What do the legendary frontiersmen James Bowie (of the Bowie hunting knife fame) and Davie Crockett have in common with the military officer Colonel William Barret Travis? They were all at the Alamo together. The three came to the territory of Texas, ostensibly still under Mexican control, and found themselves embroiled in an independence fight — in part provoked by Travis’ attack on the Mexican garrison at Anahuac.

On this day, March 6, in 1836, the Mexican siege of the Alamo fort concluded with a Mexican victory. General Antonio López de Santa Anna, the self-proclaimed Napoleon of the West, marched down to the Alamo with 3,000 troops. The defenders numbered less than 200, haphazardly organized and ill-prepared for an extended siege, heroically held out for nearly two weeks before being overwhelmed by the Mexican army.

In the final days of the siege, legend has it Colonel Travis summoned his men and drew a line in the sand. He asked every soldier willing to fight to the death to step over. All but one did. And it indeed came to that: the Mexican army took few, if any, prisoners after the capture of the fort. But Santa Anna did not relish his victory long: less than seven weeks later his army was routed by an ambushing American force yelling “Remember the Alamo!” as they charged.