The organization of a provincial government followed in 1834, and Houston was chosen commander-in-chief of the army. The brief war with Mexico was marked by a number of heroic events, chief of which was the defence of the Alamo, where a small force of Texans resisted more than ten times the number of Mexicans.
When the army of Santa Anna approached San Antonio, on February 22, 1836, one hundred and forty-five men, under the leadership of Colonel James Bowie and Lieutenant-Colonel William B. Travis, retired within the church fortress. For nearly two weeks these heroic men defended themselves, and the enemy did not gain entrance until every one of them was killed.
The details of the heroic struggle were not known until 1860, when Captain R. M. Potter printed an account in the San Antonio Herald, in which he had patiently pieced together the reports that came to him through those whom he regarded most dependable among the besiegers, and from one who was an officer in the garrison until within a few days of the assault.
Within the walls a well had been dug on the very day the Mexican Army entered the town. Thus a plentiful supply of water supplemented the store of meat and corn for the defenders.
A message sent out by Colonel Travis on the night of March 3 told of the events of the first days of the siege:
"With a hundred and forty-five men I have held this place ten days against a force variously estimated from 1,500 to 6,000, and I shall continue to hold it till I get relief from my countrymen, or I will perish in the attempt. We have had a shower of bombs and cannon-balls continually falling among us the whole time, yet none of us have fallen."
Santa Anna led a final assault on March 6. Scaling ladders, axes, and fascines were to be in the hands of designated men. Five columns were to approach the wall just at daybreak.
At the first onset Colonel Travis was killed and breaches were made in the walls. The outer walls and batteries were abandoned, and the defenders retired to the different rooms within.
"From the doors, windows, and loopholes of the several rooms around the area the crack of the rifle and the hiss of the bullet came fierce and fast; as fast the enemy fell and recoiled in his first efforts to charge. The gun beside which Travis fell was now turned against the buildings, as were also some others, and shot after shot was sent crashing through the doors and barricades of the several rooms. Each ball was followed by a storm of musketry and a charge; and thus room after room was carried at the point of the bayonet, when all within them had died fighting to the last. The struggle was made up of a number of separate and desperate combats, often hand to hand, between squads of the garrison and bodies of the enemy. The bloodiest spot about the fort was the long barrack and the ground in front of it, where the enemy fell in heaps."
David Crockett was among those who were killed in one of the rooms. He had joined the defenders a few days before the beginning of the siege.