Endless Siege

A Line in the Sand: The Alamo in Blood and Memory, by Randy Roberts and James S. Olson (Free Press, 356 pp., $26)

FOR good reason, this story is the stuff of legends. On February 23, 1836, amid fierce winds, hail, and frigid temperatures, the siege of the Alamo began. Inside, the defenders—a motley crew that included Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and Col. William Barrett Travis—were known as “Texians,” “Texans,” or “Tejanos,” but to Santa Anna—the commanding general of all the Mexican armies, the Napoleon of the West, the Benemérito de la Patria (“Hero of the Fatherland”)—they were mere rabble. “These Texans,” Santa Anna sneered, “are the least advanced in civilization, ignorant of war, incapable of discipline.” And he meant to teach them a lesson. “I shall send four to six thousand men to Texas with the purpose of punishing those turbulent, insolent North Americans,” he bellowed, “and I shall convert Texas into a desert.”

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Jay Winik

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A Line in the Sand: The Alamo in Blood and Memory, by Randy Roberts and James S. Olson (Free Press, 356 pp., $26)

FOR good reason, this story is the stuff of legends. On February 23, 1836, amid fierce winds, hail, and frigid temperatures, the siege of the Alamo began. Inside, the defenders—a motley crew that included Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and Col. William Barrett Travis—were known as “Texians,” “Texans,” or “Tejanos,” but to Santa Anna—the commanding general of all the Mexican armies, the Napoleon of the West, the Benemérito de la Patria (“Hero of the Fatherland”)—they were mere rabble. “These Texans,” Santa Anna sneered, “are the least advanced in civilization, ignorant of war, incapable of discipline.” And he meant to teach them a lesson. “I shall send four to six thousand men to Texas with the purpose of punishing those turbulent, insolent North Americans,” he bellowed, “and I shall convert Texas into a desert.”