The first Battle of the Alamo took place at an old Franciscan mission. The fighting began in the last week of February and continued to the first week of March in 1836. General Santa Anna had an estimated army of 2,000 to 6,000 soldiers compared to a couple of hundred Texans fighting for independence from Mexico. Santa Anna ordered his men to take no prisoners except for a couple who were released so that they could tell other Texans what awaited them.

The Alamo mission

Sam Houston understood military history. Listen to his analysis of the situation between Napoleon and Wellington.

Wellington had a smaller army than Napoleon. However, he waited until Napoleon made a military mistake. The result of that blunder was Wellington’s victory at Waterloo. Houston doesn’t see himself as Wellington, but he knows that Santa Anna saw himself as the Napoleon of the West. Houston’s strategy was to wait until Santa Anna made his mistake. Santa Anna’s Waterloo was at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, six weeks after the Battle of the Alamo.

The Battle of San Jacinto

Houston’s army was half of Santa Anna’s fighting force, but the battle was said to have lasted only eighteen minutes. Houston merely waited until Santa Anna blundered. That was nearly two centuries ago.

This is about the present-day Battle of the Alamo, not in Texas but in Ukraine. The Ukrainians are the Texans, and the Putin is Santa Anna. General Petraeus observed the Russian army caused the deaths of many innocent children, women, and ordinally citizens. During Ukraine’s attempt to maintain its independence from Russia, the Russian military merely was on a killing spree of noncombatants.

Petraeus singled out the steel mill at Mariupol, which had been shelled and bombed for most of the war. There were around 2,000 soldiers and 500 civilians hiding underground in the steel mill at one time.

The Mariupol steel mill

Petraeus said, “But then you have the situation in Mariupol, which has become a bit of a Ukrainian Alamo at this point in time. It’s fighting to the last defender, and pinning down multiple Russian battalions in so doing, very heroically, but ultimately, it looks as if it’s going to have to collapse. It’s going to be taken.”

This is a photo taken on May 8^th in the steel mill.

This essay was about two Alamos, one in Texas and the other in Ukraine. What are your Alamos that you face? Who or what causes are you willing to sacrifice your life? Jot down what you deem important to you on a piece of paper. Those are the things you see significant enough to die so that others can live.

Finally, tell those people that you love them.