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Dispelling Myths About the Alamo on the 189th Anniversary of the Famous Battle
The heroes on both sides deserve no less
Growing up in Texas in the 1970s, I learned about the Alamo at roughly the same time I learned to hate the USSR and the Washington Redskins. Our history teachers all drilled three crucial facts into us: we were the only state that was ever its own country, we had the right to secede from the Union if we saw fit, and in late February and early March of 1836, a small yet heroic band of Texans (most originally from Tennessee and South Carolina) faced off against 3,000 Mexican troops at the Alamo for 13 glorious days, killing half of them before all perishing, but in the process buying Sam Houston enough time to ultimately win Texan independence at the Battle of San Jacinto.
Even if you’re not a history buff, you probably already know that our history teachers needed to stick to their main job, which was coaching football, because they got pretty much all of that wrong. We were not the only state to be its own country; Hawaii was a kingdom for 100 years longer than we were a Republic. We absolutely did not have the right to secede, then or now. As for the Alamo, they at least got the part about buying Sam Houston time right.
