The Mexican American War Question

Compass Rose

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I have a question for all of you MAW "experts".

The following is a description from one of the game scenarios

TWI004_Alamo_02a.scn - The Alamo - "¡Deguello!" – 18 turns
[Hypothetical] 4:00 am - Sunday, March 6th, 1836 Santa Anna's Ejército de Operaciones en Tejas (Army of Operations in Texas) assaulted the Alamo ( Mission San Antonio de Valero. ) This scenario depicts what may have happened if the battle would have started at the time Santa Anna wanted it to. NOTES--- This scenario lasts for one and one-half hours. The Texans move first. Victory Points per 25 men: Infantry = 10; Cavalry = 20. Victory Points per Artillery Piece = 20; Supply Point = 1. Objective Hexes are present for the Texans, and they have Exit Hexes through which they may gain Victory Points by removing any of their units from the map while the unit is occupying the Exit Hex. These hexes are located along the edge of the map.


My question has to do with the following statement; "This scenario depicts what may have happened if the battle would have started at the time Santa Anna wanted it to."

So my questions are:

What caused Santa Anna's time frame to be "messed up"?

Did he have to attack sooner than he wanted to or did he attack later than he wanted to?

Thanks
 

rahamy

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I'll have to let Al answer that one, as that was his section of the game.
 

Sgt_Rock

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On March 5, day twelve of the siege, Santa Anna announced an assault for the following day. This sudden declaration stunned his officers. The enemy's walls were crumbling. No Texan relief column had appeared. When the provisions ran out, surrender would remain the rebels' only option. There was simply no valid military justification for the costly attack on a stronghold bristling with cannons. But ignoring these reasonable objections, Santa Anna stubbornly insisted on storming the Alamo. Around 5:00 A.M. on Sunday, March 6, he hurled his columns at the battered walls from four directions. Texan gunners stood by their artillery. As about 1,800 assault troops advanced into range, canister ripped through their ranks. Staggered by the concentrated cannon and rifle fire, the Mexican soldiers halted, reformed, and drove forward. Soon they were past the defensive perimeter. Travis, among the first to die, fell on the north bastion. Abandoning the walls, defenders withdrew to the dim rooms of the Long Barracks. There some of the bloodiest hand to hand fighting occurred. Bowie, too ravaged by illness to rise from his bed, found no pity. Mexican soldiers slaughtered him with their bayonets. The chapel fell last. By dawn the Centralists had carried the works. The assault had lasted no more than ninety minutes. As many as seven defenders survived the battle, but Santa Anna ordered their summary execution. Many historians count Crockett as a member of that hapless contingent, an assertion that still provokes debate in some circles. By eight o'clock every Alamo fighting man lay dead. Currently, 189 defenders appear on the official list, but ongoing research may increase the final tally to as many as 257.

The only delay I have read about was that the officers wanted to hold up the assault from happening on the 3rd until some 12lbers arrived on the 7th.

Frankly the assault was needless as the Texans would have had to give up anyway.
 
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AlAmos

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Checkmate,

Thanks for the interest, sorry for the delay. I'd recommend referencing Nofi's book on the Alamo, I believe that was the source I got this from.

It's been awhile and I no longer have my notes (computer meltdown last summer,) but that line refers to one of two events....

Most likely reason I put that in was because Santa Anna wanted to attack much earlier in the morning, like close to after midnight, but time delays to assemble, etc messed that up.

The othe possible reason was that the attackers did not obey the 'advance in complete silence' order, and gave the defenders about a 15 minute heads up.

Sorry, the memory is bad, but as I said, it's been long while since research for those scenarios was done.

al
 
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