The Ghost Stories of The Alamo

Remember the Alamo! It was the battle cry of Texas freedom fighters during the decisive Battle of San Jacinto, led by Sam Houston against Mexico in April 1836. And it was a memorial to the doomed defenders of the Spanish mission turned Texas fort; they had tried, without success, to hold off Mexican general Antonio LÓpez de Santa Anna in late February and early March of that year. The Alamo became a bloody battlefield and a hallowed final resting place for those who would never leave these grounds alive.

And the first of many ghost stories surrounding it came not long after the fall, when it's rumored that Santa Anna ordered one of his generals to dispatch some men to destroy the fort and its iconic Spanish church, now one of the most recognizable symbols of Texas. The men returned, ashen, claiming that their mission had been halted by "six diablos" carrying flaming swords. Whether the diablos were the ghosts of Alamo defenders or of long-ago Franciscan monks—or maybe just figments of battle-weary imaginations—they successfully defended the old church, where visitors can stand, press a hand against a bullet hole, and feel the past seep into the present.

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