correct date for end of battle???

[texasrooinek]

Every year at this time I like to follow the course of the battle on a day by day basis. Every year the fall is marked on March 6th. My problem is that 1836 was a leap year ( 29 days in Feb.) so, unless I am incorrect, on a non leap year (common year-28 days in Feb.) if the fall is on March 6th there is lost one day of the 13. Should not the actual date of the end of the battle be then on March 7th on 3 out of 4 years? I understand this complicates history however if we have 13 days of battle on a day by day basis how then can we call March 6th the correct date even if it was the date in 1836?

[jrboddie]

Bexar was occupied by Santa Anna on February 23. The fall was on March 6. That is 13 days counting February 29.

If your computer supports the Microsoft Silverlight plug-in, you can see what happened each day on my interactive map: 13 Days: The Siege and Battle of the Alamo

Yes, I see your problem with a day-by-day following on non-leap years. (Nothing much happened on the 29th anyway--just some re-positioning of Mexican forces.)

[Allen Wiener]

In fact, nothing much happened for the entire 13 days, until the final battle, which is why filmmakers have such a hard time making a compelling movie about the Alamo. What do you do for the other 12 days of the siege? John Wayne's solution was to invent a lot of nonsense; Disney's "Davy Crockett at the Alamo" ran only about 50 minutes and half of that was taken up with fictional accounts of Crockett and his pals roaming around Texas.

[Paul Sylvain]

Also, "Alamo: Price of Freedom" which is excellent, but no available for sale to the public, tells the story in something like 40 or 50 minutes at most.

Yes it was a leap year which makes the 13-days from Santa Anna's arrival to the March 6th battle work out. I think that whole thing about slipping a day only becomes an issue for folks who are born, die or get married on February 29, because there is no true anniversary date of those events except for every fourth year. I speak from experience -- my mom passed on Feb. 29, 2004, and it's always problematic except on a leap year. Other than dealing with the feb. 29/March 1 dilemma, all other events are marked on what date they fell on. I mean, we'll never celebrate Independence Day on July 5th, for example. Hence, March 6 will always be the anniversary date for the fall of the Alamo.