Romero's attack

[Herb]

Looking at the pictures of the East side of the Alamo, that Mark Lemon posted, got me to thinking of Romero's attack again.

It looks like the men, manning the northern courtyard wall and the NE cannon position had quite a run from the barracks to their positions (and not much of a wall to defend). I know Sanchez-Navarro shows Romero's men breaking in through the jacales (Long Barracks extension), but it's hard for me to see that without an almost simultaneous attack on that northern courtyard wall.

According to some accounts Romero's initial attack stalled and shifted north. But looking at the model there seems to be a lack of maneuver space for anything but an attack aimed at the the NE portion of the Alamo. Romero's column was the only one to consist of two complete battalions of line infantry. I mentioned before, that possibly he attacked from the NE with his ad hoc brigade on line (battalions side by side) with the battalions in column (the companies one behind the other) with one battalion aimed at the northern courtyard and the other at the Long Barracks extension. Looking at the model this seems even more probable to me, but if this is so, in my mind, it may change the breakout scenario that most of us have come to believe.

[Jim Boylston]

To continue with the examination of the eastern view of Mark's model, I'd like to ask about the earthen embankment that is shown at the NE corner and extending for a short distance along the north wall.
It looks to me as if this was intended to extend all the way down the north wall, but work was not completed. Just curious Mark, is this embankment (assuming I'm using the right term, maybe it's an unfinished glacis) conjecture or artistic license, or is there archaeological evidence or some other written source that describes it?
Not nit-picking, just interested.
Jim

[Jim Boylston]

Based on the topography, any idea how deep those pools of water on the east were?

[Herb]

Except for the actual man-made channel, based on the topgraphic map, they couldn't have been deep at all. Again, except for the channel they were probably a foot or less for the most part.

[Allen Wiener]

Did Cos know about the water hazards? If so, the Mexicans were aware of them, so why not avoid them altogether? Regardless of depth, wouldn't you want to stay away from them during an assault, especially one that was intended as a surprise and designed to be quick.

I wonder how much became random. To what extent did masses of troops "meander," so to speak, and drift in various directions, eventually concentrating at the north wall? The way the assault columns were arranged, it looks like the north wall was the main objective from the start, with a secondary attack at the south, both designed to gain entrance as quickly as possible. Whoever got in first would make things busy enough for the Texans to distract them from the other attack forces, making it easy for them to get in as well. Probably an oversimplification, but the strategy does not appear to have been too complex.

AW

[Herb]

Allen,

I think we're saying the same thing. The ponds were an obstacle, just not an insurmountable one. Any troops charging through water in the moonlight or going to slow down. Then add a significantly deeper channel in the middle, that they would be unable to locate until they hit it and fell, stumbled, splashed around and lost all organization and momentum (and alerted the defenders if they had not already been alerted).

To me it only makes sense that Romero attacked from the NE and was aimed at the NE corner of the Alamo all along (not that he attacked from the due east and was forced to shift to the NE by defenders' fire). Now it is possible that fire from the corral drove him around the corner onto the North side, but Sanchez-Navarro clearly shows him breaking in through the jacales along the east wall.

[bobdurham]

I wonder if Romero may have avoided attacking the north wall of the corrals because of fear that it may have turned into a killing ground, with the soldados trapped in the corral and open to fire from the Long Barracks. By attacking the jacales along the east wall (north of the Long Barracks), his left flank would have been open to fire from the corral area but he wouldn't have had to fight his way through two lines of fortifications (the corral wall itself, then the Long Barracks).

[Allen Wiener]

Yes - that is what I meant. I think the Mexicans intended to avoid the flooded areas. I hadn't thought about the dangers of attacking the corral area, but after looking at Mark's model, that place looks like a real nightmare for an attacking force.

Since the celebrated "breaech" in the north wall never existed, was there any other compelling reason to send most of the attack force against the north? There seemed to be a lot of cannon up there and there was the danger of fire from rear of the church and the corral area. Also, it wasn't a very large area and, had the defenders been able to put most of their force there, wouldn't they have had at least an even chance of holding them off?

Thanks for the feedback; this is interesting. I love that model of Mark's, but I never thought it would also add so much to our thinking about the battle. It's really kind of amazing. I don't think I ever had a really good look at that east side of the fort, which always seems to have been downplayed.

AW

[Jim Boylston]

Speaking of the breach, here's a query. I think the breach story originated with Potter's report, and I've just figured he got it wrong...maybe assumed there was a breach...but if there were embankments as illustrated in the model at the NE, how difficult would they have been to climb? Could the weight of a lot of soldados attempting to climb the dirt embankment have actually ccaused a part of the shored up wall to collapse?
It's not something I'd considered until I saw the model.
Jim

[Allen Wiener]

I don't know about the wall collapsing, but I think they did eventually get in by literally climbing the embankments, the timbers used to shore up the wall, and up each other's backs. Sheer force of numbers massed and concentrated at these few points must have enabled a certain number to push over the top. Texian fire was of limited use, and cannon virtually useless, once the Mexicans reached the walls.

AW

[stuart]

I've been distracted by other things, but... having looked at the topography with the aid of the model as well as the traditional maps, I can't help but suspect that that there may (historically) be some confusion between Romero's approach march and his assault.

An attack from the east is actually going to be quite problematic: First there are the ponds and as has been discussed before in another place these may have appeared more daunting than they actually were and unless they'd been carefully reconnoitred beforehand I doubt whether Santa Anna, Romero or anybody else would launch assaulting columns straight across them in the dark. Further south we have ground which by all accounts was rough and brambly. Not enough to stop anybody, but like the ponds likely to slow down and break up formations, especially in the dark, which again is the last thing a commander wants when mounting a pre-dawn assault.

It then becomes a little difficult to identify just why Romero should be tasked with attacking either the northern end of the outer compound, or trying to break through the jacales continuing the line of the long barracks, especially when he was given so many troops to do it.

The weak north wall on the other hand is a much more practical proposition for an escalade - apart from all those cannon and I'm inclined to think that Romero was really intended to attack it all along, but was sent around to approach it from the east in order to avoid too many casualties on the run in.

[bobdurham]

If that part of the model is correct, and I believe it is, the dirt piled up against the northern portion of the east wall would have been a clear indication of a weakness in the wall. Almost an invitation to direct an attack against it.

[stuart]

That does beg a question on interpretation. Mark's model as built depicts the jacales with their roofs in place. If the wall did indeed need to be strengthened by piling dirt up against it, would it not also have been logical to strip the roofing material off - remember we're talking about jacales, not solid concrete roofed houses - and erecting a firing step inside. Afterwards it would have been as easy to reinstate the roofs as it was to strip them in the first place, so there's no reason for them not to have been re-occupied after the battle as shown in subsequent plats.

I just have a little trouble in believing that after banking that dirt up, the Texians would then effectively leave that stretch of the perimeter unoccupied, except for the odd loophole and whatever flanking fire was coming from the adjacent compound.

[marklemon]

stuart said:

That does beg a question on interpretation. Mark's model as built depicts the jacales with their roofs in place. If the wall did indeed need to be strengthened by piling dirt up against it, would it not also have been logical to strip the roofing material off - remember we're talking about jacales, not solid concrete roofed houses - and erecting a firing step inside. Afterwards it would have been as easy to reinstate the roofs as it was to strip them in the first place, so there's no reason for them not to have been re-occupied after the battle as shown in subsequent plats.

I just have a little trouble in believing that after banking that dirt up, the Texians would then effectively leave that stretch of the perimeter unoccupied, except for the odd loophole and whatever flanking fire was coming from the adjacent compound.

Of course, it would have been logical to build a firing step inside the northern Long Barracks extension, but when it comes to the Texians, logic does not apply. Always remember that the Texians did very little to prepare the place for defense, aside from reportedly digging interior ditches in some of the houses, perhaps dragging the abatis into place, and making the small, two-gun defensive position inside the main gate. Logical thinking does not really apply to them, as they seemed dead set on doing as little as they possibly could, prefering instead (lets face it) to rest on their laurels, drink, and lounge about in Bexar.
Now the Mexicans, who DID construct the greater portion of the Alamo's defenses, may have had such a firing step in mind, but never got around to completing their defensive plan for the place. The ditch outside the southern palisade was not completed, nor was the one at the north wall. The embankment shown at the northeast corner and running down a portion of the northeast wall was all they were able to complete, and the earth for it was obtained from a section or ditch dug at that corresponding area (See Labastida). If given enough time, there would surely have been a fairly impressive makeover of the Alamo by the Mexicans. What we see, however, in contemporary maps and archeology, is about a 70 percent completion of their original plans.

[stuart]

I’m inclined to go along with your reasoning here only up to a point. Jameson’s difficulties in persuading anyone to come out and actually do some work at the Alamo prior to February 23 are well documented, but I find it rather harder to believe that time stood still afterwards. I think very serious consideration has to be given to the likelihood that once they found themselves trapped in the crumbling ruin so well depicted in your model, the Texians will have done everything in their power to improve the defences. Heavy engineering works were obviously out of the question but I would have thought that stripping the thatch from jacales, cutting loopholes and improvising firing steps would have been very obvious activities, both by way of preparing for an attack and (as is often forgotten) providing make-work for the otherwise bored and idle garrison.

Specifically I’m inclined to wonder about this business of digging trenches inside the Long Barracks; can some kind soul remind me exactly what was said about this and whether it could in fact refer not to those rather strange ditches inside the barracks depicted in Alamo2004 but to fire-steps and/or other works in the jacales continuing the line of the barracks northwards