Remember the Alamo: The Alamo

Remember the Alamo

By Amelia E. Barr

The Battle of the Alamo left a substantial legacy and influence within American culture and is an event that is told from the perspective of the vanquished.

Following the Mexican victory at the Battle of the Alamo, Mexican troops quartered in the Alamo Mission. As the Mexican army retreated from Texas following the Battle of San Jacinto, they tore down many of the walls and burned the palisade which Crockett had defended. Within the next several decades, various buildings in the complex were torn down, and in 1850 the United States Army added a gable to the top of the chapel. Speculation is that the gable was originally at Mission San José, due to its presence at that mission in 1846-48 sketches, and its absence in later images.

As the 19th century progressed, the battle began to appear as a plot device in many novels and plays. In 1869, novelists Jeremiah Clemens and Bernard Lile wrote fictionalized accounts of the battle. Novelist Amelia Barr produced her own fictional version, Remember the Alamo, in 1888. In her book, Alamo Images, Susan Pendergrast Schoelwer noted that in these early novels "the Alamo passages seem almost incidental to the main plot, included perhaps as a means of attracting interest and encouraging sales".