Project Sponsor: Texas General Land Office
Time Period: 18th-19th century
Conservation: 2017-2018
Site History and Fieldwork
In the mid-eighteenth century, a Spanish mission was built on the San Antonio River in Texas. A century later, colonists from the United States and Tejanos rebelled against the Mexican government. The rebels captured the Alamo in December 1835 and held it until March 1836, the end of a two week siege by General Santa Anna. All of the Texian and Tejano soldiers were killed, and Santa Anna gave the orders to spread the word of the Mexican victory, and to render the Alamo fortifications and cannons inoperable. However, he did not predict that the calls to “Remember the Alamo!” would inspire more soldiers to join the rebellion and harden their resolve. The Texas Revolution ended in April 1836 at the Battle of San Jacinto, and the Republic of Texas was formed.
The Alamo was used as a military complex until 1876. In 1905, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas purchased and began to restore the mission and surrounding buildings. In 2015, control over the Alamo was given to the Texas General Land Office, and the site was designated as a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site. Today, the site is open to the public and serves as a platform to learn about the Alamo story and other early Texas history.
Conservation Highlights
Nine cannons were selected for conservation: seven believed to have been used during the siege (two iron 3-pounders, two bronze 4-pounders, one iron 16-pounder, one iron 12-pounder, and an iron swivel gun), and two donated cannons from the same time period (an iron 4-pounder and an iron 6-pounder).
Initial investigations indicated the only method previously used to preserve the cannon was the application of paint during the twentieth century, which did not effectively preserve the cannon long-term. CRL conservators used electrolysis (described in our conservation manual, Methods of Conserving Underwater Archaeological Material Culture) both to help remove the remaining paint layers and the corrosion that had developed over time.
Mexican soldiers did three things to disable the cannons: removed the cascables (the round “button” on the back of a cannon that is used to help move and aim the cannon), removed the trunnions (the two “arms” on the side of a cannon, which rest in a gun carriage), and drove nails through the touch holes (called “spiking”). Trunnions are a common location for markings, so without those, and with the surfaces so worn, it is difficult to determine where exactly the cannons were made. Going by measurements, most of the cannons in the collection are of the merchant style and are shorter and lighter than their governmental counterparts. One of the donated cannons bears the mark “B” on the right trunnion, the mark of the Bersham ironworks in norther Wales.
The end of conservation was celebrated with a Salute to Cannon Conservation, where the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets performed a ceremonial transition of the cannons to Alamo living historians.
Around CRL: Posters & Conservators at Work
