The Alamo Flag

Wow, I did not know what I was going to uncover when doing the research for this flag. This painting depicts the Alamo flag. Or is it? For well over 150 years, popular culture has placed the 1824 Flag flying from the walls of the Alamo during those fateful thirteen days when a handful of determined men stood before the might of the Mexican army and shouted "Liberty or Death." The idea that the defenders of the Alamo flew the 1824 Flag is rooted solely in the belief that the defenders were fighting for the restoration of the Mexican Constitution of 1824. That belief and all conjecture that flows from it, are unfounded. Indeed, the idea that the defenders would have considered flying the 1824 Flag from the walls of their fortress is, at the very least, far fetched and, at the most, demeaning to their cause and their memory. This flag existed no doubt but there is no empirical evidence to prove that the green, white and red tricolor with the black numerals 1824 supplanting the central Mexican eagle was ever used at the Alamo.

The flag was not captured and preserved by the victors nor recorded in the military accounts of the day. Though there were accounts by Texans of it being captured from the Mexican army months after the fall of the Alamo at a later battle. The few people who survived the battle were never asked about the flags the Texans flew. Those citizens of Béxar who were asked about the subject were questioned some seventy years after the fact and gave answers that are open to very broad interpretations. That leaves only the desire to restore the Mexican Constitution of 1824 to bear the full weight of evidence for the idea that the Alamo defenders would fly the 1824 Flag. So what to believe is up to you and the historical record.