A defender born in Texas and a volunteer who arrived last month share a watch on the Alamo's wall. Write what each calls this place.Fact: Tejanos served in the Alamo beside volunteers who had been in Texas only a few weeks.
Two messengers, one from each side, meet between the lines at the Alamo on the first evening. Write what each reports back.Fact: on February 23, 1836, the Alamo's garrison asked for terms and was told surrender must be unconditional.
Write February 23, 1836, as a family of Bexar loading a cart before sunrise, with the Alamo across the river.Fact: in the early hours of February 23, 1836, residents began to leave Bexar.
A blacksmith of Bexar watches his forge carried piece by piece into the Alamo. Write what he says to the men carrying it.Fact: on February 23, 1836, the garrison took apart a town blacksmith's shop and moved it into the Alamo.
A cavalryman posted to the old mission in 1803 writes home to explain why people have started to call it the Alamo.Fact: alamo is Spanish for cottonwood; the name may come from nearby trees or from a company posted there.
A patient writes from a bed in the old mission, thirty years before any battle at the Alamo.Fact: between 1806 and 1812 part of the mission served as San Antonio's first hospital.
A stonemason of 1758 is told the mission church will have a dome and two bell towers. Write his letter home about the church that becomes the Alamo.Fact: the church was planned with three stories, a dome and two bell towers; the dome was never built.
A trader stops at the mission in the 1740s, long before anyone calls it the Alamo. Write what he sees in the fields and the workshop.Fact: the mission grew corn, beans and cotton, kept cattle and sheep, and had a textile workshop.
Climb the ramp of rubble inside the Alamo church to the cannon at the top, and write the view over the wall.Fact: soldiers had built a ramp inside the roofless church so that cannon could fire over its walls.
Describe the Alamo church as a child who shelters there in 1836 and looks straight up.Fact: at the time of the battle the Alamo church was a ruin with no roof.
The mission closes and its rooms stand empty. Write the last evening of its caretaker, who locks each door of the place later called the Alamo.Fact: the mission was secularized in 1793 and abandoned soon after.
Stand a night watch on the Alamo's wooden palisade in 1836 and write the hours by what you can hear.Fact: a wooden palisade closed the gap between the Alamo church and the low barracks.
Stand on the Alamo's wall in 1836 and describe what is in front of you, then turn around and describe what is behind.Fact: the Alamo's outer walls were 9 to 12 feet high and at least 2.75 feet thick.
Two men dig for water in the Alamo's plaza while the ditch that fed the fort runs dry. Write their talk as the hole gets deeper.Fact: when the besiegers tried to block the ditch that watered the Alamo, the garrison dug a well in the plaza.
Walk the inside of the Alamo's wall at first light as a carpenter with a list of what needs mending, and write the list.Fact: in 1836 the Alamo covered about 3 acres, with almost 1,320 feet of wall to defend.
Write the morning of a herder who drives cattle into the Alamo's pen a few hours ahead of an army.Fact: on February 23, 1836, the garrison hurried cattle into the Alamo and searched empty houses for food.
A letter carried out 13
A delegate at the convention holds a letter from the Alamo that took three days to arrive. Write what the room decides.Fact: a letter written in the Alamo on March 3, 1836, reached the convention on March 6, the day the fort fell.
A family in Gonzales reads the Alamo's call for help aloud at supper. Write who gets up from the table.Fact: on March 1, 1836, thirty-two men from Gonzales made their way through the lines and into the Alamo.
A messenger from the Alamo reaches Goliad and waits for an answer. Write the hour he waits.Fact: Goliad, where another garrison was posted, lay about 90 miles from the Alamo.
A messenger who speaks Spanish is chosen to slip out of the Alamo after dark. Write how he answers the patrol that stops him.Fact: on February 25, 1836, a courier chosen partly for his Spanish left at night and got past a patrol.
A printer in a far-off city sets the Alamo letter in type weeks after it was written. Write what he thinks as he works.Fact: the Alamo letter of February 24, 1836, was reprinted across the United States and in much of Europe.
A rider carries a letter out of the Alamo on the second day of the siege. Write his ride to Gonzales and the first person he hands it to.Fact: a letter of February 24, 1836, was addressed to the people of Texas and all Americans in the world.
A rider coming back to the Alamo ties a white cloth around his hat. Write the last half mile.Fact: on March 3, 1836, a returning courier wore a white cloth in his hat so the Alamo's gate would open.
The Alamo's biggest cannon is to fire three times a day as a signal. Write one day in a distant camp, listening for it.Fact: a letter of March 3, 1836, said the big cannon would fire three times a day to show the Alamo still held.
The men from Gonzales reach the Alamo in the dark and the sentries take them for the enemy. Write the minute before the gate opens.Fact: the Alamo's sentries fired on the men from Gonzales in the dark, then opened the gates to them.
Write a reply to the Alamo that never got through: one page from a town that has already sent all it can.Angle: say what was sent, what could not be, and what the writer hopes the reader will forgive.
Write the first message sent out of the Alamo in your own words: four short sentences at most, and it must ask for two things.Fact: the first note, of February 23, 1836, said the enemy was in sight and asked for men and provisions.
Write the letter a volunteer inside the Alamo sends to his sister by the last courier to leave.Fact: on March 5, 1836, the last courier known to leave the Alamo carried personal messages from the men.
Write the ox driver's account of the relief march that left Goliad for the Alamo and went almost nowhere.Fact: 320 men set out for the Alamo on February 26, 1836, and turned back after less than a mile.
Thirteen days 14
A boy inside the Alamo keeps a tally of the cannonballs that land in the plaza. Write his count for the week, and who he reports it to.Fact: more than 200 cannonballs landed in the Alamo's plaza in the first week, and the garrison reused them.
A cold north wind hits the Alamo and there is no firewood. Write the argument over what may be burned.Fact: in the first week of the siege a norther dropped the temperature to 39 degrees Fahrenheit.
A lookout in the bell tower of the town church is the first to see an army coming toward the Alamo. Write what he sees before he rings.Fact: on February 23, 1836, a lookout in the San Fernando church tower rang the bell that afternoon.
A townsperson of Bexar hears the Alamo fall from across the river and writes one paragraph that night.Fact: the assault came before dawn on March 6, 1836, and lasted no more than ninety minutes.
After days of cold the sun comes out over the Alamo. Write one warm hour of March 5, 1836.Fact: on March 5, 1836, the air warmed to between 50 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
At ten at night the guns stop and the Alamo sleeps for the first time in days. Write the silence as the one person still awake.Fact: at 10 p.m. on March 5, 1836, the bombardment stopped and the worn-out garrison slept.
Each morning the besiegers' guns stand a little nearer the Alamo. Write one diary line for each of three mornings.Fact: the batteries began about 1,000 feet from the Alamo's walls and were moved closer each night.
The first night of the Alamo siege, nothing happens. Write the nothing.Fact: the first night of the siege, February 23, 1836, was relatively quiet.
From the Alamo's wall, watch a thousand fresh soldiers march into town in dress uniform. Write what the person beside you says.Fact: on March 3, 1836, about 1,000 more soldiers marched into Bexar, and the army celebrated.
Music carries over the Alamo's wall all night and nobody inside can sleep. Write the night as someone who knows the tune.Fact: on the night of February 24, 1836, the besieging army's band played through the night.
The north wall of the Alamo begins to crumble and men prop it with timber all night. Write the night as the one who holds the lantern.Fact: on March 3, 1836, a new battery began to break the north wall; it was shored up with lumber overnight.
The order comes to save powder and the Alamo's guns fall silent. Write the first quiet afternoon as a gunner with nothing to do.Fact: on February 26, 1836, the Alamo's artillery was ordered to conserve powder and shot.
Write February 23, 1836, as a family of Bexar loading a cart before sunrise, with the Alamo across the river.Fact: in the early hours of February 23, 1836, residents began to leave Bexar.
Write March 2, 1836, inside the Alamo: a day when something important happens far away and nobody in the fort knows.Fact: on March 2, 1836, a convention declared Texas independent; the men in the Alamo did not know.
Two sides of one story 12
A defender born in Texas and a volunteer who arrived last month share a watch on the Alamo's wall. Write what each calls this place.Fact: Tejanos served in the Alamo beside volunteers who had been in Texas only a few weeks.
A family of Bexar has one son inside the Alamo and another in the army outside it. Write supper at their table.Fact: one defender of the Alamo had a brother who served as an officer in the besieging army.
A man in the Alamo explains the bugle calls from the other side. Write the day he hears one he will not translate.Fact: one account says a captured soldier helped the Alamo's garrison read the besiegers' bugle calls.
A soldier from Bexar is told he will not be sent against the Alamo. Write his relief, and what he is ashamed of.Fact: troops from Bexar were kept out of the assault so that they would not fight their own families.
A soldier in the army marching on the Alamo has been on the road for weeks. Write his letter home about the march.Fact: the march north met record cold; by February 13, 1836, more than a foot of snow had fallen.
Argue in one paragraph, as a citizen of Mexico in 1836, why the army was right to march on the Alamo. Then answer as a settler.Fact: the Alamo was a Mexican army post until December 1835, when its garrison surrendered it.
Tell the raising of the red flag over Bexar twice: by the man who hoists it, and by a watcher on the Alamo's wall.Fact: on February 23, 1836, the army raised a red flag meaning no quarter; the Alamo answered with a cannon shot.
Two messengers, one from each side, meet between the lines at the Alamo on the first evening. Write what each reports back.Fact: on February 23, 1836, the Alamo's garrison asked for terms and was told surrender must be unconditional.
Write about a recruit who has never fired a musket, on the night before he is ordered toward the Alamo.Fact: most soldiers of the army sent against the Alamo were new recruits, many of them conscripted.
Write one hour of the Alamo siege as an officer who told his general the attack was not needed.Fact: some senior officers advised waiting for two heavy cannon that were due on March 7, 1836.
Write the Alamo siege as a shopkeeper of Bexar who sells to whoever is in town that week.Angle: say what he hides, what he sells and what he will not say aloud.
Write the same cold night at the Alamo from both sides of the wall: one paragraph each, the same hour.Fact: neither army at the Alamo was prepared for the cold that came in the first week of the siege.
How it is remembered 14
A legend says a line was drawn on the ground at the Alamo. Write the story, then write the questions a historian asks about it.Fact: the story of the line first appeared decades after the battle, and most scholars set it aside.
A rider reaches Gonzales with news of the Alamo that nobody wants to believe. Write the hour before a second witness confirms it.Fact: news that the Alamo had fallen reached Gonzales on March 11, 1836; the two men who brought it were held as spies.
A visitor of the 1870s comes to see the Alamo and finds a grocery business. Write her postcard home.Fact: after 1876 the Alamo's old convent building was used for a wholesale grocery business.
By 1845 the Alamo stands empty again. Write an evening there as its only visitor, with the bats coming out.Fact: by 1845 a colony of bats lived in the abandoned Alamo, and weeds and grass covered many of its walls.
The fiftieth anniversary of the Alamo passes almost unnoticed. Write the newspaper editorial of the next morning.Fact: the fiftieth anniversary of the fall of the Alamo, in 1886, received little attention.
For the old families of Bexar the Alamo was a mission, a hospital and an army post before it was a battlefield. Write the plaque they would put up.Fact: the town's Tejano residents saw the Alamo as more than a battle site.
In 1840 a wagon is loaded with stone from the Alamo's walls. Write the driver's thoughts on what he is hauling.Fact: in 1840 the town council let citizens take stone from the Alamo at $5 a wagonload.
Six weeks after the Alamo, a farmer hears three words shouted across a field in April. Write his day.Fact: at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, soldiers shouted Remember the Alamo.
Stand in front of the Alamo today and write only about what was not there in 1836.Fact: a cenotaph in the plaza honors those who died, and the Alamo is part of a World Heritage Site.
Two people who both want to save the Alamo disagree about how. Write the argument without picking a side.Fact: in the early 1900s the Alamo's preservers split: restore the long barracks, or clear it for a plaza.
Write a family's first night on the road east after the news of the Alamo, as the child who chose what to carry.Fact: after the Alamo fell, settlers fled east in a flight known as the Runaway Scrape.
Write a history-book paragraph on the Alamo for a school in Texas and another for a school in Mexico. Say what each leaves out.Fact: in Mexico the battle was soon overshadowed by the war with the United States of 1846 to 1848.
Write a review of a made-up film about the Alamo, by a historian who keeps a list of what the film got wrong.Fact: the first film of the battle appeared in 1911; films have shaped what most people think happened.
Write the Alamo church's own account of the year the army gave it the curved top that everyone now draws.Fact: the curved gable on the front of the Alamo church was added by the US Army, years after the battle.
How it works
These Alamo writing prompts put a made-up witness beside a real event: a herder, a courier, a recruit, a shopkeeper of Bexar. No commander is named, and nearly every prompt carries a fact, many dated to February or March 1836.
Read the full guide
A writing prompt about the Alamo from either side
Twelve prompts are told from two sides at once: a recruit who has marched for weeks, with snow on the road, a family with one son inside the walls and one outside, a soldier from Bexar kept out of the assault so that he would not face his own relatives.
A writing prompt over the Alamo, day by day
Fourteen prompts follow the siege from the church bell on February 23 to the morning of March 6. The quiet days are there too: the first night, the afternoon the guns were told to save powder, the one warm day before the end.
Start from the Fact line. It decides what your witness can know and what they are still hoping for.
The battle is not the only subject. The well, the cold and the letters are easier to write truthfully.
Questions and answers
What is a good writing prompt about the Alamo?
One with a small job in it. A boy keeps a tally of the cannonballs that land in the plaza. A blacksmith watches his forge carried into the fort. A printer in a far-off city sets the letter of February 24 in type.
What were the thirteen days of the Alamo?
The siege ran from February 23 to March 6, 1836. About 1,500 soldiers marched into San Antonio de Bexar on the first day, and the fort fell in an assault before dawn on the last.
Do the prompts describe the fighting?
No. They stay with what a witness could see and hear: the cold, the cannon, the waiting, the news arriving in Gonzales.