"Where were Mexicans killed at the Alamo buried?"

Adapted from Paula Allen's article in the San Antonio EXPRESS - NEWS, Sunday, June 1, 2008.

Question by Frank Gibson:

"Where were the casualties of the Mexican army interred after the Battle of the Alamo?

"It seems impossible that Santa Anna took the dead soldiers back to Mexico."

Answer by Paula Allen.

"You are right that it would have been impractical to transport the bodies of the fallen soldados for home burial; nor does that sound like something Mexican President and Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna would have been motivated to do."

She then quotes from a fascinating book by Paul Robert Walker, Remember the Alamo: Texians, Tejanos and Mexicans Tell Their Stories.

"As reported by one of his officers, Capt. Fernando Urisa, the Mexican commander cast a cold eye on casualties.

"At one of their meetings, Santa Anna flourished a piece of chicken he was eating and asked Urissa:

What are the lives of soldiers more than so many chickens? I tell you, the Alamo must fall, and my orders must be obeyed at all hazards."

As Paula Allen makes clear, this included "pushing ranks forward to replace the fallen and sending troops over the walls of the fortress.

"After the battle, according to Urissa, Santa Anna extended the poultry allusion as he stood among the bodies of his own soldiers.

"Santa Anna told Urissa, pointing to the [Mexican] dead:

These are the chickens. Much blood has been shed; but the battle is over. It was but a small affair.

"One Tejano defender joined his Mexican opponents after death, says the Alamo [web] site [ www.thealamo.org ]

"Through special permission, Francisco Esparza -- who had fought on the Mexican side in the earlier Battle of Bexar -- was allowed to find the body of his brother, Gregorio, for internment in the Campo Santo."

Feel free to just click on www.thealamo.org or www.sanantonio.gov for more information ...