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Remember The Alamo! Uh...which story???

© Anita Stratos

Remember the Alamo! One question - which Alamo story should we remember? The one that depicts each of our national heroes fighting the enemy with their last ounce of strength or the story that challenges these details? The Disneyfied version or the accounts of two American survivors?

The Battle of the Alamo is one of the most significant stories that has filtered down through American history. The famous battle cry Remember the Alamo! signifies not only the bravery of a small handful of American rebels who stood firm against over 6,000 Mexican soldiers, but for the past 164 years it's been the unifying theme for people fighting back against injustice of any kind.

Though no one doubts the heroism of those approximately 187 American colonists who fought to the death for eight solid days to free Texas from Mexican rule, there is plenty of heated controversy over the details of the battle itself. After all, some of America's most revered heroes lie at the center of this battle, including Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and Col. William Travis. The thought of any of these larger-than-life rebels having gone down without a fight, or having died in any less than spectacular way, would shake the very foundations of our image of real American heroes.

What makes it worse is that these conflicting stories began almost immediately after the battle. Because there were so few survivors (only about 7 people lived to be taken captive by the Mexicans), most of the stories have been pieced together from newspaper accounts written throughout the years as well as retellings, many from the Mexican viewpoint.

But is it worth it to bury the two American survivors' accounts of the battle just to preserve the images of these icons? Some must feel it is, discrediting these accounts and fighting a new battle to keep what appear to be historical myths in the history books as facts.

Here's the scoop. The prevailing legends surrounding our beloved Davy Crockett paint images worthy of the silver screen. Legend #1: Crockett's deadly rifle fire killed five Mexican gunners as they attempted to fire a cannon at the fort, and one of his bullets just missed General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. As exciting as this story sounds, a proud American public thought Crockett deserved an even better finale, and invented Legend #2: Crockett bravely clubbed Mexican soldiers with his empty rifle, protecting his section of the fort wall until he succumbed to bullets and bayonet wounds. Legend #3: Crockett ended up as a slave in a Mexican salt mine. And in the Disney television show, Crockett survived the battle and continued on to many more adventures. His legend became bigger than that of Daniel Boone.

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