Exhibit at the Alamo highlights event in siege
Outdoor work is at a location that’s best known for where one of fort’s biggest cannons was fired in defiance of Santa Anna
SAN ANTONIO — A temporary exhibit replicating a major focal point of the 1836 Alamo fort will be unveiled to the public Friday in Alamo Plaza, signaling the possibility of future period representations to commemorate the historic mission and battle site.
Local and state officials are expected to attend an 11 a.m. unveiling of the new outdoor “18Pounder/Losoya House Exhibit,” located where the southwest corner of the mission/fort once stood. A musket volley reenactment will follow the unveiling. The ramp and platform are best known as the place where one of the fort’s largest cannons, capable of discharging an 18-pound ball or canister, was defiantly fired to start the 13-day siege of the Alamo after Mexico’s Antonio López de Santa Anna and his army arrived Feb. 23, 1836.
The “immersive exhibit” offers a “close-up encounter” with Alamo history in the same location where it unfolded 185 years ago, according to the Alamo Trust. Concepts that have been discussed for other period representations in the plaza have included a second story of the Long Barrack that once housed the first hospital in Texas; wooden palisades by the Alamo church that were defended by Davy Crockett and other Tennessee riflemen; and the south wall and main gate of the fort.
In his book “Texian Iliad,” historian Stephen L. Hardin described how Alamo commander William B. Travis responded with a defiant cannon shot toward San Fernando Church, where Mexican troops had hoisted a red flag of no quarter. Santa Anna sent a messenger with a demand of unconditional surrender as the only recourse for the Texian rebels, “if they wish to save their lives,” a missive to the Alamo stated.
“Travis informed the enemy courier that a response would be forthcoming. And it was — a single shot hurled from the eighteen-pounder. There could be no mistaking the meaning of such a succinct reply,” Hardin wrote.
Below the cannon platform was the Losoya House, described by historians as an old Coahuiltecan Indian dwelling that had been deeded to the Losoya-Charlé family when Mission San Antonio de Valero was secularized and turned into a Spanish military fort known as El Álamo. Ventura Losoya and Concepción de Los Angeles Charlé had a son, José Toribio Losoya, who was born at the Alamo in 1808. He served in the Texian army and was killed in the battle.
The exhibit was designed by PGAV Destinations and fabricated by SRO Associates and ClarkGuido Construction. Several key state officials, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Land Commissioner George P. Bush, are expected to attend the unveiling. The exhibit will then be open 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily.
Research by the Alamo Trust recently revealed that the famed 18-pounder now is believed to have been made in Sweden, not England, and was originally a nine-pounder adapted to fire heavier rounds.