The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 70, July 1966 - April, 1967 Page: 376
728 p. : maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
By the time of the renowned siege and fall of the Alamo,
dusty, sun-drenched San Antonio, on the southwestern frontier
of Anglo-American expansion, had grown to a population of
seven thousand. Separated from the city by the San Antonio
River, the mission property covered two or three acres and "a
thousand men would have barely sufficed to man its defenses."
The roofless chapel, located on the southeast extremity of the
enclosure, was "75 feet long, 62 wide, and 221/ high, with walls
of solid masonry, four feet thick."19 Northwest of the chapel,
but joined to it by a wall about 50 feet long and 12 feet high,
was the convent of the mission, sometimes known as the monas-
tery, long barracks, or fortress. That imposing two-story stone
edifice was 186 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 18 feet high; its upper
story was used as a hospital, the lower floor for an armory and
soldiers' quarters. From the northeast corner of the chapel a
barrier wall extended northward before turning west to join the
long barracks and enclose an inner court. From the southwest
corner of the church a strongly built stockade protruded 75 feet
to the low barracks, a one-story structure 144 feet in length and
17 feet in width which formed part of the main wall on the
south. Both of the barracks boasted walls of about 30 inches
thickness, and each had flat terrace roofs of beams and planks,
covered with a thick coat of'cement. The mission's outer barrier
walls, perhaps 33 inches thick and g to 12 feet high, surrounded
an area of about 462 by 162 feet west of the convent and
north of the low barracks. The north wall, however, was longer
than that of the south, thus precluding a perfect parallelogram.20
When Santa Anna stormed the Alamo on March 6, 1836, his
troops quickly overran the outer walls, and Travis-shot in the
forehead-fell at the north battery. Most of the garrison's de-
fenders soon retreated to the long barracks, where the decisive,
room by room fighting occurred as the Mexicans brought to bay
Critical Study of the Siege of the Alamo and of the Personnel of Its Defenders,"
424-425.
1Reuben M. Potter, "The Fall of the Alamo," Old South Leaflet, No. igo (1902),
2. Potter's article was first printed in the Magazine of American History, II (Janu-
ary, 1878); an earlier version of the article appeared in the San Antonio Herald
in 186o.
0lbid., 2-4; see also Williams, "A Critical Study of the Siege of the Alamo and of
the Personnel of Its Defenders," 13o- i.376
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 70, July 1966 - April, 1967, periodical, 1967; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101199/m1/396/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.