Text 28903, 102 rader
Skriven 2009-03-10 21:15:24 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
  Kommentar till text 28847 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
Ärende: "Remember the Alamo!"
=============================
Ward Dossche wrote to Robert Bashe on Tuesday March 10 2009 at 11:18:

RB>> Everyone _wasn't_ killed. Women and children were released, and there
RB>> are two adult male witnesses, one of which stayed until the last (the
RB>> slave).

WD> ... neither of whom participated nor witnessed the fighting ...

The first is true (unless of course the slave helped reload the weapons), the
second your conjecture. I doubt there was much of an opportunity to avoid
seeing at least some of the battle, as the Alamo is not a large place.

WD> Well, the story is that Crocket fell from the wall, broke his hip or
WD> another bony-part of his body, and was taken to the infirmary ... or
WD> what was supposed to be it.

That's what I thought, too, but then I checked back and realized I was
apparently remembering scenes from "The Iron Mistress". Bowie was sick and and
in the infirmary.

Still...
WD> With a broken hip? With the repeating rifle not yet available? With
WD> only cap and ball pistols? C'mon ... he may have had 1 or 2 but 16? In
WD> hand to hand? With a knife? With a broken hip? ??

Two six-shot Colts, assuming they had reached Tejas by then (or several loaded
single-shot pistols otherwise), plus a knife, could do a lot of damage, even if
the figures are exaggerated. By the way, there _were_ repeating rifles at the
time, made the same way as the pistols, with a rotating cylinder (the original
ones were even made with flintlocks, in the 1780s). Whether there were any at
the Alamo is something we may never know.

But as I say, I checked back and apparently it was Bowie in the infirmary. Not
that he didn't kill a few Mexicans before they killed him.

WD> C'mon...

I have the impression you aren't familiar with the weapons that existed at the
time. It's true that the Winchester rifle came along in the 1870s, but there
were repeating firearms way before that time. Ever hear of a "pepperbox (or
pepperpot) pistol"? Look it up if you're interesting. I believe they were even
made with flintlocks, but definitely with precussion caps. There was also
something called a "duckfoot pistol", with multiple barrels spread out to each
side and sometimes capable of firing one barrel at a time.

And, of course, there was nothing to prevent a man from having 5-6 loaded
single-shot pistols near him.

RB>> Crockett running away from a woman? Seems to me you're the one
RB>> reading fiction. Aside from that "revolutionaries" they were, ...

WD> Any story is as good as the other and Crocket did enjoy the females.

Based on your personal acquaintence?

WD> What I find interesting is the delicate balance between "insurgents"
WD> and "revolutionaries".

WD> History is written by the winners.

In this case Santa Anna and his soldiers. Don't forget there were a lot more
Mexicans than Tejans there, and except for a few (women,children, a slave and a
Mexican deserter who convinced Santa Anna he had been a prisoner) all of them
died.

RB>> You have to read the whole story of how things developed to realize
RB>> that the Americans in "Tejas" had become Mexican citizens and were
RB>> integrated into the society - and the Santa Anna was no saint, but in
RB>> fact a typical dictator who took advantage of the Mexican revolution
RB>> to sieze power and used it ruthlessly.

WD> I've read quite a lot about it, I'm not unaware that de Santa Ana was
WD> not democratically elected.

OK, at least we agree on that.

WD>>> It is amazing how much dissagreement there is on what happened, or
WD>>> didn't, at the Alamo.

RB>> It is amazing that as much information exists as does, considering
RB>> the circumstances.

WD> That is true as well ... a lot of people around but I guess the
WD> Mexicans didn't leave much historical traceable material ... I mean
WD> witness accounts.

They wrote the history (or did I misunderstand your words above) ;-)

But as I say, you have to get into the subject more deeply to really understand
the trends. These weren't just land-hungry Yankees robbing the "poor Mexicans"
of their land. For one thing, there was practically no population in the area
at the time and the immigrants from the US were invited to settle to help ward
off Indian attacks, for another, at least Bowie was a Mexican citizen, married
to the daughter of the Mexican governer of the province and speaking fluent
Spanish. The rest didn't have his connections, but most of them weren't
"foreigners" either (except Crockett and his friends from Tennessee who came to
help when they heard of the situation).

Cheers, Bob

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