Cannonball dating to the Alamo battle unearthed 1 day before 190th anniversary of the conflict that killed Davy Crockett
Archaeologists have unearthed an intact bronze cannonball used in the Battle of the Alamo. They made the discovery a day before the 190th anniversary of the historic conflict between Mexican troops and white settlers in Texas.
The Alamo’s director of archeology, Tiffany Lindleyannounced the discovery in an episode of the Alamo podcast, “Stories Bigger than Texas“, Thursday March 19.
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The Alamo is a historic Spanish mission and fortress built in 1718 in present-day San Antonio, Texas. It was the site of a key battle in the Texas Revolution of 1836, when Anglo-American settlers in Texas seceded from the Republic of Mexico.
During a 12-day siege, thousands of Mexican troops under General Antonio López de Santa Anna surrounded the Alamo, which was defended by a small group of about 180 Texan rebels led by William Travis, James Bowie, and Davy Crockett. The Mexican army launched an assault on March 6, 1836, killing all of the Alamo’s defenders. In later skirmishes during the Texas Revolution, soldiers shouted “Remember the Alamo!” » as they fought Mexican troops for independence.
At the beginning of March, the archeology team was working near the northeast corner of the churchwho was part of the Spanish mission, when they discovered the cannonball buried about 0.9 meters below the surface.
“I basically sprinted to the unit,” Kolby LanhamAlamo senior researcher and historian, said in the podcast. “This is a true artifact from the Battle of the Alamo and you are holding it for the first time since the battle took place.”
Lanham noted that the artifact is a 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) bronze ball, which is the type of ammunition used by the Mexican army. The Texans, on the other hand, preferred iron cannonballs.
“I would say with some certainty that this is a Mexican Army cannonball and was probably fired during the Battle of the Alamo or could have been fired during the 12-day siege,” Lanham said. “This artifact waited 190 years before being removed from the ground.”
In addition to the intact cannonball, archaeologists recovered four cannonball fragments from outside the church. At least one of those fragments likely came from the Battle of the Alamo, Lindley said. But the fragments come from hollow bullets that were likely fired by the Mexican army from a short-barreled cannon called a howitzer, said Lanham, whose team is now working to piece together the fragments.
Archaeological and historical work is underway at the Alamo, and researchers regularly recover new information and artifacts like cannonballs. “Things like this change the history of the Alamo,” Lanham said.
The Alamo recently marked the 190th anniversary of the battle on March 6.
“We found that cannonball on March 5,” Lindley said, “the day before the memorial. I get chills just thinking about it.”
