What swords might have been used at the Alamo battle?

[Rick]

I wonder if any of the Virginia Manufactory sabres wound up in that fight; they certainly were in existence in that era.

[Jim McDougall]

Thank you guys!
and for the kind words on my mini-Alamo
I do think optimistically that at least several Starr sabers made it to the Alamo, as we know even just from one found instance of a Kentuckian who carried it in the War of 1812 as well as to Texas.
There were 120 guys in the New Orleans Greys who banded in 1835, and put together 'uniforms' and assembled equipment from stored surplus from the 1812 war. It seems likely these young guys, ready to parade off to war would grab flashy sabers as well.

Rick, I do recall when you found one of the Virginia Manufactory sabers!
I honestly have wanted one of those for over 4 decades, saw a couple but WAY out of my range! There is of course always a chance one might have gotten there. Remember, there were two units of Tennessee Mounted volunteers that went to Texas, and Tennessee aint that far from Virginia.

[Jim McDougall]

In posting this query, I should have been more explicit and specified what I am looking for, which is the swords used by the defenders of the Alamo. There is no doubt of course that Mexican officers were carrying swords.

In the attack, which actually took the defenders by surprise in the wee hours of the AM, the Mexican forces were using British firearms and primarily the bayonet.

It seems Travis was likely the only officer of defenders wearing a sword, but that is unclear, as is what type of sword it was.

With the Texian defenders were Tejanos under Seguin, who were also opposed to the Mexican government under Santa Anna. These were rancheros and vaqueros who most certainly would have had espada anchas as previously noted, again at least in some degree.

We know there was at least some presence of the Starr sabers in the overall theater of the Texas campaigns in this time, as they were pretty much primary surplus from the 1812 war from militias who had participated.

With the Virginia Manufactory sabers, it would be most interesting to find evidence of these. The key factor with these was the incredibly long and difficult to handle blade length, sharply curved over 40 inches long. This unusually long blade, making these sabers pretty notable, would seem likely to have been noted in accounts of Mexican forces, which are of course mostly the only records available.
That is hopefully where something might turn up.

I keep searching.......and I really appreciate ANY entry here, every thought or observation is important whether adding evidence or examples or not.

[Jim McDougall]

As noted, the quest here is to determine what swords (if any of course) might have been used by the men who perished defending the Alamo (Feb.23 to Mar.6, 1836).
I am hoping my continued posts will not be perceived as a string of boring soliloquys, as the intent is simply sharing what I am finding as I research further, and hoping for input in accord. If nothing else, I hope that these entries will be read as a developing investigation to promote further interest in the ongoing study of the Alamo.

It is important to note that at the time before 1836, 'Texas' was actually the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas, and had been populated for some time with American colonists. The overthrow of Mexico's 1824 constitution and hard changes in governing by Gen. Santa Anna , who was deemed a dictator as president, was the cassus belli in the Texian Revolution.

The point of this explanation is to illustrate the fact that the potential for sword presence in use by the defenders of the Alamo may have been effectively Mexican sword forms as well as American. We know (as earlier illustrated) that Juan Seguins contingent likely had a few espada anchas.
In my original post, the espada ancha at top of page from Collins' book resembles an example I have believed from Nuevo Laredo, which is adjacent to Coahuila and just across the present border of Texas.

With this, we might speculate that any American sword types (Starr or Virginia Manufactory) might stem from being in circulation from the militias who served in the War of 1812. As noted, there were the New Orleans Greys and Tennessee Mounted Volunteers at the Alamo .
In addition to these men, there were the 'Immortal 32', the group of Rangers who were the only responders for help, and arrived February 29th.
These were effectively members of the Texian Militia, and known as the Gonzalez Ranging Company, forerunners of the famed Texas Rangers.

These were the only 'military' groups among the defenders, and that being the case, with potential for having swords.

In these cases without any experience in handling a sword, it is unlikely anyone would have one, and frankly the most common weapons among the larger body of defenders were shotguns and gaming rifles. Contrary to popular belief there were not bristling lines of Kentucky long rifles.

So the likely candidates for having actually had a sword of some kind were the militia/paramilitary

The larger context of the defenders were civilian colonists who had come to Texas to establish land holdings and prospects of success, few with military experience.

So in addition to the espada ancha (image #1 attributed to Nuevo Laredo),
2) the Nathan Starr saber (M1812-13) used by state militias per Militia Act (1808)
3)Virginia Manufactory saber, used by Virginia cavalry with huge 40" blade
4) Mexican cavalry swords with earlier blades (18th c) from the regulation M1728 swords
5) detail of the sword on right (compare to dragoon sword in photos in post #2) with French style hilt. French military styles highly favored in Mexico.

So these swords, however remote the possibility, are the primary contenders for any sword that might have been used by defenders at Alamo in final battle (Mar.1836).