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13 Days to Glory: The Siege of the Alamo (Volume 2)
In thirteen chapters, Lon Tinkle tells the day-by-day story of how 182 men fought a losing battle but won for their cause an almost unparalleled measure of fame.
The familiar figures appear on these stern young Colonel William Barret Travis; the middle-aged fighter Jim Bowie, who contested the young upstart’s comand; famous frontiersman Davy Crockett, soon to have his stock in legend rise even higher. Echoing the shot heard round the world in 1776, the volleys fired by the Alamo defenders were aimed at the large and well-outfitted army of Santa Anna, self-styled “Napoleon of the West.”
As the days of the siege are described, the author cinematically flashes back to pivotal points of destiny—the circumstance that led each person to be inside the walls of the abandoned mission late in the winter of 1836. Susanna Dickinson, captured after the mission fell, recalls the day she headed for a wedding and wound up eloping to Texas with the intended groom, an old flame of her own. Travis left Alabama under a cloud, having privately admitted to committing a murder. Bowie, having lost his wife, children, and wealthy in-laws to a cholera epidemic, now devoted his energies to saving his extensive landholdings in Texas. Crockett, stung by the loss of his seat in Congress, concluded to light out for the territory of Texas, where land prices were one-tenth of those in America but where American frontier traditions again had to be secured through revolution.
Thoroughly documented, 13 Days to Glory also includes a chronology of events from June 30, 1835, when William Barret Travis, under a secret pact with Anglo leaders at San Felipe de Austin, drove out the new Mexican garrison opposite Galveston, to February 23, 1836, when the thirteen-day siege of the Alamo began.
The familiar figures appear on these stern young Colonel William Barret Travis; the middle-aged fighter Jim Bowie, who contested the young upstart’s comand; famous frontiersman Davy Crockett, soon to have his stock in legend rise even higher. Echoing the shot heard round the world in 1776, the volleys fired by the Alamo defenders were aimed at the large and well-outfitted army of Santa Anna, self-styled “Napoleon of the West.”
As the days of the siege are described, the author cinematically flashes back to pivotal points of destiny—the circumstance that led each person to be inside the walls of the abandoned mission late in the winter of 1836. Susanna Dickinson, captured after the mission fell, recalls the day she headed for a wedding and wound up eloping to Texas with the intended groom, an old flame of her own. Travis left Alabama under a cloud, having privately admitted to committing a murder. Bowie, having lost his wife, children, and wealthy in-laws to a cholera epidemic, now devoted his energies to saving his extensive landholdings in Texas. Crockett, stung by the loss of his seat in Congress, concluded to light out for the territory of Texas, where land prices were one-tenth of those in America but where American frontier traditions again had to be secured through revolution.
Thoroughly documented, 13 Days to Glory also includes a chronology of events from June 30, 1835, when William Barret Travis, under a secret pact with Anglo leaders at San Felipe de Austin, drove out the new Mexican garrison opposite Galveston, to February 23, 1836, when the thirteen-day siege of the Alamo began.
262 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1958
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March 16, 2024
The thirteen-day defense of the Alamo by Texans who sought to make Texas independent from Mexico has long since passed into legend. From February 23 to March 6, 1836, about 200 Texans defended the old Spanish mission of San Antonio de Valero from a Mexican force that outnumbered them nine to one. It is a story filled with human drama, and Lon Tinkle captures that drama well in his 1958 book 13 Days to Glory.
Before his death in 1980, Tinkle, who spent most of his life in Dallas, made the study of Texas his life’s work, both as a professor at Southern Methodist University and as book editor of the Dallas Morning News. His love for the State of Texas and his thoroughgoing knowledge of the history of the Lone Star State come through strongly in this look at The Siege of the Alamo (the book’s subtitle). His writer’s voice combines an endearing Texas twang with a scholarly sensibility.
While incorporating some political and diplomatic details of how Texan efforts to make Texas a state within Mexico developed into a full-fledged Texas Revolution, Tinkle keeps his focus squarely on the Alamo and its defenders during those thirteen days; the first chapter, in fact, is called “The First Day.”
Visitors to the Alamo of today have seen the impressive memorial that draws attention to four names: Bonham, Bowie, Crockett, and Travis. Tinkle likewise salutes the leadership of these four: William Barret Travis and James Bowie, who shared command of the Alamo garrison until Bowie became ill with pneumonia; David Crockett, who brought a contingent of Tennesseans to assist in the Alamo’s defense; and James Bonham, who left the Alamo to seek help from Colonel Fannin’s garrison at Goliad, and insisted on returning to the Alamo to share the fate of his comrades-in-arms.
Tinkle captures well the drama of the moment when Bonham, disappointed that he has not been able to persuade Fannin to relieve the Alamo, runs the gauntlet of Mexican fire to make his way back into the besieged mission:
He was going into the Alamo, [Bonham] announced, and all Santa Anna’s forces would have a hard time keeping him out. Waving good-bye to the couriers, he pulled himself high in his stirrups, lashed his horse with his reins, and spurred the animal to a gallop, straight ahead into the fortress unmolested. When Jim Bonham rode through the Alamo gate, which a dozen eager hands swung open for him, he learned the meaning of the cannon fire he had heard on the Gonzales road. It was primarily meant to startle Santa Anna. It was Travis’s reply to a demand of surrender. (pp. 50-51)
With economy of language and wealth of detail, Tinkle provides character sketches of the Texan leaders who would die at the Alamo but would live on in heroic legend. After discussing the rather complicated personal life of William Barrett Travis, for example, Tinkle thus sums up the ways in which he sees Travis vis-à-vis the other leading Texans:
Travis was not patient, like Stephen F. Austin; his was not a cool brain, like Jim Bowie’s; he was not full of cunning, like Sam Houston; certainly not a hero like Davy Crockett. Of them all, he was the only one who had not spent his youth before coming to Texas. But he had enormous intensity. If he was bursting with energy and pride, it was the energy, pride, ambitiousness, and competitiveness of youth. (pp. 99-100)
The manner in which Tinkle contrasts Travis’s quirky integrity with the corruption and narcissism of Santa Anna – who, on the second day of the siege, is busily arranging a faked “marriage” to a beautiful young Mexican woman, in order to get the girl away from her protective mother – is most telling.
Tinkle’s recounting of the Alamo siege and battle is, in a way, quite Aristotelian. Character is action, and action is character: a person is what a person does. This element of the book comes through in Tinkle’s depiction of James Walker Fannin, the commander of the Texan garrison at Goliad. A singularly irresolute man, Fannin at first refused to lead his garrison of almost 500 men to the relief of the Alamo defenders, and then decided to lead his garrison out, and then decided to go back – and generally acted in such a dilatory and ineffective manner that he managed to get his entire garrison out onto the prairie and surrounded by the Mexican army. They surrendered, and all of them were murdered by order of Santa Anna – Fannin last of all, after having to watch all 500 of his men executed.
Tinkle’s verdict regarding Fannin – “this boyish, vain, ambitious, impetuous man” – is a grim one. He writes that the ultimate outcome of the Alamo campaign “may even have been decided the day that James W. Fannin was born, for the key to the fate of the Alamo garrison lay in the character of the Goliad commander….Chance had put [Fannin] where Sam Houston had been” (pp. 152-53).
When we are reading about the Alamo, we all know how the story will end. It is the American Thermopylae; and just as the 300 Spartans who defended the mountain pass at Thermopylae in 480 B.C. were all slain by the Persians, so we know that the 200 Texans who defended the Alamo will all die at the hands of the Mexican army. Yet Tinkle, with his muscular prose style and well-honed storytelling sensibility, manages to create a feeling of suspense nonetheless. While reading passages like this one about the Texans’ repulse of Santa Anna’s first mass assault upon the mission walls, the reader feels as if maybe the Texans can achieve the impossible and carry the day:
A new burst of hope spread through the Texans. If they could rally again to decimate the troops trying a second assault, Santa Anna might well call a halt. He was paying a fearful price, as the moans and screams below the walls testified. (p. 201)
Given Tinkle’s skill in recounting a taut and captivating story, it should be no surprise that 13 Days to Glory was adapted for the screen, as a 1987 TV movie. The movie is not bad, and its cast is stellar – James Arness as Jim Bowie, Brian Keith as David Crockett, Alec Baldwin as William Barret Travis, Raul Julia as Santa Anna, Lorne Greene as Sam Houston.
But the person who wants a lean, no-nonsense, effective setting-forth of the saga of the Alamo could not do better than going back to Lon Tinkle’s original book. One of many fine Texas regional works published by Texas A & M University Press, 13 Days to Glory does its work gloriously and well.
Before his death in 1980, Tinkle, who spent most of his life in Dallas, made the study of Texas his life’s work, both as a professor at Southern Methodist University and as book editor of the Dallas Morning News. His love for the State of Texas and his thoroughgoing knowledge of the history of the Lone Star State come through strongly in this look at The Siege of the Alamo (the book’s subtitle). His writer’s voice combines an endearing Texas twang with a scholarly sensibility.
While incorporating some political and diplomatic details of how Texan efforts to make Texas a state within Mexico developed into a full-fledged Texas Revolution, Tinkle keeps his focus squarely on the Alamo and its defenders during those thirteen days; the first chapter, in fact, is called “The First Day.”
Visitors to the Alamo of today have seen the impressive memorial that draws attention to four names: Bonham, Bowie, Crockett, and Travis. Tinkle likewise salutes the leadership of these four: William Barret Travis and James Bowie, who shared command of the Alamo garrison until Bowie became ill with pneumonia; David Crockett, who brought a contingent of Tennesseans to assist in the Alamo’s defense; and James Bonham, who left the Alamo to seek help from Colonel Fannin’s garrison at Goliad, and insisted on returning to the Alamo to share the fate of his comrades-in-arms.
Tinkle captures well the drama of the moment when Bonham, disappointed that he has not been able to persuade Fannin to relieve the Alamo, runs the gauntlet of Mexican fire to make his way back into the besieged mission:
He was going into the Alamo, [Bonham] announced, and all Santa Anna’s forces would have a hard time keeping him out. Waving good-bye to the couriers, he pulled himself high in his stirrups, lashed his horse with his reins, and spurred the animal to a gallop, straight ahead into the fortress unmolested. When Jim Bonham rode through the Alamo gate, which a dozen eager hands swung open for him, he learned the meaning of the cannon fire he had heard on the Gonzales road. It was primarily meant to startle Santa Anna. It was Travis’s reply to a demand of surrender. (pp. 50-51)
With economy of language and wealth of detail, Tinkle provides character sketches of the Texan leaders who would die at the Alamo but would live on in heroic legend. After discussing the rather complicated personal life of William Barrett Travis, for example, Tinkle thus sums up the ways in which he sees Travis vis-à-vis the other leading Texans:
Travis was not patient, like Stephen F. Austin; his was not a cool brain, like Jim Bowie’s; he was not full of cunning, like Sam Houston; certainly not a hero like Davy Crockett. Of them all, he was the only one who had not spent his youth before coming to Texas. But he had enormous intensity. If he was bursting with energy and pride, it was the energy, pride, ambitiousness, and competitiveness of youth. (pp. 99-100)
The manner in which Tinkle contrasts Travis’s quirky integrity with the corruption and narcissism of Santa Anna – who, on the second day of the siege, is busily arranging a faked “marriage” to a beautiful young Mexican woman, in order to get the girl away from her protective mother – is most telling.
Tinkle’s recounting of the Alamo siege and battle is, in a way, quite Aristotelian. Character is action, and action is character: a person is what a person does. This element of the book comes through in Tinkle’s depiction of James Walker Fannin, the commander of the Texan garrison at Goliad. A singularly irresolute man, Fannin at first refused to lead his garrison of almost 500 men to the relief of the Alamo defenders, and then decided to lead his garrison out, and then decided to go back – and generally acted in such a dilatory and ineffective manner that he managed to get his entire garrison out onto the prairie and surrounded by the Mexican army. They surrendered, and all of them were murdered by order of Santa Anna – Fannin last of all, after having to watch all 500 of his men executed.
Tinkle’s verdict regarding Fannin – “this boyish, vain, ambitious, impetuous man” – is a grim one. He writes that the ultimate outcome of the Alamo campaign “may even have been decided the day that James W. Fannin was born, for the key to the fate of the Alamo garrison lay in the character of the Goliad commander….Chance had put [Fannin] where Sam Houston had been” (pp. 152-53).
When we are reading about the Alamo, we all know how the story will end. It is the American Thermopylae; and just as the 300 Spartans who defended the mountain pass at Thermopylae in 480 B.C. were all slain by the Persians, so we know that the 200 Texans who defended the Alamo will all die at the hands of the Mexican army. Yet Tinkle, with his muscular prose style and well-honed storytelling sensibility, manages to create a feeling of suspense nonetheless. While reading passages like this one about the Texans’ repulse of Santa Anna’s first mass assault upon the mission walls, the reader feels as if maybe the Texans can achieve the impossible and carry the day:
A new burst of hope spread through the Texans. If they could rally again to decimate the troops trying a second assault, Santa Anna might well call a halt. He was paying a fearful price, as the moans and screams below the walls testified. (p. 201)
Given Tinkle’s skill in recounting a taut and captivating story, it should be no surprise that 13 Days to Glory was adapted for the screen, as a 1987 TV movie. The movie is not bad, and its cast is stellar – James Arness as Jim Bowie, Brian Keith as David Crockett, Alec Baldwin as William Barret Travis, Raul Julia as Santa Anna, Lorne Greene as Sam Houston.
But the person who wants a lean, no-nonsense, effective setting-forth of the saga of the Alamo could not do better than going back to Lon Tinkle’s original book. One of many fine Texas regional works published by Texas A & M University Press, 13 Days to Glory does its work gloriously and well.
September 8, 2018
In San Antonio Texas on March 6, 1836 after 12 days of continuous bombardment the Mexican Army of some 5000 men finally attacked the abandoned mission refashioned into a military fort known as the Alamo. The 182 defenders of the Alamo were all killed but only after causing the Mexicans to waste 13 days and causing Mexican casualties estimated as high as 10 times the number of defenders. This allowed the Texans time to regroup and organized and ultimately resulted in their victory 6 weeks later at San Jacinto and the formation of the Republic of Texas. As wars of independence go this one was incredibly brief and the final battle at San Jacinto lasted all of 20 minutes with the capture of Santa Anna. In the context of this war the Siege of the Alamo looms large and American History has enhanced its significance well beyond its importance to the struggle for Texas independence.
As battles or sieges go the Alamo was a pretty straight forward undertaking with very little military complexity so the story of the Alamo is relatively simple. At 237 pages of text this book offers about as thorough a recitation of the siege as anyone could expect. The author covers the event in a near day by day account and additionally offers some useful and detailed biographical sketches of all the main actors as well as several not so well known participants in this tragedy. It was these biographical sketches that I found the most interesting as it offered insight into this war and the motivations of those involved. The Alamo and indeed the fight for Texas independence can be viewed as an early example of American citizens acting under the aura of Manifest Destiny.
As the author details the lives of the Americans involved in this struggle all of them came to Texas in pursuit of cheap land and the chance to accumulate wealth. At the time they entered Texas it was part of Mexico, a foreign country. Nobody asked these Americans to come but nobody stopped them either. Because Texas was over a thousand miles from the Mexican capital in Mexico City it was an area that had been seriously neglected by the Mexican government. This neglect made it relatively easy for Americans to move in and make themselves at home. When Santa Anna abolished the Mexican Constitution of 1824 and established himself as a military dictator this gave the Texans a reason to start a rebellion and fight for the restoration of their rights. The question of who were the Texans, who had the right to rebel, and whose rights were infringed by the actions of Santa Anna seems never to have been asked let alone answered. Of the 182 dead defenders of the Alamo only a handful were Mexican citizens the rest were Americans with no real intention of becoming Mexican but who clearly desired to wrest Texas away from Mexico and make it part of the U.S. While the Alamo was certainly a tragedy and Santa Anna was typical of what one would expect of a military dictator a number of unpleasant questions arise. Depending on how these questions might be answered the heroics of the War of Texas Independence becomes seriously debatable. As might be the case with many, maybe most, wars a lot of people may have died because of the ambitions and greed of the men that the people chose to lead them. The Alamo and the War of Texas Independence may be a good example of the old saying that history is written by the winners. After finishing this rather short book the reader may have to rethink some previously held opinions. A book that gives the reader something to think about. Can you ask more of an author and his book? Enjoy.
As battles or sieges go the Alamo was a pretty straight forward undertaking with very little military complexity so the story of the Alamo is relatively simple. At 237 pages of text this book offers about as thorough a recitation of the siege as anyone could expect. The author covers the event in a near day by day account and additionally offers some useful and detailed biographical sketches of all the main actors as well as several not so well known participants in this tragedy. It was these biographical sketches that I found the most interesting as it offered insight into this war and the motivations of those involved. The Alamo and indeed the fight for Texas independence can be viewed as an early example of American citizens acting under the aura of Manifest Destiny.
As the author details the lives of the Americans involved in this struggle all of them came to Texas in pursuit of cheap land and the chance to accumulate wealth. At the time they entered Texas it was part of Mexico, a foreign country. Nobody asked these Americans to come but nobody stopped them either. Because Texas was over a thousand miles from the Mexican capital in Mexico City it was an area that had been seriously neglected by the Mexican government. This neglect made it relatively easy for Americans to move in and make themselves at home. When Santa Anna abolished the Mexican Constitution of 1824 and established himself as a military dictator this gave the Texans a reason to start a rebellion and fight for the restoration of their rights. The question of who were the Texans, who had the right to rebel, and whose rights were infringed by the actions of Santa Anna seems never to have been asked let alone answered. Of the 182 dead defenders of the Alamo only a handful were Mexican citizens the rest were Americans with no real intention of becoming Mexican but who clearly desired to wrest Texas away from Mexico and make it part of the U.S. While the Alamo was certainly a tragedy and Santa Anna was typical of what one would expect of a military dictator a number of unpleasant questions arise. Depending on how these questions might be answered the heroics of the War of Texas Independence becomes seriously debatable. As might be the case with many, maybe most, wars a lot of people may have died because of the ambitions and greed of the men that the people chose to lead them. The Alamo and the War of Texas Independence may be a good example of the old saying that history is written by the winners. After finishing this rather short book the reader may have to rethink some previously held opinions. A book that gives the reader something to think about. Can you ask more of an author and his book? Enjoy.
January 11, 2018
As someone who knows very little Texas history, I found this to be a fast-paced and engaging account of the events at the Alamo. It was written in the 50s, so some of the commentary on slavery and marital dynamics was certainly outdated, but the author clearly has a passion for the history and it comes through. I especially enjoyed the bios of some of the major figures: Crockett, Bowie, Travis, etc.
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August 30, 2020A fascinating and very compelling account of the Alamo, told in 13 chapters.
It is very moving and also includes random weird details (the "Come and Take it" Flag was made from a wedding dress, Santa Anna apparently tried to adopt Susanna Dickinson's daughter, etc.) that I had never heard before.
The descriptions of the men of both sides feel well balanced.
The endnotes are helpful, and I hope to use the suggested reading list at some point.
It is very moving and also includes random weird details (the "Come and Take it" Flag was made from a wedding dress, Santa Anna apparently tried to adopt Susanna Dickinson's daughter, etc.) that I had never heard before.
The descriptions of the men of both sides feel well balanced.
The endnotes are helpful, and I hope to use the suggested reading list at some point.
July 25, 2011
My grandmother picked up a copy of this book for me sometime ago during a visit to Texas and I've have recently (and finally) gotten to read it. Not knowing much about the Alamo I was intrigued to finally be able to read an account of the famous 1836 battle. While I am not an expert on the events depicted in the book I will say this: 13 Days To Glory is a highly readable piece of historical writing.
The book's author, the late Lon Tinkle, gives the book a feeling that is both epic and yet personal. In a style reminiscent (or rather pre) of the works of David McCullough, Tinkle gives us a fine and (considering the book's length of 237 pages of actual text) detailed account of the siege of the Alamo and the battle that followed it. Tinkle weaves a narrative that ranges from the Alamo mission to around Texas and in Mexico as well. Like any fine piece of historical writing, even if one knows the eventual outcome the book should still be able to grip the reader and Tinkle does this almost effortlessly as he makes every messenger sent out, every minor skirmish and eery incident cause the reader to fip the page aiting to see what will happen next. Eventually the page turning leads to the battle itself. Tinkle's approximately thirty-five page account of the battle itself ranks as a masterful and fascinating piece not only of historical writing but as a fine piece of storytelling as well.
Yet while painting an epic tale of the siege and battle of the Alamo, Tinkle (like the later day works of David McCullough) keeps the story on the personal level as well. Much of the book's description of the siege is intertwined with the lives of those participating in the battle. These include Alamo defenders like William Travis, Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, Mexican General Santa Anna and bystanders like Susanna Dickerson amongst many others. Being from Alabama I was most interested to read of Travis' connection to my home state . While these sections all make for interesting reading they also, paradoxically serves as a drawback as they slow the book's pace down at times and serving as a distraction at others. For the most part, though, they are fascinating to read and help to supplement the unfolding drama of Alamo story.
13 Days To Glory represent a fine piece of historical writing. While it might be hurt by some overemphasis at the backgrounds of the defenders at times, the late Lon Tinkle has crafted a tense and readable account of the Alamo siege and battle. The book is far from just another dull piece of facts and figures: it is a book that tells the epic and personal story of one of the most famous battles of American (and Texas) history. If you enjoy the books of David McCullough and are looking for a good book on the Alamo look no further.
The book's author, the late Lon Tinkle, gives the book a feeling that is both epic and yet personal. In a style reminiscent (or rather pre) of the works of David McCullough, Tinkle gives us a fine and (considering the book's length of 237 pages of actual text) detailed account of the siege of the Alamo and the battle that followed it. Tinkle weaves a narrative that ranges from the Alamo mission to around Texas and in Mexico as well. Like any fine piece of historical writing, even if one knows the eventual outcome the book should still be able to grip the reader and Tinkle does this almost effortlessly as he makes every messenger sent out, every minor skirmish and eery incident cause the reader to fip the page aiting to see what will happen next. Eventually the page turning leads to the battle itself. Tinkle's approximately thirty-five page account of the battle itself ranks as a masterful and fascinating piece not only of historical writing but as a fine piece of storytelling as well.
Yet while painting an epic tale of the siege and battle of the Alamo, Tinkle (like the later day works of David McCullough) keeps the story on the personal level as well. Much of the book's description of the siege is intertwined with the lives of those participating in the battle. These include Alamo defenders like William Travis, Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, Mexican General Santa Anna and bystanders like Susanna Dickerson amongst many others. Being from Alabama I was most interested to read of Travis' connection to my home state . While these sections all make for interesting reading they also, paradoxically serves as a drawback as they slow the book's pace down at times and serving as a distraction at others. For the most part, though, they are fascinating to read and help to supplement the unfolding drama of Alamo story.
13 Days To Glory represent a fine piece of historical writing. While it might be hurt by some overemphasis at the backgrounds of the defenders at times, the late Lon Tinkle has crafted a tense and readable account of the Alamo siege and battle. The book is far from just another dull piece of facts and figures: it is a book that tells the epic and personal story of one of the most famous battles of American (and Texas) history. If you enjoy the books of David McCullough and are looking for a good book on the Alamo look no further.
February 9, 2010
"Victory or Death," it is indescribably sad to tell that the Alamo ended in death, but the valiant fighters for freedom didn't go out without a fight. This book should be read by all Texans for a true understanding of the land we live on and how hard it was to earn the right. A cruel dictator tortured to take it away but in the end it all came down to the 13 days. May Texas always remember that it wasn't free to earn our rights and that we must always "Remember the Alamo."
May 29, 2018
Probably the safest book on the Alamo siege and destruction that you can read. Everyone is bathed in honor. Every Anglo dies heroically. I can see why John Wayne would want to take a seat behind the director's chair and make a film about this doomed battle. Hell, I felt the glory reading it.
March 7, 2020
A longtime favorite
The first book I read on the Alamo more than sixty years ago. Lon Tinkle is a wonderful storyteller, and his research holds up even today. Thirteen Days to Glory will always stand as a solid, well presented examination of what might have been seen as an insignificant little battle, but will be remembered as the spark that set Texas ablaze.
The first book I read on the Alamo more than sixty years ago. Lon Tinkle is a wonderful storyteller, and his research holds up even today. Thirteen Days to Glory will always stand as a solid, well presented examination of what might have been seen as an insignificant little battle, but will be remembered as the spark that set Texas ablaze.
February 28, 2021
Such a sad story. I had forgotten much of it. But I felt the author shared the information in an interesting way and was very knowledgeable. He also included outside information that was interesting.
July 15, 2023
Seems to be the original book about the Alamo. The author says he was scrupulous about placing characters only where they were known to be and doing what they were known to be doing.
One person mentioned in the book is a Tinkle; perhaps a relative?
One person mentioned in the book is a Tinkle; perhaps a relative?
March 10, 2024
One of my books I read each year at the time of the anniversary of the siege. Easy to read yet tells the events well. Highly recommend!
November 24, 2021
Literally don’t like this book maybe it was because i don’t like history and this was for a major school project but idk this was very boring and slow paced but I feel like the structure was good but could have been way better if the author just shortened it by a lot….
January 20, 2015
One of several books I bought in the Alamo gift shop. It tells the "official" story of the Battle of the Alamo in a very readable narrative style, while providing a bit of back story on the major figures: Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William Travis. The larger context of how it really fits into the history of Texan independence is left vague, however--beyond the general "Remember the Alamo" sentiment.
It put me in touch with old memories of my Uncle Chuck who is a history buff, reenactor, and outdoorsman. He used to call me Davy after Crockett. (I even had a coonskin cap when I participated in one of his weekend reenactments.) I recall watching that old Disney series about him at my Uncle's house. Good times.
The other books I bought are A Cartoon History of Texas, Lone Star Nation, and Alamo Traces. The landmark has no entrance fee and is maintained entirely via the gift shop--that's my justification for buying a whole stack...
It put me in touch with old memories of my Uncle Chuck who is a history buff, reenactor, and outdoorsman. He used to call me Davy after Crockett. (I even had a coonskin cap when I participated in one of his weekend reenactments.) I recall watching that old Disney series about him at my Uncle's house. Good times.
The other books I bought are A Cartoon History of Texas, Lone Star Nation, and Alamo Traces. The landmark has no entrance fee and is maintained entirely via the gift shop--that's my justification for buying a whole stack...
October 12, 2016
This is a very vivid story like telling of the Alamo. The author is able to bring to life the individuals that made historic decisions; individuals such as William Travis, Davey Crockett and Sam Bowie. The story of the individual is remembered as it contributed to the whole in an endearing way. Santa Anna is depicted as a blood lust devil of a man as well as an egomaniac. In all, as the first book I have read about the Alamo it was a good read.
3 days to Glory
March ‘16
Ron Tinkle
This book reads easy and doesn’t go into too much detail, but allows you to savor and embrace the 13 days of the siege and fall of the Alamo. Near the end of the book the writer covers some of the controversial stories of the last moments of some of the more famous members of the Alamo. The historical accounts of the solidifying of the government of Texas was a very interesting side point. The fact that the government made a decision for governance and freedom as a separate entity from the gov of Mexico by a vote in solidarity the very day of the fall of the Alamo is ironic considering they were not well informed of the state of the Alamo or the occupants of the church/fort. The personality conflict of Jim Bowie and William Travis was well documented. Overall I enjoyed the easy flow and story like nature of the book versus a written documentary.
3 days to Glory
March ‘16
Ron Tinkle
This book reads easy and doesn’t go into too much detail, but allows you to savor and embrace the 13 days of the siege and fall of the Alamo. Near the end of the book the writer covers some of the controversial stories of the last moments of some of the more famous members of the Alamo. The historical accounts of the solidifying of the government of Texas was a very interesting side point. The fact that the government made a decision for governance and freedom as a separate entity from the gov of Mexico by a vote in solidarity the very day of the fall of the Alamo is ironic considering they were not well informed of the state of the Alamo or the occupants of the church/fort. The personality conflict of Jim Bowie and William Travis was well documented. Overall I enjoyed the easy flow and story like nature of the book versus a written documentary.
January 5, 2010
I admit it, I love the Alamo myth and what it says about the American spirit. If you want to believe the worst about America it's your business. Here is the story told in all it's bravery and idealism, without any blushing. I like it. In a time when life is constantly "flying up and hitting us in the face", in a day when words like "honor", "honesty", "fairness", and "courage" are sneered at or even vilified, maybe we could take a second look? Are "ideals" out of style? It's easy to find books in today's market that besmirches and smears America's heroes and Heroines, this one is refreshing. Are the Texans painted in the best light possible? Yes, but these are still facts.
August 18, 2012
This book is a fast paced and factual account of the battle for the Alamo. Much of it is drawn from the notes, letters, journals, and accounts of the participants in the events surrounding this epic battle. The lives, personalities, and attitudes of the characters are portrayed so as to bring them to life in a colorful and engrossing way. The courage and determination of the men and woman who knew that they faced sure death if they stayed is inspiring. The pace of the book is fast and you will find it hard to put down.
June 19, 2013
I thought this was a well-written beginner account of the Alamo. Knowing almost nothing about it except what I had seen in the Disney movie as a kid, I feel that I learned quite a bit about the defenders. Mr. Tinkle writes in an easy to read manner and held my interest the entire time.
If there is a fault, I would say that this account (though I am for the Texans) was very one-sided. Santa Anna is not the only Mexican in the battle, but he is the only one portrayed.
If there is a fault, I would say that this account (though I am for the Texans) was very one-sided. Santa Anna is not the only Mexican in the battle, but he is the only one portrayed.
April 18, 2008
Had a chance to visit The Alamo during a recent visit to San Antonio. This was the book recommended at the gift shop. Short, tight narrative. Jim Bowie, Wililam Travis, and Davey Crockett are all profiled for their role at the Battle of The Alamo, as is General Santa Anna. It's not the John Wayne movie by any means, but all the more exciting and tragic because it's factual.
August 9, 2015
Easy to read overview of the Battle of the Alamo with short profiles of the major characters and the motivations that led them to being at this place at this time in history. Highly recommended for those interested in American history and especially the history of Texas and its fight for independence from Mexico.
November 20, 2014
The author arranges the events of the Battle of the Alamo [in reality the second as in the first the Texican force took the mission from the Mexican army] in a minute by minute sequence. It provides another perspective of the historic battle.
August 25, 2009
Very Good; Account of the last days of the Alamo, including backgrounds of Bowie, Travis, Crockett, Santa Anna.
March 11, 2015
A very good concise account of the events of the siege of the Alamo. Profiles of the major, and some of the minor, figures. The back story is recounted through flash backs.
March 29, 2017
Excellent book. I am thankful for all the brave men and women at the Alamo.
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