Valiant Few: Crisis at The Alamo

Five o'clock a.m., March 6, 1836. A piercing bugle blast broke the Texas dawn. Immediately, other Mexican buglers on all sides of the Alamo answered the signal. Inside the fortress, William B. Travis yelled to his men, "Come on, boys! The Mexicans are upon us. Don't surrender. Let's give 'em hell!" By 6:40 that morning the battle was over. All 187 defenders of the Alamo lay dead inside the battered adobe walls. But, as one of the Mexican officers remarked, "Another victory like this one and it will be the death of us!" More than 1,000 of General Lopez de Santa Anna's 5,000 soldiers had been killed or wounded before Travis and his "valiant few" fell. This stirring account of the Texas war for independence from Mexico focuses on the fateful thirteen-day siege of the Alamo. Placing that famous battle in historical context, the book gives young readers an exciting picture of the skirmishes that preceded it and the ultimate Texas victory five weeks later on the plain of San Jacinto. It was there that Sam Houston's forces, seeking vengeance for the ruthless massacre of Travis's men, coined the famous battle cry "Remember the Alamo!" Young people will find the author's description of the cast of characters in this dramatic battle as compelling as the action itself. Opposing the arrogant dictator Santa Anna, self-styled "Napoleon of the West," were such American heroes as Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Jim Bonham, and other rawboned, fighting frontiersmen who chose to give up their lives rather than desert the cause of freedom. The author has provided a chronology which pinpoints important events in Texas history, from 1803 through September, 1836, when the Texas constitution was ratified. A gallery of historic engravings and paintings handsomely illustrates the book, and seven panoramic maps give a clear view of Santa Anna's strategy and the defenders' positions.