On March 5 Santa Anna declared to his officers that a general assault on the Alamo would take place the following morning, despite objections that a surrender was possible due to no relief coming and the fort crumbling. At 5 AM around 1,800 troops massed forward, to be met with canister shot from the Texian artillery. Reforming, they went forward again, this time breaching the defensive perimeter on all sides; Travis died on the north bastion. Vicious hand-to-hand fighting occurred as the Texians fall back to the Long Barracks; Bowie, out of the battle since the first day of the siege with pneumonia, was bayoneted in his cot. The remaining defenders fell some 90 minutes after the assault began. | On March 5 Santa Anna declared to his officers that a general assault on the Alamo would take place the following morning, despite objections that a surrender was possible due to no relief coming and the fort crumbling. At 5 AM around 1,800 troops massed forward, to be met with canister shot from the Texian artillery. Reforming, they went forward again, this time breaching the defensive perimeter on all sides; Travis died on the north bastion. Vicious hand-to-hand fighting occurred as the Texians fall back to the Long Barracks; Bowie, out of the battle since the first day of the siege with pneumonia, was bayoneted in his cot. The remaining defenders fell some 90 minutes after the assault began. |