Flags Over the Alamo

There has been a lot of misinformation over which flag or flags flew during the siege over the Alamo in 1836? Article by Robert Mayberry Jr. from his book, Two Flags and printed in the Texas Monthly, March 2002: “Two flags flew over the Alamo during the famous 1836 siege. Neither was a Mexican tricolor with ‘1824’ inscribed. The presence of such a flag is pure myth, and its description was not based on any eyewitness account. The story of the 1824 flag originated in 1860 as conjecture that the Texians were fighting to restore the tenets of the Mexican Constitution of 1824.

This story of the 1824 flag was repeated so many times that it became a matter of faith and assumed an undeserved place in the mythology of Texas. In reality, the defenders of the Alamo wanted no part of the Constitution of 1824. Eyewitnesses do, however, report a green, white, and red Mexican tricolor at the Alamo. But it had two stars, one for Texas and one for Coahuila, not 1824. This flag emphasizing the union of Texas with Mexico made only a brief appearance and probably was associated with the Tejanos of the Texian garrison. The fort’s main flag, the one Travis reported “still waves proudly from the walls” in his February 24 message “To the people of Texas and all Americans in the world” resembled not the flag of the Mexican Republic but that of the American one.

A preponderance of contemporary evidence suggests the flag of the Alamo had a field of thirteen red and white stripes like the Stars and Stripes of the United States, but in the canton [the square or rectangle in the upper hoist or the rectangle closest to the pole] was the lone star and between each point a letter of the word “Texas.” This was a flag the Anglo-Celtic defenders of the Alamo would have died for.”

I want to thank Texas historian Coy Prather of Anderson County, for clearing this up.