ALAMO, The, San Antonio, Tex.; a Franciscan mission house built about 1722 and called San Antonio de Valerio; after 1793 used on occasion as a fort and renamed Fort Alamo. It consisted of an oblong plaza some 21/2 acres in area, enclosed by walls 8 feet high and 33 inches thick, a church, a hospital building, a convent and a walled convent yard about 100 feet square. It has enduring celebrity as the scene of the battle and massacre of 6 March 1836, in the war for Texan independence. The fort was held by about 140 men under William B. Travis, and on 23 February was invested by a considerable Mexican army (probably about 4,000) under Santa Anna, who at once began a bombardment scarcely intermitted for the next 10 days. The little garrison, compelled to man the defenses day and night, and too few to relieve each other, sent desperate appeals to their outside comrades for help; but to break through the dense Mexican forces was so diffi cult that the only reinforcement received was 32 men on the 1st of March. At last a breach was made in the walls, and shortly after day light on the 6th a general assault was ordered.
Twice the storming party were repulsed with heavy loss of lives; the third time they gained the parapet and entered the enclosure. No sur render was offered, and the result showed that the Texans knew their foe too well to expect quarter; worn with fatigue and privation, they fought to a finish, till only five were left. These were taken prisoners, and the savage Santa Anna had them slaughtered on the spot. Three women, two white children and a negro boy were the sole survivors of about 180 inmates. Santa Anna stated the Mexican loss at 70 killed and 300 wounded, but it is believed to have been much greater. The news of the heroic fight, °The Thermopylae of America,'" nerved the Texans in all their future efforts, and their slogan was '