Discover The Alamo
“When I visited the Alamo as a teenager with a friend of mine, being typical teenagers, we looked for the strange and unusual everywhere we went. Her parents bought our tour tickets and we toured the various missions in and around San Antonio TX, including the Alamo. Walking along behind the crowd from the bus, we got left outside. My friend glanced up to the top of the Chapel and drew in a quick breath. Pointing toward the upper windows.
“Look up there and tell me what you see. Is it a fire”? “It looks like smoke to me.”
I said “No, there is no smoke or fire. But there is a little boy standing on the window frame. He says he’s looking for his family. Don’t you see that little blonde haired boy in the window?”
“No, my friend said. I thought I saw smoke coming from the window. I sure didn’t see a little boy up there.”
As we completed the tour and started back toward the bus, I turned for one more look, and there, high above the Plaza. The little boy floated on the edge of the window ledge.
The History of the Alamo
Mission San Antonio de Valero
The location of the Alamo today, was a Spanish mission named Mission San Antonio de Valero. Founded in 1724 by Franciscan monks under Father Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares, the mission was built along the San Antonio River to spread Roman Catholicism to local Native American communities But it was also a defense against the warring Indians.
The Texas Revolution and the Battle of the Alamo as told by witness Joe. William Travis’ slave. Thia is the BEST account of what happened during the battle. READ HERE
The Burning of the Bodies
After the battle, General Santa Anaa had decreed that there would be no mercy given to any of the defenders of the Alamo, and none was asked nor received. In just a few hours of fierce fighting, all the Texas forces were annihilated, their lifeless corpses left lying where they fell. Because there were none of their own number left to bury them, and the remnants of the Mexican army were busy. Taking their own debt off for burial, Santa Anna gave the orders to burn the Dead Texans.
Old records indicate there were two, possibly three, funeral pyres, the bodies were stacked like cord wood to smolder for days.
Denied the dignity of a Christian burial, killed in sudden and violent action, it is no wonder that even today there are many accounts of strange things and noises and cold spots associated with the Alamo and the Long Barracks Museum where the fiercest of the fighting is reported to have taken place.
Although the exact location of the funeral pyres are unknown, sketchy accounts handed down over the years, largely by word of mouth, indicate that at least one was located on the ‘old Alameda”, a Cottonwood tree lined ave located where East Commerce Street is today. Just east of the location of St Joseph Catholic Church, there was a boarding house named Ludlow’s at what is now 821 E Commerce. There was a Peach orchard in back of the boarding house.
Witnesses to the events, both small children at the time, were interviewed. By the late Charles Merritt Barnes in an article in the Express News which ran on March 26th, 1911. He had interviewed Don Pablo Diaz and Enrique Esperazza, who had been around eight years old at the time of the battle. Both vividly recalled the burning funeral pyres and the stench of the smoke filled the air for days. From these interviews, Barnes concluded the bodies were burned in two pyres, one in the Ludlow yard and the other on the south side of the street, some 250 yards east.
Haunted Bookstore
Brentanos Bookstore in the River Center Mall
A young man who was working at the bookstore said that strange things had been happening in the establishment and they might possibly have their own resident ghost. He reported that lights would go on and off, books would be moved about, and cash registers would open and close. He reported there was a cold spot in one corner of the shop. In checking around, it seemed the shop is located just about where the Ludlow boarding house would have been, and the Peach orchard in back where one of the pyres was reported to have been. He further went on to say that on March 6th of 1991, lights had gone off and on all day and other unexplainable things had happened. That date is, of course, the anniversary date of the battle and the subsequent burning of the Texas dead which followed.
Firey apparitions
Numerous historical accounts have mentioned that after Santa Anna and his forces surrendered to the Texans under General Sam Houston on April 21st, 1863 at the Battle of San Jacinto, Orders were sent to the small Mexican force remaining in San Antonio to evacuate and retreat S. They were ordered to destroy the Alamo before their departure.
General Andrade, who was in command, gave his subordinate Colonel Sanchez the order to send a party of men to blow up the chaplain. Several men left for the task but soon returned, saying they could not destroy the building. Their faces showed stark terror, and no amount of persuasion could force them to go back to the building. They reported having seen strange figures which they described as Diablo ‘s., six ghostly forms standing in a semi circle holding swords, not of steel, but of fire, blocking their entry to the building. They were terrified and fearful of the consequences if they should destroy the building, they reported back to their commander. It is said General Andrade went himself to the place and was also confronted by the same figures. And so it was that the building was left intact, as the Mexican army marched out of San Antonio.
Dismantling the Alamo
In 1871, the City of San Antonio decided to dismantle the last remaining part of the original mission, other than the Chapel and long barracks, which remain today, this section was the two rooms on either side of the main gate of the south wall. Late one evening, before these were destroyed, guests at the Menger Hotel watched in shocked amazement as spectral forms marched, perhaps in protest of the desecration, along the walls of the rooms.
The San Antonio Express News of February 5th, 1894 had a most interesting article concerning the Alamo. “The Alamo again the center of interest to quite a number of curious people who have been attracted to the rumors of the manifestations of alleged ghosts who are said to be around the place due to its sacred Texas historic dead. There is nothing new about the stories told. There is the same measured tread of mostly ghosts as they walk from the south side of the roof, from the east to the West, the same tale of buried treasure and the same manifestation of fear by the American citizens who have to pass the historic ground. The only variation appears to be in the fact that the sound of the feet on the roof has been heard as late as 5:00 in the morning by the officer in charge, who says that as a matter of fact. However, the sounds are never heard except on rainy drizzly nights. He attributes the whole matter to some cause growing out of the condition of the roof during rainy weather, but forgot to give any reason why the same causes that produce the sounds at night did not produce the same sounds in daylight hours.
John Wayne’s ghost!
A featured article in the Sunday Section of the Express News, dated January 27th, 1991. Blared: “John Wayne’s ghost Remembers the Alamo”. Seems the story first ran in the National Enquirer.
Questions about ghosts at the Alamo Museum are usually referred to Charles Long, who was the curator of the Alamo Museum at that time. Charles Long did take John Wayne on a tour of the historic mission when the actor was filming the movie The Alamo some years back. Wayne’s widow, Pilar, wrote in his biography that “the story of the Alamo is the epitome of everything he, John Wayne, identified with and believed in, toughness, courage, and patriotism. So if his spirit comes back to visit the Alamo, it is no doubt John just wants to visit with the brave men who defended those ideals and were willing to die for them”.
Haunted Sites Beyond the Alamo
“A few years after the Battle of the Alamo, which took place on March 6, 1836,, the small hamlet of San Antonio began to grow rapidly, with the arrival of immigrants from abroad and settlers from all parts of the United States. The government of the New Republic of Texas had sent out word far and wide, that newcomers were welcome and choice land was available for homesteading.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the invitation to come to Texas had reached Germany, where it was of special interest to many young men living in that country. The custom had long been for only the eldest son in a family to inherit money, property, or title, upon the death of the parents. Younger and middle sons just had to fend for themselves, often joining the Prussian army, or signing up for the priesthood. Sometimes the young men would apprentice themselves to a Craftsman in order to learn a trade. Seeking a more prosperous lifestyle, a large number of ambitious young men from Germany began to arrive in the new republic.”
MORE ALAMO GHOST STORIES
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