Exodus From the Alamo: The Anatomy of the Last Stand Myth Read Free Page B

it is insightful, Exodus from the Alamo is a major contribution to the goal of teaching us about the value of inclusion, as opposed to the divisions of exclusion.

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Introduction:
From Fact to Fantasy
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The defenders’ ghastly deaths at the Alamo were anything but glorious. Yet the events that took place at that rundown Spanish mission have evolved into an heroic legend, becoming an enduring feature of the American imagination and national memory quite unlike any other historical event. Even though America always loves a winner, the Alamo is a rare example of an American love affair with a loser, an affair that is largely based on the romantic appeal of the mythical last stand.
    The Western world has long embraced the ancient Battle of Thermopylae as one of its primary example of heroism, honoring the small band of free men who stood up to Persian hordes who possessed no democratic political tradition. So, too, Americans have long viewed the Alamo as a great symbolic showdown between liberty and slavery, freedom-loving men versus a tyrant, and republicanism versus dictatorship. But what if such traditional interpretations of the Alamo were in fact false, making a mockery of the Spartan heroes of Thermopylae?
    The Spartans’ last stand served as the model for the Alamo legend, transforming an instance of relatively weak resistance and massacre into a classic New World myth of an epic battle that represented the epitome of self-sacrifice. Not long after the fighting on March 6, 1836 concluded, the nickname “The Thermopylae of Texas” was bestowed upon the Alamo by those who knew relatively little, or nothing, of the actual facts of the struggle. From their readings in ancient history, enthusiastic mythmakers actually understood far more about the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. than they knew about what transpired at the Alamo. Americans, then and today, have identified with the heroism of King Leonidas’ band of 300 Spartans, who fought to the bitter end against Xerxes’ Persian warriors, defending the key Pass of Thermopylae armed with iron discipline, bronze shields, light armor, and long spears. Here, the king’s forces, including Leonidas himself, died to the last man in a legitimate, heroic stand against the odds in the hope of saving Greece. All perished beside their comrades in the Spartan sacrificial tradition—an ancient cultural value not shared, or even imaginable, by the ragtag members of the Alamo garrison.
    How did the last stand myth begin in the first place? On the one hand, it sprung from the overactive imaginations of a good many journalists across the United States. On the other, it grew in large part out of a popular work, published almost immediately after the fall of the Alamo, which quickly reached all corners of the country: Colonel Crockett’s Exploits and Adventures in Texas by Richard Penn Smith. This well-received book was supposedly based on David Crockett’s “authentic diary,” which a Mexican officer was said to have taken after Crockett’s death. Needless to say, Crockett had nothing whatsoever to do with its authorship.
    The first book to recount the story of the Alamo, this immensely popular work appeared only eight weeks after the fort fell; most recently, it was republished in 2003 to capitalize on the release of the Disney Company’s major film, “The Alamo.”
    The spring 1836 publication of Crockett’s Exploits was calculated to sensationalize the Alamo tragedy that had just occurred. The book was an entirely bogus account, written as Smith sat comfortably in his Philadelphia home more than 1,000 miles northeast of San Antonio. One of the most important fictions of Smith’s hyperbolic efforts is the claim that Lt. Col. William Barret Travis exhorted the Alamo garrison that “in case the enemy should carry the fort,” they should “fight to the last gasp, and render their victory even more serious to them than to us.” Travis’ words as imagined by Smith