The Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal encounter in the Texas Revolution (sometimes referred to as the Texas War of Independence) in which American settlers in Coahuila y Tejas fought for independence from Mexico. Although the land war was fought from 2 October 1835 to 21 April 1836, the war at sea continued into the 1840s. The Battle of the Alamo began on 23 February 1836 as Mexican troops under the command of General Antonio López de Santa Anna laid siege to the Alamo Mission, a fortress in modern-day San Antonio, Texas. The Alamo was defended by a small band of Texians (settlers in northern Mexico): they were led by William Barrett Travis and James Bowrie, and included the America frontiersman and politician Davy Crockett (1786–1836). Following a Mexican assault on the morning of 6 March, almost all of the defenders of the Alamo were killed. Crockett was one of those killed during the siege; he subsequently came to be known as the ‘king of the wild frontier’.