July stands for Independence!

July is here! I assume that this is the most exciting summer month for kids of all ages. When I was a kid, July meant fireworks, and lots of them. Despite my fourth grade teacher's good intentions to get me to understand the history behind the holiday. I continued to think that the fourth of July was all about fireworks. But that's all behind me now, since I've been living in San Antonio my goal is to learn as much about the city as I can. That includes the history. Read on to see what I've learned... Mrs. Lumpkin would be proud!

San Antonio has it's own story to tell about the independence of the state of Texas. The story takes place in the year 1836 at a site known as the Alamo. When I was young my mom would make me watch old movies with her,( She liked those black and white movies, and westerns, even though the trend was sitcoms in the 80's) and I remember one about the Alamo. I think it's pretty cool to be living here knowing it has a famous place in history. Anyway, 1836 was the final year of the Texas Revolution. The Mexican army was planning to infiltrate the Alamo they had a huge army in comparison to the group of Texans that decided to stand their ground at the Alamo. There were about 189 Texans fighting an Mexican army of about 1,800 soldiers. David Crockett was among them (I recall that name from my elementary history books!). Anywhoo...The jest of it is this, The Texans fought the Mexican army for 13 days continuously losing men. A small troop of volunteers from Gonzales joined the Alamo defenses. The Texans were able to fight off the Mexican army for a few days, but were unable to hold off the attacks. The Texans were losing men and their defenses were weakening, this forced them to retreat to the Long Barracks (currently a reconstructed museum) where the fight came to a bloody and deadly end for the Texans. A woman named Susanna Dickinson witnessed the battle, she was able to report the efforts of the brave defenders to an army general named Sam Houston. The story of the fight and the life sacrifices made by those men reached throughout Texas. "Remember the Alamo!" became the rallying cry. This prompted the Revolution battles that ultimately won the Independence of Texas.

This is a very moving story, and allows for reflection on the great sac