It’s visage is basically that of an unimpressive structure, but the battle there has been blown up into an epic, heroic tale. It’s estimated that 190 defenders died there. Pretty small potatoes as battles go.
Every Texan on the planet just stood up. 
The Alamo is half of the Texas version of Isandlwana/Rorke’s Drift. Alamo/San Jacinto - embarrassing defeat followed by overwhelming victory. An historical rhyme, if you will.
The event and the art are contemporaneous. David finished the painting three months after the assassination.
Which work of art are you attributing its fame to?
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.
For people outside of Texas, what brings the Alamo to mind?
The John Wayne movie?
The Fess Parker TV series?
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure?
Ozzy Osborne’s arrest?
What mostly brings it to mind is the Mexican-American War even though a decade separates the two events.
Rental cars?
For me as a non-Usian, the Neil Young song “Ride My Llama” with the opening lines:
Remember the Alamo
When help was on the way
I know nothing about the painting, but have read frequently about the bombing. I even have an opinion about it. (Which is not relevant here).
The Zong massacre was a mass killing of more than 130 enslaved African people by the crew of the British slave ship Zong over several days from 29 November 1781. … As was common business practice, they had taken out insurance on the lives of the enslaved Africans as cargo. According to the crew, when the ship ran low on drinking water after a series of navigational errors, the crew threw enslaved Africans overboard.
After the slaver ship reached port at Black River, Jamaica, Zong’s owners made a claim to their insurers for the loss of the enslaved Africans. When the insurers refused to pay, the resulting court cases (Gregson v Gilbert (1783) 3 Doug. KB 232) held that in some circumstances, the murder of enslaved Africans was legal and that insurers could be required to pay for those who had died. The jury found for the slavers but at a subsequent appeal hearing the judges, led by Lord Chief Justice, the Earl of Mansfield, ruled against the slave-trading syndicate owners, on the grounds that new evidence suggested that the captain and crew were at fault.
The case strengthened the abolitionist movement in Britain, and in Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act 1788, its first law regulating the slave trade, to limit the number of slaves per ship. Then, in 1791, Parliament prohibited insurance companies from reimbursing ship owners when enslaved Africans were murdered by being thrown overboard.
In 1840, J. M. W. Turner painted “The Slave Ship,” representation of the mass killing of enslaved people, inspired by the Zong killings.
So while the incident was very influential in its day, Turner’s painting has kept it in the public consciousness far more viscerally for more than 180 years.
At least Pee-wee did remember that!
I used to drive past that area and saw the sign pointing to Cowpens battlefield. Since it was in South Carolina, I figured it was a Civil War battle. Sometime later, I looked it up and was surprised to see that it was Revolutionary War. Much later, I mentioned it to a West Point grad, and he told me the details of the battle, which was kind of interesting. I have never seen the movie “The Patriot” though.
Who would remember the Montparnasse derailment if not for the photo?