Exodus From the Alamo: The Anatomy of the Last Stand Myth (34 page)

Second in command of Colonel Morales’ column assigned to attacking the south wall was Colonel José Vicente Miñon, who had been born in the port city of Cadiz, Spain, in 1802. Miñon was already famous throughout the army for past battlefield exploits that defied the odds, especially in holding 400 Spanish soldiers at bay with only 30 men at the battle of Arroyo Hondo during the struggle for independence. Miñon also knew how to wage war unconventionally, battling for years against Indians, including the fast-moving Comanche. And he had played a key role in smashing the Zacatecas militiamen, where he had bloodied his saber on fellow countrymen who dared defy the republic. Commanding a force of handpicked mounted marksmen, Miñon led a cavalry charge that captured nearly fifty cannons at Zacatecas. Even though a member of Santa Anna’s staff while serving as the commander’s adjutant, he was eager for front line duty, lusting for action against Texas rebels.

Not surprisingly, he had been at the head of the initial company of Matamoros Battalion cazadores—the Spanish name for hunters or light infantry and riflemen—who stormed into San Antonio and chased Bowie’s and Travis’ men into the Alamo. Miñon’s demonstrated initiative on February 23 caused an impressed Colonel Morales, who believed that this was the “most righteous of campaigns,” to request his leadership as second-in-command for this attack column of chasseurs— the French name for hunters, or light infantry and riflemen-—of the San Luís Potosí Activo Battalion.
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In addition to experienced officers like Miñon, a good many reliable, veteran soldados of the noncommissioned ranks were now posed before the Alamo. For instance, one of Santa Anna’s trusted noncommissioned officers—who had drilled and molded their peasants into disciplined soldados—was Sergeant Santiago Rabia. Having served beside then lieutenant Santa Anna in Texas in 1813, Rabia’s lost religious fervor was now rekindled in the cold darkness near the Alameda. As a member of the elite Tampico Lancers, he would shortly lose what little compassion remained in his heart for his fellow man, because these tough Mexican lancers would shortly perform the bloodiest work of any of Santa Anna’s soldiers on the morning of March 6.
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Also among Santa Anna’s infantry were soldados of pure African descent. Known as pardos, or Mexicans of African heritage, they would have been called mulattos in the United States. Continuing a distinguished legacy, blacks had fought in Mexico’s war for independence against Spain as both officers and enlisted men, and even before then as well. For instance, during the American Revolution when Spain was allied with France and America against England, the Spanish Army included an African American militia company of free blacks, the Moreno Libres of Vera Cruz, and a battalion of blacks from Havana, Cuba, which served in North America.
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With Mexico’s best military commander at their head, these soldados were supremely confident of success this early morning. Esprit de corps and a sense of righteousness had lifted motivation among the Mexican troops to new heights. The average American soldier, not to mention their Protestant religion and English and Irish cultural traditions, were held in utter contempt by Mexicans in part because of racial, cultural, and religious prejudices that were returned in kind. For instance, Secretary of War Tornel boasted how, “The superiority of the Mexican soldier” could not compare to the American citizen-soldiers, who were “ignorant of the art of war, incapable of discipline, and renowned for insubordination.”
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However, in truth, Santa Anna’s soldados now suffered from an inferiority complex of sorts. After Cós and his men had been humiliated and sent back to Mexico in disgrace, the early morning would finally present a long awaited opportunity to prove the falsehood of the Anglo-Celtic stereotype about the alleged inferiority of the Latino fighting man. A proud Sapper officer, De la Pena was incensed over the fiction that Mexican soldados “lacked the cool courage that is demanded by an assault.” In a February 17 address to his troops, even Santa Anna mocked the overconfident Texians, because they considered “us incapable of defending our soil.”
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Meanwhile, Travis and his men, including the pickets outside the Alamo, slept deeply in the darkness. These advanced pickets had been more concerned about staying warm and resting than anything else on this cold night. Within the relatively warm, thick abode walls, no one heard any noise from nearly 1,500 Mexican soldados almost within a stone’s throw of the walls. Even more surprising, no one heard the hundreds of Mexican cavalrymen and lancers, or their horses.
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Compared to the handful of untrained regulars at the Alamo, a large percentage—a little less than half—of Santa Anna’s Army consisted of regular units or permanentes. These regular infantry regiments were organized in 1833. Therefore, by the 1836 Texas Campaign, Santa Anna benefited from the fact that much of his army consisted of trained regular troops: a striking contrast to the mostly volunteer Alamo garrison. These regular troops were augmented by militia units, or activos: the Toluca, Tres Villa, San Luís Potosí, and Guadalajara Battalions. Of these, the Toluca Battalion, Colonel Dúque’s own unit that he had long commanded, was the best activo command. However, neither the Mexican regular infantry nor militia could compare to Santa Anna’s best, nonspecialized troops, the half dozen regular cavalry regiments. The savvy general, always an old cavalryman at heart, could count upon these horse commands without hesitation: the Vera Cruz, Dolores, Palmar, Iguala, Cuatla, and Tampico cavalry regiments. These units were not only the pride of Santa Anna and his army, but also of the Republic of Mexico.
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Santa Anna was eager to see what these fighting men of his 1836 Army of Operations—which had not yet fought a battle—could accomplish on the chilly early morning of March 6. As revealed in his February 1 report, for instance, a proud Santa Anna boasted with unbridled enthusiasm that “it has been years that I have not seen in the Republic a body of troops that are so brilliant in their discipline and equipment” as his newly formed Army of Operations.
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An 1886 depiction of the mythical storming of the Alamo. In this drawing the Alamo church is the focal point of the battle and distinguished by its trademark bell-shaped facade, built by the United States nearly a decade and a half later.

An admirer of Napoleon, Antonio López de Santa Anna lamented the overall lack of resistance on March 6, describing the Alamo’s capture as nothing more than a “small affair.”
Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library at the Alamo

An Italian with Napoleonic War experience, General Vincente Filisola was one of Santa Anna’s most gifted top lieutenants. He possessed more sound military experience than all of the Alamo’s commanders combined.
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

A member of the Republic of Mexico’s most lethal warriors, the Lancers, who upheld their lofty reputation outside the walls of the Alamo on the morning of March 6.
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Along with the Lancers, the Mexican Dragoons also played a leading role in eliminating escapees from the Alamo.
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

This rare woodcut was the earliest depiction of the battle of the Alamo, though it more closely resembles a battle between French and English forces during the Peninsular War in Spain.
Author’s collection

The Alamo’s largest cannon, the 18-pounder that stood at the compound’s southwest corner.
Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the Alamo Museum, San Antonio