Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1857-08-29
THE FALL OF THE ALAMO.

On the 29d day of February, in 1896, Gene
eral Santa Anna entered San Antonio de Bexar
and took possession of the town without firing a
gun. As he advanced TO the Alamo, the small
garrison Of one hundred and thirty men under
the command of William Baret Travis retired
on the opposite side OF the river, determined
there TO offer such resistance TO the progress of
the tyrant as their energies and resources should
permit, by direct appeal TO the God of battles,
Flushed with the conquest, so easily affected, Of
the town, the Mexican commander prepared for
an immediate attack on the Alamo. He order
ed hreastworks to be thrown up on every COM
manding point, and artillery to be planted wher-
ever it could he made effective One battery
was completed on the right bank of the river by
the 25th, and without waiting for others the
siege was at once commenced.
1t is dark and gloomy morning, devoted to
a dark and unholy purpose. Exultng in the
work Of death upon which he IS entering, Santa
Anna crosses the river in person and establishes
his headquarters in II small stone budng-yet
standing-trom which he may the more accu-
raely perceive the progress of his designs, with
out exposing himself 10 his enemies The sig
nal is given, and, before the sun Is risen on those
hostile hosts, the roar of the Mexican battery
awaken the echoes far and wide, and rouses from
theii sumbers the yet unconscious inhabitants
But the defenders of the Alamo have not, for a
single moment, lost sight of the movement of
their willy and implacable foes they watch the
studied direction of every gun they see the
match lighted; they listen breathless as if, even
at that distance, they could hear the command
to fire; and, hen the walls of the citadel trem-
bic under the shock of the iron hail, and the
fragments OF the parapet are whirled aloft by
the sudden impulse, they send back a shout of
defiance, mingled with discharge from their
own guns, as distinctive, if not as deafenng, as
the thunder of their assaanis.
Before the smoke rolls away and the reverbe-
rations are lost in the distance, while the shouts
OF the bes eyed still linger in the ears of the be-
siegers the cannonade is resumed, and for seven
hours, without pause or relaxation, fercely con-
tnued upon the walls of the Alamo. But these
walls yield no more than the spirits of their de-
tenders. The fire is steadily returned and,
though stones are shivered around them, there
are stout hearts and willing hands ready to re-
pair every breach, and 10 restore from the inte-
rior wha'ever may have been destroyed from
without. Earth is thrown up; every crack or
fssure is closed as fast as created by the eager
efforts of those who will permit no evidence of
success to cheer the hopes of their enemies. The
sun has almost sunk behind the western plains,
when there is a pause in the work of demolition.
The firing Of the besiegers ceases for the day,
and the Mexican thirst for blood unsatiated =
Not a single drop has been shed within the Ala
mo. Many of Santa Annas own men have bit
the dust before the artillerists and riAemen of
the fort; but thus far they arc unavenged.-