The 13-day siege and Battle of the Alamo, 23 February to 6 March 1836, is among the most famous in American history, but, like any such event, it has inspired several myths, many accepted as historical fact. Disney's Davy Crockett miniseries (1954 to 1955), especially Davy Crockett at the Alamo, and John Wayne's full-length feature film The Alamo (1960) popularized many of these myths as they were both often people's introduction to the story of the Alamo.

The writers for both the miniseries and movie were not making events up, of course, but were simply repeating what they understood as actual history. Among these myths is one which is still, often hotly contested: that Davy Crockett died fighting on the walls of the Alamo. According to Mexican Colonel José Enrique de la Peña (1807 to 1840), present at the Battle of the Alamo, Crockett was among those who surrendered and were executed on 6 March 1836. Although this claim was dismissed when de la Peña's memoirs (With Santa Anna in Texas) were first published in 1955, the rumor that Crockett had surrendered was circulating as early as March/April 1836, and the claim has become more widely accepted as factual by modern-day scholars and historians.

Other myths have taken on the sheen of historical fact through propaganda written on the siege and battle from the 19th through the mid-20th century, and some are more recent inventions. The Most Shocking Place in Texas – Real Alamo Ghost Stories on the Shocking Ghost Stories YouTube channel, for example, claims that the room Jim Bowie died in at the Alamo is now haunted by his ghost. This is impossible – because that room no longer exists. Bowie's room was in the low barracks on the north side of the chapel, and that structure was leveled in 1871. This myth is not a recent creation of the Shocking Ghost Stories channel. In 2004, when I was at the Alamo, a fellow visitor asked me where she could find Jim Bowie's room in hopes of seeing his ghost.

An Alamo myth that comes directly from the John Wayne movie is that the Mexican Army had a large, long-range cannon, which the Alamo defenders had to sneak out and destroy. When I was teaching, I read student papers claiming this was "the largest cannon in North America," but no such cannon existed. In fact, all the cannon of the Mexican forces at the Siege of the Alamo were 4-pounder or 8-pounder. Santa Anna's officers urged him to wait for the arrival of the larger 12-pounder cannons rather than launch the 6 March assault, but, of course, he did not listen to them.

The following are some of the best-known myths surrounding the Alamo – though this list is by no means comprehensive.

Although the Alamo came to be used as a fort, it was built as a Catholic mission by the Spanish in 1718 to convert Native Americans to Catholicism and was known as Misión San Antonio de Valero. The famous chapel people know as the Alamo today was built in 1758 when the complex expanded to 3 acres (1.2 ha). It was supposed to look like the San Fernando Cathedral in modern-day San Antonio, with a dome and bell towers, but only the first two stories were ever completed.

It became secularized in 1793, was abandoned, and then, in 1803, was used by the Spanish military – the Second Flying Company of San Carlos de Parras – as a fort. This company gave the mission complex the name Alamos ("cottonwood tree") after the cottonwoods that grew nearby. After Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, the Alamo served as a Mexican military complex until December 1835, when General Cos surrendered it to the Texians, who garrisoned and held it, until it was retaken by Santa Anna at the Battle of the Alamo.

The Mexican forces at the Alamo numbered between 1500 and 3000, while the defenders were between 187 and 250. Although casualty numbers among the Mexican forces vary, they are usually given as around 600. Santa Anna considered his victory at the Alamo a great success, but this feeling was not shared by all his officers, enlisted men, or conscripts. De la Peña wrote:

Why, before agreeing on the sacrifice , which was great indeed, had no one borne in mind that we had no means at our disposal to save our wounded? Why were our lives uselessly sacrificed in a deserted and totally hostile country if our losses could not be replaced? These thoughts were followed by others more or less well based, for the taking of the Alamo was not considered a happy event but rather a defeat that saddened us all.

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Because of the arrangement of the Mexican columns during the 6 March attack, many soldiers died from friendly fire as those behind shot them in the pre-dawn darkness. Santa Anna had not provided a medical staff, and so many died of wounds that were not fatal. Santa Anna's senior staff had tried to get him to wait for the arrival of larger cannon that would have made the attack unnecessary, but he felt a victory without bloodshed would have no honor.

Although William Barret Travis is usually depicted in film versions of the Siege of the Alamo as distant and/or domineering, he was actually quite sociable and well-liked. Travis had been the central figure in the Anahuac Disturbances of 1832 and 1835, and so he was also respected by the other defenders on that account. Still, the myth persists that the garrison disliked Travis and demonstrated this by voting for Jim Bowie as their commander.

It was not that they disliked Travis; it was that, as volunteers, they objected to command by someone from the regular army, as scholar William C. Davis notes:

While one company said they would accept as their commander, two others made it clear that they objected to his commanding them because he was a regular, while they had served from the previous October in an army that had popularly elected its commander.

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Travis and Bowie agreed to a co-command, but this all became moot on 24 February when Bowie fell ill, and Travis became the commander of the garrison.

This is another myth popularized by the John Wayne film, which claims Travis and the others needed to hold the Alamo as long as possible to give Houston time to form an army. Actually, between mid-January and early March, Houston was not doing anything to organize an army. He had been made commanding general of the regular army in November 1835, but there were few regular army soldiers to command, and he had no authority over the volunteer militia. Between January and March, Houston took care of other business, personal matters, and attended the convention of the provisional government at Washington-on-the-Brazos.

The battle was fought because the Alamo had been fortified by the Texians after General Cos, Santa Anna's brother-in-law, had been defeated at the Siege of Béxar in December 1835. Jim Bowie, sent to destroy the Alamo in January 1836, felt it could be an asset to the Texians and insisted it be held. Santa Anna wanted to avenge the insult to his family's honor and so marched on the Alamo. He could have easily continued the siege until the defenders ran out of ammunition and provisions or, as noted, waited for the larger cannon to arrive and bombed the Alamo garrison into surrender.

The army Houston led at San Jacinto was made up of men he found at Gonzales on 11 March, who were waiting to be led to the Alamo by Colonel Fannin, and others who joined later to avenge those who fell at the Alamo and in the Goliad Massacre. Houston actively recruited none of them.

Colonel James W. Fannin was commanding 320 men at Fort Defiance in Goliad and, heeding Travis' call for reinforcements at the Alamo, assembled his men to march on 25 or 26 February. While still in sight of Fort Defiance, a wagon broke down and had to be repaired, then two others broke. The oxen were not strong enough to haul the cannon across the river. Fannin ordered his men to camp for the night.

The next morning, they found the oxen had wandered off, and Fannin called a council to discuss how they should proceed. They had little ammunition, almost no provisions, and now no oxen to pull the wagons. They would not be able to bring the cannon because they could not get it across the river. Fannin therefore ordered the men to turn around and return to Fort Defiance.

These men, and others who joined the garrison, would be defeated by the Mexican forces under General José de Urrea at the Battle of Coleto Creek on March 19 to 20 and executed by firing squad on 27 March. A small band, however, ignored Fannin's command in February and continued on to the Alamo, dying there with the rest.

This "myth" is not so much a myth as an uncorroborated account that has become historical fact. According to legend, on 5 March, William Barret Travis informed the Alamo garrison that an attack would come soon, and their position was untenable. He then drew a line in the sand of the Alamo courtyard with his sword and asked any man who would stand with him to defend the fort to cross it. Every man present, except one, Moses Rose, did so. Jim Bowie, sick on a cot, is said to have had some of his men carry him across the line. Moses Rose then slipped over the walls and escaped.

Rose, according to legend, told the story later to the Zuber family, who published the account in 1873. Susanna Dickinson, wife of Almaron Dickinson, the artillery officer at the Alamo, who survived the battle, reported that Travis did give such a speech to the garrison prior to the battle but never mentioned him drawing the line in the sand. Joe, Travis' slave, also never mentions the line drawn in his account of the siege. Still, this story has become central to Alamo lore, and, at the Alamo Historic Site today, a metal line and plaque can be seen out front commemorating the spot where Travis drew his line.

All the defenders of the Alamo were killed in battle or executed immediately afterwards, but around 15 non-combatants survived. Among these were Travis' slave, Joe, Susanna Dickinson and her infant daughter Angelina, Ana Salazar Esparza and her children, and Brigido Guerrero, a Mexican soldier who had deserted to fight for the Texians and, during the battle, convinced the Mexican soldiers he had been taken prisoner.

Moses Rose escaped from the Alamo before the battle began and so is not technically a "survivor," although he is usually counted among them. Juan Sequin is also counted among the survivors, but he left the Alamo on 25 February to gather reinforcements.

There were only two commanders at the Alamo – William B. Travis and James 'Jim' Bowie, but, largely due to media portraying David 'Davy' Crockett as "Colonel Crockett", the myth has grown that he was also a co-commander. Scholar William C. Davis notes:

There were only two obvious candidates . Some of the volunteers wanted Crockett to accept the post. After all, he was "Colonel" Crockett, and he had war experience, which most of them no doubt had heard greatly exaggerated versions of in recent years. When they approached him, however, he refused.

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Jim Bowie is famously depicted in John Wayne's The Alamo as being wounded in battle and brought to his room in the low barracks, where he is later killed by Mexican troops. Actually, Bowie played a very small role in the Siege of the Alamo as he fell ill, probably with tuberculosis, on 24 February, one day after the siege began. After that, he was bedridden. There are conflicting accounts regarding his death, including suicide or being dragged from his room and killed. Most scholars believe he died fighting from his bed, but there is no evidence he was ever wounded during the 13-day siege.

Most of the defenders of the Alamo were Anglo-Americans who had come from the United States, but there were also Tejano defenders who believed in the cause. Among these were Juan Sequin, Juan Abamillo, Gregorio Esparza (whose brother was with Santa Anna's army), José Maria Guerrero, and José Toribio Losoya.

Many Tejanos fought for the Texian cause from the Battle of Gonzales on 2 October 1835 to the Battle of San Jacinto on 21 April 1836, but after independence from Mexico was won, they did not fare well. Anglo-Americans took Tejano lands and generally distrusted them. Juan Sequin, who had been born in San Antonio de Béxar, served at the Alamo and led his men at San Jacinto, was driven with his family from his home by Anglo-Americans, and would later fight for the Mexican cause in the Mexican-American War of 1846 to 1848.