March 7, 1836, the Alamo

Image: Texas State Historical Association online handbook

"On the morning of March 7, 1836, the Alamo mission’s chapel and compound were a gutted, smoking ruin. The chapel was roofless, its bell-towers gone, its walls with gaping holes from Mexican artillery fire. Santa Anna, not wishing a shrine to the 240-odd defenders who died there, order the ruin razed. Not one stone was to be left standing upon another.

The ruin was not razed. In spite of direct orders from Santa Anna, the walls of the Alamo chapel were left standing. Not that there was much there—the façade was badly damaged and crumbling, the walls in many places were no more than head-high on a tall man. Still, Santa Anna gave a direct order—‘Knock down the walls!’—but it wasn’t done. Why not?"

—read more at http://www.texasescapes.com/CFEckhardt/Second-Battle-of-the-Alamo.htm