This was written in a magazine. That Jeanine Plumer published called Weird Texas in 2001. The article was written by Martin Leal who passed away on March 30th, 2011. He was internationally famous for his ghost investigations and he was one of the lead. Ghost investigators in the United States having traveled all over the country.
Ghosts of the Alamo by Martin Leal.
San Antonio TX, is the home of the San Antonio Spurs, the Riverwalk, the Alamo, and various other tourist attractions. It has been considered one of the four unique cities in America because of its charm, history and unique offering of things to do. Now San Antonio is becoming known as one of the most haunted cities in America.
San Antonio The Alamo City is the oldest city in the state of Texas, and was the largest city until the early 1900s. As a ghost hunter, where do you want to look for ghosts? In cemeteries and on old battlefields. Standing in front of the Alamo on a cool night with a full moon hanging over the shrine is a Ghost Hunter dream.
Why are cemeteries the number one choice on a ghost Hunters list is a place to look for ghosts?
One interesting theory is based on a study where dying people were placed on elaborate scales and at the time of death. 3/8 to. to 1.5 Ounces of the body weight were lost. This was believed to be the mass of energy that makes up a ghost. The ethereal energy that gets stuck on the earth without a physical body. It was also noticed that sometimes the energy stayed within the body for days or weeks and if the body has been placed in a cemetery, there is a high probability that the energy would get stuck in the area where the body is located, the cemetery.
Why battlefields? It is a place where many people have died, violent deaths, leaving unsettled spirits.
The Alamo is just such a battlefield, and just such a cemetery. Before the infamous battle, which took place in 1836,, the Alamo was a Spanish mission, and from 1724. Through 1793,, Alamo Plaza was the location of a cemetery. Somewhere between 954 and 1100 people are buried in front of the Alamo. In those days, the Spaniards wanted to be buried as close as possible to the front doors of the church because they believed that after death their spirit would enter the front doors of the church and leave through the roof and up to heaven. Then the Battle of the Alamo took place and 1800 people died within a few hours. The Alamo defenders were not buried. Their bodies were burned in two locations. One site is located right behind the Alamo, where the fire station now stands. The other site is located on the lower level of the river center mall, off of Commerce Street, where there is a bookstore and photo center.
There have been numerous stories about ghost sightings at the Alamo over the last 150 years. Our local newspaper has written about several eyewitness accounts.
It is not uncommon for visitors to tell the security guards or employees of the Alamo, that they have seen a person in 1800 clothing walk by.
The first legend related to the Spirits of the Alamo dates back to a few weeks after the Battle of the Alamo. Following the battle, General. Andrade was left in San Antonio with about 1000 soldiers, while Santa Anna went east to the Battle of San Jacinto. When Santa Ana was defeated, messengers were sent back to San Antonio, and General Andrade was ordered to destroy the Alamo before retreating south to the Rio Grande. He, in turn, handed down the order to Colonel Sanchez, who gathered a group of soldiers together and headed over to the Alamo.
The group of terrified soldiers quickly returned to camp and told General Andrade that they could not destroy the Alamo, and furthermore, They were not going back to try. They explained. That as they try to enter the Alamo shrine, six Diablos. Deviled figures, with swords of fire, or of flaming sabers formed a semicircle in front of the entrance. It would not let them in. General Andrade thought that this was totally ridiculous and decided that he would have to do the job himself. He got together another group of soldiers and went to the Alamo and was confronted by the six ghosts who yelled, “do not touch these walls, do not harm the Alamo”!
In addition to the Six Ghosts, General was also confronted by the image of a person, larger than Life, with their hands up in the air, above the long barracks. The image Held balls of fire in each hand. Today it is believed that when the ethereal energy was released from the fires that burned the Alamo defenders bodies, this spirit took that energy to manifest itself, and to scare off anyone who would try to destroy the Alamo.
The legend of this protective spirit has been depicted in a centograph, and is the largest image on the monument. The Centograph, also known as the Alamo Defender’s monument, is located in Alamo Plaza and represents the spirit of sublime heroic sacrifice. The names of all of the Alamo defenders are listed, and statues of the famous four defenders, Travis, Bowie, Bonham and Crockett are also represented. This rich history is the reason most people believe the ghosts are haunting the Alamo area. Many like to believe that the first 6 ghosts seen by Colonel Sanchez and his men are the spirits of some of the famous people involved in the battle. I had been told that the spirit of John Wayne roams the area. There are true ghost sightings, though, I hear about them on a regular basis. Here are a few of my favorite ghosts to watch for
Above the front doors of the Alamo there is a window. There have been reports of a human face looking out of the window from time to time, and if that window were not located about 12 feet above the floor, it would not be such a surprise. But the real shock is that the face appears to look through the window. The three dimensional face appears to break the barrier of the window and bars. This actually makes a lot of sense. It is probably the ghost of an Alamo defender who used to stick his head out of the window to shoot his gun and now, he is still sticking his head out of the window without any regards to the bars and glass that have been installed.
To the right of the Alamo is an arched wall with a doorway and an iron gate. In the evenings come up when the Alamo is closed to the public, tourists gazing through the iron bars have seen the image of a person wearing a long black coat and cowboy hat strolling along the south wall of the Alamo. Sometimes this ghost appears to look just like a normal person, and sometimes the ghost appears misty.
To the left of the Alamo is another doorway, an iron gate, and people also look through the opening into the courtyard between the Alamo and the long barracks.
There have been sightings of ghosts, ghostly looking images, hanging around the old well and under a large Live Oak tree. I have seen this ghost once. The ghost appeared to be about 5 foot two or three inches tall and very thin. It was a dark human shape that appeared to be walking back and forth near the well. One of the most bizarre things I have come across, as a ghost investigator is the appearance of the image of the number 666 emerging from the original Wall of the Alamo in the last couple of years. At the level of the window located above the front doors, over to the right about 10 feet. You can make out the first 6. Then there are two more sixes that are visible in 2 foot intervals to the right of the first 6. Of course, this could be a coincidence. I am not going to speculate, what the 666 actually means, But it is a common belief that that the 666 is a mark of the beast, where some say the devil. The 666 first started to appear on January of 1999. Based on our investigation and examination of various photos, it appears to be getting more pronounced as time goes on. This is yet another example of Texas’s Haunted Alamo.
