Women of the Alamo

The women and children who survived the legendary battle at the mission should be remembered for their courage and valiant actions.

We remember the Alamo siege and battle for the men who died there. Not as well remembered are their families who endured the thirteen-day siege and final battle alongside them. Gunfire had barely ceased in and around the Alamo on the morning of March 6, 1836, when Mexican soldiers gathered a group of traumatized, frightened women and children and led them from the fort. Facts about the Alamo survivors have blurred over the years due to conflicting accounts, editorializing by interviewers, failing memories and some hostilities among certain survivors. Most of the women and their children endured the battle in a back room of the Alamo church. A few sheltered in other parts of the fort. Most were lucky enough to have lived through the early morning fight. Susanna Dickinson receives the most attention as a survivor of the Alamo. Many early newspaper articles and histories incorrectly recorded her as the sole survivor. Wife of artillery officer Almeron Dickinson, she survived the battle with her young daughter Angelina. Susanna left a number of conflicting accounts of the Alamo over the years, which keep Alamo historians scratching their heads to this day. She remembered her husband rushing into the room to inform her that the Mexicans were inside the walls. He implored her to save their child if the enemy spared her. He returned to the fight and she never saw him alive again. In a later account, she told of 17-year-old Galba Fuqua of Gonzales running into her room to convey a message to her. Unfortunately he could not speak, since a bullet had broken his jaw. After several attempts he rushed back to the battle.

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