Following the fall of the Alamo on March 6, 1836, the bodies of the Texian defenders, including famous figures like David Crockett and Jim Bowie, were treated with what many at the time considered extreme sacrilege. On the orders of General Antonio López de Santa Anna, the bodies were not given a traditional burial. Instead, they were moved to a location near the Alameda (modern-day Commerce Street) where they were stacked in layers between wood and brush and burned in large funeral pyres. This was intended to be a final insult to the rebels and to prevent the site from becoming a shrine. The remains smoldered for days, leaving behind only ashes and charred bone fragments. Approximately a year later, in February 1837, Juan Seguín and other Texian survivors returned to gather the remains. They placed the ashes in a single coffin and buried them with full military honors. While the exact location of the original burial was lost to time, a marble sarcophagus located in the San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio is traditionally believed to hold the gathered remains of the Alamo's fallen defenders, serving as a permanent memorial to their sacrifice.