Ashes of the Alamo Dead
San Antonio, Texas
You probably know the story of the Alamo and its brave-but-doomed defenders, including pioneer superstars Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie. After the siege in February and March of 1836, all of them died at the hands of their Mexican adversaries -- and then what happened? Do you think the enraged Mexicans gave them decent funerals? No. The corpses of the slaughtered garrison were dragged outside, and Santa Anna's soldiers then doused them with oil and burned them in three big bonfires.
The Mexicans, however, couldn't hold their ground. A year later the Texans were in control of San Antonio, and the bones and ashes of the Alamo dead -- still in visible piles -- were shoveled into a large coffin and secretly buried under the altar of what is now the San Fernando Cathedral. The coffin was dug up by accident in 1936, and on May 11, 1938, the remains were placed on public view, inside a fancy sarcophagus, where they can still be seen today.