SAN ANTONIO, March 6 (UPI) -- Five-hundred people gathered to remember the Alamo on the 176th anniversary of the famous Texas military battle Tuesday in a predawn ceremony in San Antonio.
The annual "Dawn at the Alamo" observance, sponsored by the San Antonio Living History Association, drew history buffs and descendants of combatants to the site of the former mission that was defended by some 189 Texans against a superior force of Mexican soldiers in 1836. The two-hour battle, in which all the defenders were killed in combat or later executed, has an iconic role in Texas history.
The ceremony is designed to recall "the supreme sacrifices made on both sides" and to accomplish an "historical reconciliation between two great people, two great nations," said narrator Rudy Krisch III.
After wreath-laying, the playing of "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes, prayers in Spanish and English and the reading of Lt. Col. Jose Enrique de la Pena's eyewitness account of the battle, the ritual ended with the firing of muskets, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
