Alamo to unveil partial re-creation of fortification where Crockett, others defended 1836 compound

A part of the 1836 battle is returning to the Alamo on Friday — a partial, re-created version of a wooden fortification that has been a subject of lore and debate. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush will provide remarks as guest speakers at an unveiling ceremony set to begin at 5 p.m. The state-owned historic mission and battle site will remain open for a few hours, with free access to its annex gallery and holiday festival on the grounds. The new Palisade Exhibit is the second re-created feature from the 1836 compound, following the April dedication of the Alamo’s 18-Pounder/Losoya House interpretive space at the southwest corner of the city. Both are part of an extensive, nearly $400 million public-private makeover of the Alamo that is underway.

The Alamo, made famous through books, movies, paintings and music, originally was the first permanent Spanish-Indigenous mission in San Antonio, where more than 1,000 Native Americans and others lived, worked and were buried, before it was converted to a Spanish military outpost and later fortified by Mexican and Texian troops. According to archaeological reports, work on the fence-like palisade, composed of a cannon station, trenches and at least one row of upright timbers, began under Mexican Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos, who surrendered to the Texians after the December 1835 Battle of Béjar. Anglos and Tejanos serving in the Texian Army continued work on the fortification but may have never finished it. The palisade has typically been linked to the Alamo’s most famous fallen defender, former congressman David “Davy” Crockett, whose exploits as a frontiersman, often exaggerated in literature and theater, made him a celebrity in his own time. As part of the unveiling, the Alamo will exhibit a 19th century violin, like one Crockett is believed to have played there in 1836, in the annex gallery.