Remembering the Alamo

The 9-cent Alamo stamp was issued on on June 14, 1956, at San Antonio, Texas. It was part of the definitive series of stamps and was used to meet the three-ounce first-class domestic letter rate.

The Alamo, originally known as Mission San Antonio de Valero, is a former Roman Catholic mission and fortress compound. It was the site of the Battle of the Alamo in 1836 and is now a museum in San Antonio, Texas.

The mission compound was built by the Spanish Empire in the 18th century for the education of local Native Americans after their conversion to Christianity. In 1793, the mission was secularized and soon abandoned. Ten years later, it became a fortress housing a Mexican Army group. Mexican soldiers held the mission until December 1835, when General Martin Perfecto de Cos surrendered it to the Texian Army following the siege of Bexar.

A relatively small number of Texian soldiers then occupied the compound. General Sam Houston believed the Texians did not have the manpower to hold the fort and ordered Colonel James Bowie to destroy it. Bowie chose to disregard those orders and instead worked to fortify the mission. On February 23, Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna led a large force of Mexican soldiers into San Antonio de Bexar and attacked the Alamo. When the Battle of the Alamo ended, all or almost all of the Texian defenders had been killed. (Source: Wikipedia).

This is a post for Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog