Remember the Alamo: The Alamo

by Amelia E. Barr

Remember the Alamo By Amelia E. Barr The Battle of the Alamo left a substantial legacy and influence within American culture and is an event that is told from the perspective of the vanquished. Following the Mexican victory at the Battle of the Alamo, Mexican troops quartered in the Alamo Mission. As the Mexican army retreated from Texas following the Battle of San Jacinto, they tore down many of the walls and burned the palisade which Crockett had defended. Within the next several decades, various buildings in the complex were torn down, and in 1850 the United States Army added a gable to the top of the chapel. Speculation is that the gable was originally at Mission San José, due to its presence at that mission in 1846-48 sketches, and its absence in later images. As the 19th century progressed, the battle began to appear as a plot device in many novels and plays. In 1869, novelists Jeremiah Clemens and Bernard Lile wrote fictionalized accounts of the battle. Novelist Amelia Barr produced her own fictional version, Remember the Alamo, in 1888. In her book, Alamo Images, Susan Pendergrast Schoelwer noted that in these early novels "the Alamo passages seem almost incidental to the main plot, included perhaps as a means of attracting interest and encouraging sales".

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Westerns, Classics

146 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1888

About the author

Amelia Edith Barr, née Huddleston, was an English American novelist. (See also under Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr.)

In 1850 she married William Barr, and four years later they immigrated to the United States and settled in Galveston, Texas where her husband and three of their six children died of yellow fever in 1867. With her three remaining daughters, Mrs. Barr moved to Ridgewood,New Jersey in 1868. She came there to tutor the three sons of a prominent citizen, William Libby, and opened a school in a small house. This structure still stands at the southwest corner of Van Dien and Linwood Avenues.

Amelia Barr did not like Ridgewood and did not remain there for very long. She left shortly after selling a story to a magazine.[Caldwell,William A.,et al.,"The History of a Village, Ridgewood,N.J.," State Tercentenary Committee, c. 1964, p. 32] In 1869, she moved to New York City where she began to write for religious periodicals and to publish a series of semi-historical tales and novels.

By 1891, when she achieved greater success, she and her daughters moved up the Hudson River to Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, where they renovated a house on the slopes of Storm King Mountain and named it Cherry Croft. The name has been applied to that period of her career, the most productive and successful. She remained there until moving in with her daughter Lilly in White Plains in her last years.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no words. This book yanked my heart out and turned it over and inside out by the time I reached the last page.

There can be no peace while tyranny roams. Freedom is the only way that peace can exist in the world, for tyranny never allows for the peace of the individual. Freedom to think one's own thoughts and choose one's actions are always a threat to a society ruled by a Collective Mind or a dictator or a theocracy. But tyranny is ever a coward; the right to keep and bear arms, an American tradition, is one of the first things a conquering government wishes to suppress, followed quickly by a dictate of religion and a taking of personal property.

Few books illustrate this so boldly as this one. Dr. Worth and his friends recognized that the order to disarm the Americans was but the prequel to the outlawing of their religious rights and of their right to hold their personal property. He who had been all his life a peaceable man, friends with many, has to make the stand and begin to arm himself in public.

Next, after the order to disarm the Americans, an army is sent against them. After an initial repulse comes Santa Anna, with his famous march against the Alamo. Do you know the significance of the last stand at the Alamo? Men went in, knowing they would die, prepared to give as good an account of the enemy as possible. Americans had settled in the area under the treaty of 1824 and now were being required to submit to a disarming that left them unable to defend their homes and families against attacks by Indians and marauders. Rather than give in to a breaking of this treaty, they would fight overwhelming numbers and freely give their lives to defend their homes and families. These men were heroes, and because of their stand, the despot Santa Anna was tumbled from power.

This book will wring your heart with what the people faced and what a choice was made. A must-read for anyone interested in American history, but especially for anyone who wishes to visit the Alamo.

[E. Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A marvelous blend of historical information and pulsing action. The cry "Remember the Alamo" should stir the heart of every Texan.

[David Stoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another book that Ben and I are reading and we both think this book is amazing!

[Rachel]

interesting take on the Alamo. It was a romance though. Not my favorite.

[Els · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh. My. Heart.

I am completely shattered.

There is absolutely nothing I can say.

I am now changing the topic of my upcoming 20-minute speech to "Remember the Alamo" instead of the trifling subject of "Backpacking." This author made me feel the desperation of every character, the moral struggles, the taste of liberty, the cries of defeat. And my soul is destroyed.

If only I could be like Antonia Worth*.

*Now on my list of fictional role-models and heroes