Franz Karl will accept me as a friend."

Santa Anna believed that as the Napoleon of North America, he had already surpassed the real Napoleon, because he had chosen to join forces with "Archduke Karl."

Just imagine: if Napoleon and Archduke Karl had joined forces back then, who on the continent could have stood against them?

Inside the Alamo, the bombardment destroyed the last remaining building in the fortress. The windmill toppled over and smashed the stables, and the panicked horses caused even more chaos.

When the dead and wounded were counted, they found that only seventy-five defenders remained, every one of them injured. They silently set about clearing the battlefield.

Travis and Bowie argued inside the makeshift command post.

Just then, the Mexicans sent two doctors under a white flag to treat the wounded as a humanitarian gesture.

Travis couldn't refuse such humanitarian aid. What he didn't know was that the doctors were actually Catholic priests. They had come to persuade the wounded to convert to Catholicism or submit to Santa Anna in exchange for safe passage out of the battlefield.

When a person was about to die, even a single straw could feel like salvation—let alone a doctor.

The Catholic doctors' persuasion moved many of the wounded, especially those in critical condition.

But Travis couldn't accept the Catholics undermining his men's morale. He shot one of the doctors and drove the others out of the Alamo.

Doctors and priests held very high status in Mexican society. When a Catholic physician was carried out on a stretcher, wrapped in a white cloth, the Mexican army erupted in unprecedented fury.

They might not have known what they were fighting for before, but now they felt they should slaughter every one of the bandits inside the Alamo Fortress.

Soldiers and officers kept coming before Santa Anna to ask permission to attack, but Santa Anna was delighted. He knew that the Alamo's defenders had lost heart.

Sure enough, gunfire broke out inside the Alamo Fortress that night.

The Tennessee volunteers and wounded men chose Crockett as their leader. He led them in a surprise attack on Travis's men, while Bowie was locked in the fortress dungeon.

When the fighting ended, fewer than fifty people remained in the Alamo. Crockett surrendered to Santa Anna, Bowie was captured, and Travis died in the mutiny.

The Battle of the Alamo ended in a great Mexican victory, and the fact that the Alamo had fallen to its own men became the greatest scandal of the Battle of Texas.

Crockett was a member of the United States Congress, so Santa Anna treated him with great courtesy. He had doctors treat Crockett and the other prisoners, then sent a large group of reporters to interview them.

Of course, those reporters would record only evidence favorable to Mexico. When the news reached Washington, Andrew Jackson angrily flung the newspaper onto the coffee table.

"Remember this: the shame of the Alamo! They're a disgrace to the United States! Surrounded by the Mexicans, they actually turned on one another just to surrender. They're a pack of fools!"

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Starting next chapter, we'll return to Austria.