300

[Karl Heidenreich]

I just saw the trailer of a new movie about the Battle of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans stood against the hundred of thousands the King Xerxes brought to conquer Greece. The greatest stand of History...
The movie is called "300"
The trailer is just awesome.

[RF]

The greatest stand of History...
The movie is called "300"
The trailer is just awesome.

Surely this accolade belongs to the defenders of the Alamo?

[Karl Heidenreich]

Compared with Thermopylae El Alamo is recent and irrelevant stuff.
The legacy of Thermopylae is called Western Civilization.
The legacy of Alamo are the millions of ilegal inmigrants that violate the US border and would soon crush that country´s social stability.

[marcelo_malara]

In fact one can say that the Americans were the bad guys there...

[RF]

Compared with Thermopylae El Alamo is recent and irrelevant stuff.
The legacy of Thermopylae is called Western Civilization.
The legacy of Alamo are the millions of ilegal inmigrants that violate the US border and would soon crush that country´s social stability.

I thought that the legacy of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto that followed it was that Texas belonged to the US and not Mexico, and paved the way for the 1848 victories by the US.

Thermopylae was an absolute defeat brought about by betrayal. Isn't Lepanto the battle you were thinking of?

[Karl Heidenreich]

RF:

I thought that the legacy of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto that followed it was that Texas belonged to the US and not Mexico, and paved the way for the 1848 victories by the US.

Thermopylae was an absolute defeat brought about by betrayal. Isn't Lepanto the battle you were thinking of?

I´m not going to discuss widely the matter of Alamo, just to say that, as you correctly point, it was a step that brought the US closer to war with Mexico. Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott did a superb military job in 1847-1848 (and there is no doubt about that if you see the kind of junior officers they had at hand: Robert E. Lee, Ullyses S. Grant, Robert Mead, "Old" Pete Longstreet, the famous George Pickett, etc. etc. etc.). El Alamo, as a stand, was a brave one against a hideous tyrant as Santa Ana. What today remain, in regard to that action, are two polarized views: the Texan (conservative american), the Mexican (radical latin american revenge) and the Historical (based on real and actual facts). Not being this a forum about political history (a very scary topic) then let´s say that El Alamo legacy is:
A simbol for the independentist anglo saxons in Texas

Then Thermopylae:
"Defeat"
Never. King Leonidas knew that his men and himself will die at the hands of an incredible huge Persian Army. And they did that sacrifice in order to let the Athenian Fleet to engage the Persian Fleet at the straits (which the Greeks won) and set an example that the Persians were not invincible. After Thermopylae and the fleet action the free "polis" of Greek gathered against the common enemy and went into a battle that they won.
The legacy:
Western Civilization, democracy, freedom, art, literature, beauty.

Lepanto was another matter: western civilization against tiranic islamic agression. A naval battle in which Andrea Doria distinguished himself, it brought to a halt the muslim enemy (doens´t tha sound familiar?) in his intention to conquer Europe. But not a stand, but a military victory. Stands are where the defenders die in heroical fashion.

Very best regards.

[Karl Heidenreich]

For further info about Thermopylae and the fleet action:

Battle of Thermopylae
Combatants
Greek-city states Persia
Commanders
Leonidas I of Sparta † Xerxes I of Persia
Strength
300 Spartans
700 Thespians
6,000 other Greek allies 2 200,000-1,700,0001
Casualties
300 Spartans and 700 Thespians; no more than 1,500 Greeks in total 20,000 - 80,000 (no more than 10%)
1Herodotus claims that the Persian strength was 5,283,220 men (Herodotus VII,186)

2 Out of the initial 7000-strong Greek army, all but 1000 were dismissed on the third day.

In the Battle of Thermopylae of 480 BC an alliance of Greek city-states fought the invading Persian army in the mountain pass of Thermopylae. Vastly outnumbered, the Greeks held back the enemy in one of the most famous last stands of history. A small force led by King Leonidas of Sparta blocked the only road through which the massive army of Xerxes I could pass. After several days of confrontation the Persians attacked but were defeated by heavy losses, disproportionate to those of the Greeks. This continued on the second day but on the third day of the battle a local resident named Ephialtes betrayed the Greeks, revealing a mountain path that led behind the Greek lines. With the rest of the army dismissed, King Leonidas stayed behind with his bodyguard of 300 Spartans and the 700 man Thespian army even though they knew it meant their deaths, to allow the rest of the army to escape.

The disproportionate losses of the Persian army alarmed Xerxes so that when his navy was later defeated at Salamis he fled Greece leaving only part of his force to finish the job of the conquest of Greece, which was defeated at the Battle of Plataea. The performance of the defenders at the battle of Thermopylae is often used as an example of the advantages of training, equipment and good use of terrain to maximise an army's potential, as well as a symbol of courage against extremely overwhelming odds. The heroic sacrifice of the Spartans and the Thespians has captured the minds of many throughout the ages and has given birth to many cultural references as a result.

Size of the Persian Army
Xerxes I, king of Persia, had been preparing for years to continue the war against the Greeks started by his father Darius. In 481 BC, after four years of preparation, the Persian army and navy arrived in Asia Minor.

A bridge of ships had been made at Abydos.This allowed the land forces to cross the Hellespont. Herodotus of Halicarnassus, who wrote the first history of this war, gave the size of Xerxes's army as follows:

Fleet crew: 517,610
Infantry: 1,700,000[2]
Cavalry: 80,000[3]
Arabs and Libyans: 20,000[4]
Greek allies 324,000
Total 2,641,610

This number needs to be at least doubled in order to account for support troops and thus Herodotus reported that the whole force numbered 5,283,220 men, a figure which has been rejected by modern historians. Other ancient sources give other calculations. The poet Simonides, who was a near-contemporary, talks of four million. Ctesias of Cnedus, Artaxerxes Mnemon's personal physician, wrote a history of Persia according to Persian sources that unfortunately has not survived, and gives 800,000 as the total number of the original army that met in Doriskos. Modern scholars have proposed different numbers for the invasion force, estimations based on knowledge of the Persian military systems, their logistical capabilities, the Greek countryside, and supplies available along the army's route.

There are two schools of thought about the size of the Persian army. The critical school assumes that the figures given in ancient texts are exaggerations on the part of the victors, and a critical analysis of the resources available to the armies of the ancient era. According to this school of thought, the Persian force was between 60,000 and 120,000 combatants, plus a collection of non-combatants (especially large because of the presence of the Persian king and high-ranking nobility). More recent scholarship of this school generally accepts these numbers, agreeing that the Persian force had an upper limit of around 250,000 total land forces. The main reason most often given for these values is cited as a lack of water; Sir Frederick Maurice, a British general in World War I, was among the first to claim that the army could not have surpassed 175,000 due to lack of water. This school of thought is predominant today among Western scholars of the Greco-Persian wars.

The other school of thought, prevalent in the 19th and early 20th centuries, contends that ancient sources might be exaggerating in some aspects, but do give realistic numbers. Calculating the size of the two forces by relying on the surviving ancient texts yields the following analysis: The Greeks managed at the end of the campaign in the battle of Plataea to muster a force of 110,000 troops (according to Herodotus) or 100,000 (according to Pompeius). These were 38,700 hoplites and 71,300 light troops according to Herodotus (or 61,300 according to Pompeius, the difference probably being 10,000 helots, see table below). In that battle, according to Herodotus, they faced 300,000 Persians and 50,000 Greek allies. This gives a 3-to-1 ratio for the two armies which proponents of the school consider a realistic proportion since individually the Persian archers were no match for the heavily-armed Greek hoplites. Furthermore, Munro and Macan argued for this point of view based on Herodotus giving the names of 6 major commanders and 29 μυρίαρχοι (muriarxoi) - leaders of the baivabaram, the basic unit of the Persian infantry, which numbered about 10,000 strong. As troops were lost through attrition, the Persians preferred to dissolve crippled baivabarams to replenish the ranks of others. It is likely that the units were at full strength, since Xerxes, upon leaving Greece after the battle of Salamis, had taken with him a large part of the army, 60,000 according to Ctesias (though Beloch believes that Xerxes took very few of his troops with him), and the remaining troops would have been folded together into full-sized units. Adding casualties of the battles and attrition due to the need to guard cities and strategic passes a force of 400,000 seems like a minimum, based on analysis of the surviving texts. According to this view, a lack of water is not considered to be a determining force. The available surface water in Greece today satisfies the needs of a much larger population than the number of Xerxes's troops, though the majority of that water is used for irrigation.

Nicholas Hammond accepts 300,000 Persians at the battle of Plataea, though he claims that the numbers at Doriskos were smaller, without explaining how the change in numbers happened. The metrologist Livio Catullo Stecchini (who was a controversial figure) argues that Ctesias's figure of 800,000 battle troops for the Persian army was accurate and that Herodotus's figure of 1,700,000 includes both battle and support troops. Dr. Manousos Kampouris argues that Herodotus' 1,700,000 for the infantry plus 80,000 cavalry (including support) is very realistic for various reasons including the size of the area from which the army was drafted (from modern-day Libya to Pakistan), the lack of security against spies, the ratios of land troops to fleet troops, of infantry to cavalry and Persian troops to Greek troops. On the other hand, Christos Romas believes that the Persian troops accompanying Xerxes were a little over 400,000. This school of thought is still prevalent in Greece, among scholars from most of the political spectrum.

Greek preparations
A congress was called in Corinth in late autumn of 481 BC, headed by the militaristic Sparta, whose supremely disciplined warriors were trained from birth to be the best soldiers in Greece and among the fiercest in the ancient world. Very little is known about the internal workings in the congress or the discussion during its proceedings.

The Persian army first encountered a joint force of 10,000 Athenian and Spartan hoplites led by Euanetus and Themistocles in the vale of Tempe. Upon hearing this, Xerxes sent the army through the Sarantaporo strait which was unguarded and sidestepped them. The hoplites, warned by Alexander I of Macedon, vacated the pass. The allied Greeks decided that next strategic choke point where the Persian army could be stopped was Thermopylae.

Xerxes' huge army was relying on a constant food supply and support by sea. Using the fleet the army could have also crossed the Maliacos bay and sidestepped the Greek army. For this reason the Greek fleet was engaging the Persian fleet at Artemision. There is disagreement on what the Greek high strategy was. Some modern historians like Bengtson claim that it was to slow down the army while the navy was defeated at sea. Indeed, the Athenian orator Lysias, over a century after these events, said:

But while Greece showed these inclinations [to join the Persians], the Athenians, for their part, embarked in their ships and hastened to the defence of Artemisium; while the Lacedaemonians and some of their allies went off to make a stand at Thermopylae, judging that the narrowness of the ground would enable them to secure the passage.(Funeral oration 30, translated by W.R.M. Lamb, M.A.)
Funeral orations though have been criticised since antiquity for not being historically correct but rather an exercise in flattery. While this was probably Themistocles' strategy it is probably not what the congress of Corinth, which was dominated by Sparta, decided. More probably its decision was that the way to victory was to wear down the Persian Army and hold it in the north as long as possible until it was forced out of the country due to attrition, epidemics, and lack of food.[19]

Some modern historians have suggested that Xerxes could have used the same tactic as at Tempe and sidestepped Thermopylae through the paths of Mt. Kallidromo. Considering how huge the Persian army was, it required a royal road to cross and could not have fit through mountain trails.


Modern reconstruction of a phalanx. In reality equipment was not uniform since each soldier would procure his own equipment and decorate it at will

Topography of the battlefield and Greek forces
At the time, the mountain pass of Thermopylae consisted of a pass so narrow that two chariots could barely move abreast—on the western side of the pass stood the sheer side of the mountain, while the east side was the sea. Along the path was a series of three "gates", and at the center gate a short wall that had been erected by the Phocians in the previous century to aid in their defense against Thessalian invasions. It was here in August of 480 BC that an army of some 7,000 Greeks, led by the 300 Spartans of the royal guard, stood to receive the full force of the Persian army, numbering perhaps some sixty times its size. The Greek army included according to Herodotus the following forces:

Spartans: 300
Mantineans: 500
Tegeans: 500
Arcadian Orchomenos: 120
Other Arcadians: 1,000
Corinthians: 400
Floians: 200
Mycenaeans: 80
Thespians: 700
Thebans: 400
Phocians and Opuntan Locrians: 1,000
Total forces: 5,200

To this number we have to add 1,000 other Lacedemonians mentioned by Diodorus Siculus and some perhaps 800 auxiliary troops from other Greek cities. Diodorus gives 4,000 as the total Greek troops, and Pausanias 11,200. Modern historians, which usually consider Herodotus more reliable, prefer his claim of 7,000 men. It has been argued that this force was only intended to slow and not stop the invasion force. However it seems that the Athenians at least felt confident that this army and Leonidas' presence were enough to stop the Persians, otherwise they would have already vacated their city and sent their whole army to Thermopylae.

According to Herodotus the main reason that a force this small was sent was that the Spartans were awaiting the end of the Karneia Festival and the other Greeks the end of the Olympic Games. It is more probable, though, that a small force was sent because the site favored a small defending force. We know of one case in which a small force did stop a larger invading force from the north; in 353 BC/352 BC the Athenians managed to stop the forces of Philip II of Macedon by deploying 5,000 hoplites and 400 horsemen.

Knowing the likely outcome of the battle, Leonidas selected his men on one simple criterion: he took only men who had fathered sons that were old enough to take over the family responsibilities of their fathers. The rationale behind this criterion was that the Spartans knew their death was almost certain at Thermopylae. Plutarch mentions, in his Sayings of Spartan Women, that after encouraging her husband before his departure for the battlefield, Gorgo, the wife of Leonidas I asked him what she should do when he had left. To this, Leonidas replied:

Marry a good man, and have good children.
When Xerxes reached Thermopylae, he sent emissaries to the Greek forces. At first he asked Leonidas to come on his side and offered him to be king of all of Greece. Leonidas answered:

If you knew what is good in life, you would abstain from wishing for foreign things. For me it is better to die for Greece than to be monarch over my compatriots (Plutarch, Moralia, 225, 10)
Then Xerxes asked him more forcefully to surrender their arms. To this Leonidas gave his very famous answer:

Μολών Λαβέ
(pronounced /molɔ:n labe/)
which meant "Come take them". This quote has been repeated by many later generals, and even a few politicians, in order to express the Greeks' determination to risk a huge sacrifice rather than surrender without a fight. It is today the emblem of the Greek First Army Corps [3]


The battle

The Battle of Thermopylae and movements to Salamis.When scouts initially informed Xerxes of the size of the Greek force, and of the Spartans who were performing preparations which included naked calisthenics and combing their hair, Xerxes found the reports laughable. Not understanding the ritual significance of the Spartan preparations as the actions of men with the resolution to fight to the end, he expected the force to disband at any moment and waited four days for the Greek force to retreat. When they did not, he became increasingly frustrated by what he perceived as foolish impudence on the part of the small Greek force. On the fifth day Xerxes ordered his troops into the pass.

The Greeks deployed themselves in a phalanx, a wall of overlapping shields and layered spearpoints, spanning the entire width of the pass. The Persians, armed with arrows and short spears, could not break through the long spears of the Greek phalanx, nor were their lightly armoured men a match for the superior armour, weaponry and discipline of the Greek hoplites. Because of the terrain, the Persians were unable to surround or flank the Greeks, thus rendering their superior numbers almost useless. Greek morale was high. Herodotus wrote that when Dienekes, a Spartan soldier, was informed that Persian arrows were so numerous that they blotted out the sun, he remarked with characteristically laconic prose, "So much the better, we shall fight in the shade." Today Dienekes's phrase is the motto of the Greek 20th Armored Division At first Xerxes sent in the Medes, perhaps because he preferred them for their bravery or perhaps, as Diodorus Siculus suggested, because Xerxes wanted them to bear the brunt of the fighting—the Medes had been only recently conquered by the Persians.

Along with them he sent relatives of those who had fallen at the battle of Marathon ten years earlier. According to Ctesias the first wave numbered 10,000 soldiers under Artapanus. Enormous casualties were sustained by the Persians as the disciplined Spartans who sought to maximise enemy casualties orchestrated a series of feint retreats, followed by a quick turn back into formation. Waves upon waves of soldiers would go to the front, stepping upon the bodies of their dead comrades, only to die. Ctesias writes that Xerxes sent 20,000 more men driven by whip-wielding officers who flogged them whenever they retreated; these fared no better. Fifty thousand more Persians attacked on the second day of battle, but were repelled. After watching his troops fall before the Greeks, Xerxes decided to send in the legendary Persian Immortals. Leonidas arranged a system of relays between the hoplites of the various cities so as to constantly have fresh troops on the front line. Yet in the heat of the battle the voracity [of the Greeks] was such that the units did not rotate out but continued to fight and overcame the bounds of the battle to kill many of the elite Persians—even the Immortals lacked the power to break the determined and driven phalanx, and they, too, were forced to retreat with heavy casualties. The casualties on the Greek side were small: Ctesias claims that the first 10,000 Persians killed only two or three Greeks. It seemed that with regular reinforcements the Greeks could go on ad infinitum.

After the second day of fighting, a local shepherd named Ephialtes defected to the Persians and informed Xerxes of a separate path through Thermopylae, which the Persians could use to outflank the Greeks. The pass was defended by 1,000 Phocians, who had been placed there when the Greeks learned of the alternate route just before the battle; they were not expecting to engage the Persians. Xerxes sent Hydarnes with the Immortals through the pass. Surprised by the Persian attack, the Phocians offered only a brief resistance before retreating higher up the mountain to regroup. Instead of pursuing them, however, the Persians simply advanced through the pass unopposed. For this act, the name Ephialtes means "nightmare" and is synonymous with "traitor" in Greek.


Final stand of the Spartans and Thespians
Leonidas, realizing that further fighting would be futile, dismissed all Greek forces save the surviving Spartans and Thebans on August 11[citation needed]; the Spartans having pledged themselves to fight to the death, and the Thebans held as hostages as Thebes' loyalty to Greece was questioned. However, a contingent of about 700 Thespians, led by Demophilus, refused to leave with the other Greeks. Instead, they chose to stay in the sacrificial effort to delay the advance and allow the rest of the Greek army to escape.

The significance of the Thespians' refusal to leave should not be ignored. The Spartans, as brave as their sacrifice indubitably was, were professional soldiers, trained from birth to be ready to give their lives in combat as Spartan law dictated. Conversely, the Thespians were citizen-soldiers (Demophilus, for example, made his living as an architect) who elected to add whatever they could to the fight, rather than allow the Spartans to be annihilated alone. Though their bravery is often overlooked by history, it was most certainly not overlooked by the Spartans, who are said to have exchanged cloaks with the Thespians and promised to be allies for eternity.

The fighting was said to have been extremely brutal, even for hoplite combat. As their numbers diminished the Greeks retreated to a small hill in the narrowest part of the pass. The Thebans took this opportunity to surrender to the Persians. After their spears broke, the Spartans and Thespians kept fighting with their xiphos (short swords), and after those broke, they were said to have fought with their bare hands, teeth and nails.

The Greeks killed many Persians, including two of Xerxes' brothers. In this final stand, Leonidas was eventually killed; rather than surrender, the Spartans fought fanatically to defend his body. To avoid losing any more men, the Persians killed the last of the Spartans with flights of arrows

Aftermath
When the body of Leonidas was recovered by the Persians, Xerxes, in a rage at the loss of so many of his soldiers, ordered that the head be cut off, and the body crucified. The mutilation of a corpse, even one of the enemy, carried a great social stigma for the Persians, and it was an act that Xerxes was said to have deeply regretted afterwards. Forty years after the battle Leonidas' body was returned to the Spartans, where he was buried with full honors and funeral games were held every year.[29]

While a tactical victory for the Persians, the enormous casualties caused by less than a thousand Greek soldiers was a significant blow to the Persian army. Estimates from historians of the critical school stand at 20,000 Persians dead, including the elite Immortals, though Ctesias implies that Persian losses were over 50,000. Likewise, it significantly boosted the resolve of the Greeks to face the Persian onslaught. The simultaneous naval Battle of Artemisium was a draw, whereupon the Athenian navy retreated. The Persians had control of the Aegean Sea and all of Greece as far south as Attica; the Spartans prepared to defend the Isthmus of Corinth and the Peloponnese, while Xerxes sacked Athens, whose inhabitants had already fled to Salamis Island. In September the Greeks defeated the Persians at the naval Battle of Salamis, which led to the rapid retreat of Xerxes. The remaining Persian army, left under the charge of Mardonius, was defeated in the Battle of Plataea by a combined Greek army again led by the Spartans, under the regent Pausanias.

This battle, along with Sogdian Rock and similar actions, is used in military academies around the world to show how a small group of well-trained and well-led soldiers can have an impact out of all proportion to their numbers. It is worth noting also that the effectiveness of the Greeks against such a vastly larger army was due in large part to the battlefield itself. Had this battle been fought on an open field, rather than a narrow pass, the smaller Greek army could have been surrounded and defeated with ease, despite the quality of the Greek infantry. Thus Thermopylae is also regarded as being as much a lesson in the importance of favorable terrain and good strategy as it is in good training and discipline.

Oracle at Delphi
The legend of Thermopylae, as told by Herodotus, has it that Sparta consulted the Oracle at Delphi before setting out to meet the Persian army. The Oracle is said to have made the following prophecy in hexameter verse:

O ye men who dwell in the streets of broad Lacedaemon!
Either your glorious town shall be sacked by the children of Perseus,
Or, in exchange, must all through the whole Laconian country
Mourn for the loss of a king, descendant of great Heracles.
He cannot be withstood by the courage of bulls nor of lions,
Strive as they may; he is mighty as Jove; there is naught that shall stay him,
Till he have got for his prey your king, or your glorious city.
In essence, the Oracle's warning was that either Sparta would be conquered and left in ruins, or one of her two hereditary kings must sacrifice his life to save her.


Monuments at site

The modern monument in Thermopylae
Epitaph with Simonides' epigramThere is an epitaph on a monument at site of the battle (which was erected in 1955) with Simonides' epigram, which can be found in Herodotus' work The Histories (7.228), to the Spartans:

Ὦ ξεῖν’, ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
(O xein', aggellein Lakedaimoniois hoti têde)
κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.
(keimetha tois keinon rhémasi peithomenoi.)
Which to keep the poetic context can be translated as:

Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
that here, obedient to their laws, we lie
or a more strictly literal:

Oh foreigner, give a message to the Lacedaemonians
that here lie we, their words obeying.
Another translation (by Michael Dodson, 1951) captures the spirit of enduring service to the state which was taught to all Spartan warriors:

Friend, tell the Spartans that on this hill
We lie obedient to them still.
Frank Miller, in his comic series 300, translated it still differently:

Go tell the Spartans, passerby,
That here, by Spartan law, we lie
It has also been interpreted as:

Go tell the Spartans, you who have read;
That we have followed their orders, and now are dead
Yet another version reads:

Stranger to the Spartans go, and tell,
How here, obedient to their laws, we fell.
And yet another version reads:

Go, tell the Spartans, you who read this stone
That we lie here, and that their will was done.
Yet another version:

Tell them in Lacadaemon, passer-by
Obedient to our orders, here we lie
And still another, though unrhyming:

Go, stranger, and tell the Spartans
That we lie here in obedience to their laws
A final version:

"Stranger, tell the Spartans,"
"Here we lie, Obedient."
A note on translation: This should not be read in the imperative mood, but rather as an indirect appeal through an advanced, thankful, salutation to a visitor. What is hoped for in the language of the appeal is that the visitor, once leaving the place, will go and announce to the Spartans that, indeed, the dead lie still at Thermopylae, remaining faithful until the end, in accordance to commands of their king and people. It was not important to the Spartan warriors that they would die, or that their fellow citizens knew that they had in fact died. Rather, the stress of the language is that until their death they had remained faithful.

“Visitor, please confirm to the Spartans that we indeed remained faithful to them until the very end …just in case someone else tells them otherwise.”

Ruskin said of this epitaph that it was the noblest group of words ever uttered by man.

Additionally, there is a modern monument at the site, called the "Leonidas Monument" in honor of the Spartan king. It reads simply: "Μολών λαβέ": "Come and take them." This was Leonidas' response to Xerxes' offer to spare the Greeks if they would give up their weapons.


Inspiration
Cultural reference
Thermopylae has been used as a name for ships among Greek shipowners repeatedly in the modern era. Furthermore a clipper ship, 212 feet in length and displacing 91 tonnes,was launched in Aberdeen in 1868. Christened Thermopylae, it established speed records, and was notable for having a male figurehead wearing armor, helmet, shield and sword.

The battle of Thermopylae is often seen as the beginning of organised resistance against the confiscation of arms and, as such, has become a legend amongst pro-gun activists. The battle of Thermopylae also spawned the phrase molon labe.

[Karl Heidenreich]

About El Alamo:

Battle of the Alamo


Combatants
Republic of Mexico Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas
Commanders
Antonio López de Santa Anna Pérez de Lebrón William Travis†
Jim Bowie†
Davy Crockett†
Strength
6,000 in attack
{1,800 in assault-see below} 183 to 250
Casualties
1,000 dead
Also given as from
70 to 200 killed
300 to 400 wounded 183 to 250 dead
Texas Revolution
Gonzales – Concepción – Grass Fight – Bexar – San Patricio – Agua Dulce – The Alamo – Refugio – Coleto – San Jacinto
The Battle of the Alamo was a 19th-century battle between the Republic of Mexico and the rebel Texian forces, including Tejanos, during the latter fight for independence — the Texas Revolution. It took place at the Alamo mission in San Antonio, Texas (then known as "San Antonio de Béxar") in February and March of 1836. The 13-day siege ended on March 6 with the capture of the mission and the death of nearly all the Texian defenders, except for a few slaves, women and children. Despite the loss, the 13-day holdout stalled Mexican forces' progress and allowed Sam Houston to gather troops and supplies for his later successful battle at San Jacinto. The Texian revolutionaries went on to win the war.

The battle took place at a turning point in the Texas Revolution, which had begun with the October 1835 Consultation whose delegates narrowly approved a call for rights under the Mexican Constitution of 1824. By the time of the battle, however, sympathy for declaring a Republic of Texas had grown. The delegates from the Alamo to the Constitutional Convention were both instructed to vote for independence.

Prelude to battle
Texas was part of the Spanish colony of New Spain. After Mexican independence in 1821, Texas became part of Mexico and in 1824 became the northern section of Coahuila y Tejas. On 3rd January 1823, Stephen F. Austin began a colony of 300 American families along the Brazos River in present-day Fort Bend County and Brazoria County, centered primarily in the area of what is now Sugar Land.

In 1835, Mexican President and General Antonio López de Santa Anna Pérez de Lebrón, abolished the Constitution of 1824 and proclaimed a new constitution that reduced the power of many of the provincial governments and increased the power of the Presidency. Since the end of hostilities with Spain ten years before, the Mexican government, and Santa Anna in particular, had been eager to reassert its control over the entire country and control of Texas was seen as particularly important as Santa Anna rightly perceived the province to be vulnerable to America's westward expansion.

Hostilities in Texas began with the Battle of Gonzales on October 1, 1835 after which the Texian rebels quickly captured Mexican positions at La Bahía and San Antonio.

With the surrender of General Martín Perfecto de Cos and his garrison at San Antonio, there was no longer a Mexican military presence in Texas. Santa Anna decided to launch an offensive with the aim of putting down the rebellion. Minister of War José María Tornel and Maj. Gen. Vicente Filisola (1789–1850) proposed a seaborne attack to Santa Anna, which would have been easier on the troops and had been a proven means of expeditions into Texas since 1814. Santa Anna refused on the basis that this plan would take too long and the rebels in Texas might receive aid from the United States.

Santa Anna assembled an estimated force of 6,100 soldiers and 20 cannons at San Luis Potosí in early 1836, and moved through Saltillo, Coahuila, towards Texas. His army marched across the Rio Grande through inclement weather, including snowstorms, to suppress the rebellion. San Antonio de Béxar was one of his intermediate objectives; his ultimate objective was to capture the Texas government and restore the rule of the central or "Centralist" Mexican government over a rebellious state. He had earlier suppressed the rebellion in the state of Zacatecas in 1835.

Santa Anna and his army arrived in San Antonio de Béxar on February 23. It was a mixed force of regular infantry and cavalry units as well as activo reserve infantry battalions. They were equipped with the British Baker and the out-dated, short range but effective and deadly British Tower Musket, Mark III, or "Brown Bess" musket. The average Mexican soldier stood 5 ft 1 in (1.55 m), and many were recent conscripts with no previous combat experience. Although they were well-drilled, the Mexican army discouraged individual marksmanship. The initial forces were equipped with four 7 in (178 mm) howitzers, seven 4-pound (1.8 kg), four 6-pound (2.7 kg), four 8-pound (3.6 kg) and two 12-pound (5 kg) cannons.

Several of the Mexican officers were foreign mercenary veterans, including Vicente Filisola (Italy) and Antonio Gaona (Cuba), and General Santa Anna was a veteran of the Mexican War of Independence.


The Alamo defenders
Lieutenant Colonel William Barret Travis commanded the Texian regular army forces assigned to defend the old mission. In January 1836, he was ordered by the provisional government to go to the Alamo with volunteers to reinforce the 189 already there. Travis arrived in San Antonio on February 3 with 29 reinforcements. Within a short time, he had become the post's official commander, taking over from Col. James C. Neill, who promised to be back in twenty days after leaving to tend to a family illness.

Various other men had also assembled to help in the defensive effort, including a number of unofficial volunteers under the command of Jim Bowie, famous for inventing the Bowie knife though a large body of evidence suggest that his brother Rezin (pronounced 'Reason') actually fashioned the blade. Popular legend holds that Travis and Bowie often quarreled over issues of command and authority, but as Bowie's health declined, Travis assumed overall command. The truth of the matter is, however, that Bowie and Travis only quarreled twice: the first being when a drunken Bowie released two of his men from jail when they'd been ordered there by Travis himself; and a second time being when Bowie and Travis both assumed command on the first day of the siege and sent independent parley teams (neither of which garnered satisfactory results for the Texians).

In the United States at the time, the siege of the Alamo was seen as a battle of American settlers against Mexicans, but many of the ethnic Mexicans in Texas (called Tejanos) in fact sided with the rebellion. Many viewed this struggle in similar terms with the American Revolution of 1776. The Tejanos wanted Mexico to have a loose central government which supported states rights as expressed in the Mexican Constitution of 1824. One Tejano combatant at the Alamo was Captain (later Colonel) Juan Nepomuceno Seguín, who was sent out as a dispatch rider before the final assault.

The defenders of the Alamo came from many places besides Texas. The youngest, Galba Fuqua, was 16, and one of the oldest, Gordon C. Jennings, was 57. The men came from 28 different countries and states. From Tennessee, came another small group of volunteers led by famous hunter, politician and Indian fighter David Crockett who was accompanied by Micajah Autry, a neighbor and lawyer. The 12-man "Tennessee Mounted Volunteers" arrived at the Alamo on February 8. The previous month David Crocket had resigned from politics having told the electorate that "if they did not elect me they could go to hell and I would go to Texas!"

Another group, the "New Orleans Greys", came from that city to fight as infantry in the revolution. The two companies comprising the Greys had participated in the Siege of Béxar in December. Most of the Greys then left San Antonio de Béxar for an expedition to Matamoros with the promise of taking the war to Mexico, but about two dozen remained at the Alamo.

The question of the Alamo defenders' politics has been controversial. The abrogation of the Constitution of 1824 was a key trigger for the revolt in general, yet many Anglos in Texas had strong sympathies for independence or union with the United States. And for many of them, the right to own slaves was a key issue. Though often painted as a villain, Santa Anna was a vehement abolitionist. While the political climate would have been more favorable earlier during 1835 for a reliance on such a Constitution, things changed towards the fall of that year. When the Texians defeated the Mexican garrison at the Alamo in December of 1835, their flag did have the words INDEPENDENCE on it. Letters written from the Alamo expressed that "all here are for independence", and the famous letter from Travis referred to their "flag of Independence". Some 25 years after the battle, historian Reuben Potter made the assertion that reinstatement of the Constitution of 1824 was a primary objective, and Potter's comments have also been the source of a myth that the battle flag of the Alamo garrison was some sort of Mexican tricolor with "1824" on it.

However, it has often been argued that one of the key elements of the revolt in general was the fact that Santa Anna had abolished slavery in Mexico. This was a serious set back to many land owners, now facing financial ruin. Hence, Texian independence or joining the Union would also allow those people to overcome this economic problem.


Siege
Lt. Col. William Travis was able to dispatch riders before the battle and as late as March 3 informing the Texas provisional government of his situation and requesting assistance. However, Sam Houston's Texas Army was not strong enough to fight through the Mexican Army and relieve the post. The provisional Texas government was also in disarray due to in-fighting among its members. Travis also sent several riders, including James Bonham (1808–1836), to Colonel James Fannin for help. Fannin (1804–1836), commander of over 450 Texas forces at Goliad 100 miles (160 km) southeast of the Alamo, attempted an unorganized relief march with 320 men and cannon on February 28 to the Alamo, but aborted the relief column due to poor transportation. Fannin and most of his men were slaughtered by a Mexican force after surrendering (the "Goliad Massacre").

On March 1, at about 1 a.m., 32 Texians led by Capt. George Kimbell and John W. Smith from the town of Gonzales, slipped through the Mexican lines and joined the defenders inside the Alamo. They would be the only response to Travis' plea for help. The group became known as the "Immortal 32." A letter written by one of the 32, Isaac Millsaps, details events inside the Alamo on the night before the siege. Some historians have argued that this letter is most likely a counterfeit.

The final assault
At the end of 12 days the number of Mexican forces attacking the post was reported as high as 4,000 to 5,000, but only about 1,400 to 1,600 soldiers were used in the investment and the final assault. 6,500 soldiers had originally set out from San Luis Potosí, but illness and desertion had since reduced the force. The Mexican siege was scientific and professionally conducted in the Napoleonic style. After a 13-day period in which the defenders were tormented with bands blaring at night (including buglers sounding the no-mercy call El Degüello), occasional artillery fire, and an ever closing ring of Mexicans cutting off potential escape routes, Santa Anna planned the final assault for March 6. Santa Anna raised a blood red flag which made his message perfectly clear. No quarter would be given for the defenders.

Lt. Col. Travis wrote in his final dispatches: "The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion otherwise the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken — I have answered their demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls — I shall never surrender or retreat."

The Mexican army attacked the Alamo in four columns plus a reserve and a pursuit and security force, starting at around 5:30 AM. The first column of 300 to 400 men led by Martín Perfecto de Cos moved towards the northwest corner of the Alamo. The second was of 380 men commanded by Col. Francisco Duque. The third column comprised 400 soldiers led by Col. José María Romero. The fourth comprised 100 cazadores (light infantry) commanded by Col. Juan Morales. The attacking columns had to cover 200 to 300 yards (200 to 300 m) of open ground before they could reach the Alamo walls. To prevent any attempted escape by the fleeing Texians or reinforcements from coming in, Santa Anna placed 350 cavalry under Brig. Gen. Ramírez y Sesma to patrol the surrounding countryside.

The Texians initially pushed back one of the attacking columns, although Cos' column was able to breach the Alamo's weak north wall fairly quickly, where the first defenders fell, among them William Barret Travis, who was allegedly killed by a shot to the head. Meanwhile, the rest of Santa Anna's columns continued the assault while Cos's men flooded into the fortress. The Alamo defenders were spread too thin to adequately defend both the walls and the invading Mexicans. By 6:30 that morning, nearly all of the Alamo defenders had been slain in brutal hand-to-hand combat. Famous defender Jim Bowie is reported by some survivors to have been bayoneted and shot to death in his cot. The battle, from the initial assault to the capture of the Alamo, lasted only an hour. According to a Mexican report [citation needed], a group of male survivors were executed after the battle. Famous defender Davy Crockett was alleged to be among them, but this claim is subject to heavy controversy.

The victorious Mexicans released two dozen surviving women and children, as well as Bowie's slave Sam and Travis' slave Joe after the battle. Before disappearing into history, Joe told of seeing a slave named John killed in the Alamo assault and another black woman killed. Another reported survivor was Brigido Guerrero, a Mexican army deserter who had joined the Texian cause. He was able to convince the Mexican soldiers that he had been a prisoner held against his will. In addition, Henry Wornell (sometimes spelled Warnell in early accounts) was reportedly able to escape the battle, but died from his wounds three months later.

Casualties
Mexican: There are wide variations among reports regarding the number of Mexican casualties at the Alamo (see below). However, most historians and military analysts accept those reports which place the number of Mexican casualties at approx. 1000. [citation needed]
Texian: 183 to 250 Texian and Tejano bodies were found at the Alamo after the battle, though Santa Anna's official report back to Mexico City, dictated to his personal secretary Ramón Martínez Caro, stated 600 rebel bodies were found. Historians believe this to be a false claim. All but one of the bodies were burned by the Mexicans; the sole exception being Gregorio Esparza, who was buried rather than burned because his brother Francisco had served as an activo and had fought under General Cos in the Siege of Béxar.

Texian Independence
Texas had declared independence on March 2. The delegates elected David G. Burnet as Provisional President and Lorenzo de Zavala as Vice-President. The men inside the Alamo likely never knew this event had occurred. Houston still held his rank of supreme military commander. The Texian Army never numbered more than 2,000 men at the time of the Alamo siege. Successive losses at Goliad, Refugio, Matamoros and San Antonio de Béxar, reduced the army to about 1,000 men.

On April 21, at the Battle of San Jacinto, Santa Anna's 1,250-strong force was defeated by Sam Houston's army of about 910 men, who used the now-famous battle cry, "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" The Mexican losses for the day were about 650 killed with 600 taken prisoner. Texian losses were about 9 killed and 18 wounded. Santa Anna was captured the following day, dressed in a common soldier's jacket, having discarded his finer clothing in hopes of escaping. He issued orders that all Mexican troops under the command of Vicente Filisola (1789–1850) and José de Urrea (1795–1849) were to pull back into Mexico.


Controversies of the Alamo

The line in the sand
A legend exists that on March 3, March 4, or March 5, Lt. Col. Travis drew a line in the sand with his sword and invited all those who were willing to stay, and presumably to die, to cross over the line. Allegedly, the invalid Jim Bowie was carried across the line at his request. According to one variant of the story, all but one defender crossed the line. Louis Rose, said to be a French soldier who had fought under Napoleon in Russia before arriving in Texas, allegedly slipped out of the Alamo. After evading the Mexican forces by moving at night, Rose is said to have taken shelter with the family of William P. Zuber to whom he told the tale of his escape. In 1873, Zuber (his son) published a version of the story, which has not been historically documented. The phrase "drawing a line in the sand" has remained part of English jargon for taking a stand with no compromise. This account is carried in numerous Texas histories, including Steven Kellerman's The Yellow Rose of Texas, the Journal of American Folklore, and numerous other histories of the time. A moving account of this "line in the dust" story and Bowie's being carried over in a cot can be found online in a city guide to San Antonio and the Alamo shrine.

Before the war ended, Santa Anna ordered that a red flag be raised from San Fernando cathedral indicating to the defenders inside the Alamo that no quarter would be given. According to the controversial José Enrique de la Peña diary, several defenders who had not been killed in the final assault on the Alamo were captured by Col. Manuel Fernández Castrillón and were presented to Santa Anna, who personally ordered their deaths. It is speculated that among the six prisoners was Davy Crockett. De la Peña also states that Crockett attempted to negotiate a surrender with Santa Anna, but was turned down on the grounds of 'no guarantees for traitors'. However, there is little evidence to support this. Still, some people believe that Crockett went down struggling to stay alive when he was spotted by Santa Anna's army after the 12 day struggle. A contemporary history summarizes the battle thus: "They fought all one bloody night, until he [Travis] fell with all the garrison but seven;--and they were slain, while crying for quarter!" (See Emma Willard, Abridged History of the United States (New York, 1849), p. 337.) This history, while not providing proof that Crockett was among those who did not die during the assault, does corroborate de la Peña's diary entry. However, two eyewitness survivors of the Alamo confirm that Crockett did die in the battle. Susanna Dickinson, the wife of an officer, said that Crockett died in the assault and that she saw his body between the long barracks and the chapel, and Travis' slave Joe said that he also saw Crockett lying dead with the bodies of slain Mexican soldiers around him.


Mexican Casualties
After the battle, Santa Anna reported that he had suffered 70 dead and 300 wounded, while many Texian accounts claim that as many as 1,500 Mexican lives were lost. While many quickly dismiss Santa Anna's account as being unrealistic (since Santa Anna had plenty of reasons to lie about the number of men he lost), the Texian account of 1,500 dead also lacks logic. Most Alamo historians agree that the Mexican attack force consisted of between 1,400 and 1,600 men, so a count of 1,500 sounds improbable, although 1500 killed during the entire time of the siege could well have been achieved. The accounts most commonly accepted by historians are the ones that place the number of Mexican dead around 200 and the number of initial Mexican wounded around 400. These losses, (at about 43% casualties) would have been considered catastrophic by the Mexican Army, while still being realistic to today's historians.


Flags of the Alamo
After the battle, Mexican soldiers discovered the company flag of the New Orleans Greys and sent it to Mexico City as proof of U.S. involvement. It is now the property of the National Historical Museum in Mexico City. No one knows which flag flew over the Alamo during the battle. One flag of note was the Mexican tri-color flag with the numbers "1824" set in the middle denoting the Constitution of 1824. Another flag might have been the Mexican tri-color with two stars in the middle denoting Coahuila y Tejas. Remember, though, that the image of a tricolor with "1824" on it flying over the mission has been a myth handed down through the years. The flag with the two stars was probably a company banner of those of Mexican ancestry fighting against Santa Ana...perhaps just less than ten answering to Juan Seguin. The New Orleans Greys banner might not have flown at all over the mission, but simply discovered in a room after the famous battle. It was in a pristine state with no tears or bullet holes and the earliest photographs of it show it had no way to be attached to any pole to begin with. The de facto flag of the Texas Revolution was a banner patterned after the American Flag with 13 stripes of red and a blue field. A large single star was present in the blue field with the letters T-E-X-A-S appearing between the points. This identification of the Alamo battle flag has been confirmed in the recent book Texas Flags by Robert Maberry. It is also the earliest representation of an Alamo battle flag being first declared as such a few months after the battle.