IT10 - Holly Seifred

Wednesday 17 June 2015

Crockett was born in 1786 in Tennessee. He was a frontiersman, congressman, and a defender of the Alamo. A year after the war of 1812, Crockett enlisted in the Tennessee militia. In 1821 he became a member of the Tennessee State House of Representatives. During his political career, his fame, from reputation as a frontiersman, helped him with his re-election to Congress. In 1836, Crockett was killed during the Battle of Alamo in Texas.

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The Alamo - James Bowie

Bowie was born in 1796 in Kentucky. He was known by fighting with knives, and died with Davy Crockett defending the Alamo. The Bowie knife is associated with him.

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The Alamo - Before, During, and After

Early History

In 1718, the Alamo was built near the banks of the San Antonio River by spanish settlers. In the early 1800s, the spanish military troops were set up in the chapel. It was named "Alamo" because of its meaning of cottonwood, which is the type of tree they were surrounded in, and their hometown in Mexico. In 1821, the spanish government allowed 300 U.S. families to move to Texas, and after several years, many U.S. citzens were moving into Texas, which would later cause conflict.

The Battle

In 1835, a group of Texans captured the Alamo, holding control of San Antonio. It was suggested by the commander-in-chief to abandon the fort because of small troop numbers, but they stayed anyway. Even after reinforcements being sent, the number never rose above 200 members, one being Davy Crockett. But on February 23, between 2,000-6,000 members following the orders of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna attacked the Alamo. The texans made it for 13 days before a wall was broken into, leaving a few amount of survivors.

After

After the battle, Mexican forces occupied the fort again. But in 1836, Sam Houston and about 800 Texans defeated the mexican force at San Jacinto. Santa Anna and Houston came to terms with one another to end the war. Today, the Alamo is a tourist site gaining 2.5 million visitors a year, which has several original structures from the mission period.