Howdy and welcome to Wise About Texas, the Texas History Podcast. I'm your host Ken Wise and we are right in the middle of the 180th anniversary of the Texas Revolution.

In fact, today is March 2nd 2016 which is Texas Independence Day, so happy Independence Day.

180 years ago today the Texas Convention at Washington on the Brazos drafted a Declaration

of Independence from Mexico.

Not surprisingly, it looked familiar and a lot like the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

So go online and read the Texas Declaration of Independence

and remember the spirit of the founders of this great state.

Now last episode, we talked about the events leading up to the siege of the Alamo.

That episode ended with the Texians at Beharse

spotting Santa Ana's advance guard approaching the town.

180 years ago today on March 2nd, the defenders were in the middle of the siege and their circumstances

were uncertain to say the least.

Today I'm going to take you to the Alamo and we're going to use the pen of its commander, William Barrett, Travis,

to set the scene in Texas 180 years ago.

Travis wrote several letters during the siege and when you read them you see how the sense of desperation and indeed despair

increased as the siege went on. We're going to talk about the folks that were in the Alamo and take a quick look at some of the famous stories that came out of that time.

So let's go back 180 years to 1836 and get wise about Texas.

It's February 23rd, 1836, and the Texians are in Behar.

Travis and Bowie are sharing the command of the garrison.

The centuries in Behar spot the Mexican cavalry advancing on the town.

The Texian scouts confirm that the army was near and Travis ordered everyone into the

Alamo which by this time is thought to be very defensible.

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