When William Travis decided to defend the Alamo the insurrection of the Texans was more against the dictatorial rule of President-General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna than a rebellion against Mexico per se. This is evidenced by the flag that was flown over the Alamo. It was the Mexican tricolor of red, white and green modified by having 1824 sewn into the white strip. The 1824 stood for the liberal constitution that Mexico had adopted right after independence from Spain. Santa Anna had abrogated the constitution by taking away all autonomy of the Mexican states. Texas was not the only Mexican state to rebell against Santa Anna's usurpation of power. Zacatecas and Yucatan, among others, rebelled as well. (Texas was not actually a separate Mexican state at the time. It was part of the dual state of Texas-Coahuila, a matter of some antagonism for the Texans at the time.)

As it happened Texans elsewhere had declared independence by the time of the Battle of the Alamo but Travis was not aware of this and therefore the Mexican flag with 1824 emblazened on it continued to be flag the defenders of the Alamo fought under.

In contrast, when Santa Anna chose to make the Cathedral of San Fernando his headquarters he flew from the belfry of this church not the tricolor flag of Mexico but instead a pure blood-red flag to indicate that the insurrectionists would be butchered even if they surrendered. To fly such a flag over a church indicates the monstrousness of Santa Anna's personality.

The defenders of the Alamo could see Santa Anna's blood flag flying from the church. There could be no question of surrendering. The 150 men who followed Travis to the defense of the Alamo and the 32 who later joined them did die but their glory will live forever. The two weeks Santa Anna wasted on destroying the defenders of the Alamo gave Sam Houston time to prepare for the defense of Texas and ultimate victory. Of the four to six thousand troops Santa Anna brought to Texas a significant portion were lost in the Battle of the Alamo. One of Santa Anna's officers estimated that the losses were as many as fifteen hundred. That again gave Sam Houston's army a better chance of success. Sam Houston was a great general as his victor at San Jacinto proved. Santa Anna was an abyssimally bad general who made one colossal blunder after another and tried to make up for his military incompetence by his brutality but to no avail. It is one of the puzzles of Mexican history that Santa Anna was able to gain political power in Mexico so many times despite his record of incompetence.

The Lone Star Flag shown below was created by a woman in Georgia for a contingent of volunteers who were going to Texas. It was carried by those Georgia volunteers who were massacred along with other prisoners of war at Goliad on President-General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's explicit orders. After the Goliad Massacre there was no alternative for the Texans except independence. The Lone Star Flag subsequently became the flag of Texas independence.