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TwitterThe visit to the Alamo has sparked a research project… looking for information, facts and fables about the battle…
It has not been particularly successful…
The story of what happened during the event, the battle, which took place in February and March of 1836 has long been lost in the noise and the legend of sacrifice, which has become the origin story of the onetime Republic, now state of Texas.
The remaining historic buildings are not a historic site, but a shrine… I am ok with the shrine, but need the facts too, the history as well.
Of course, the facts are in dispute… on one side we have The Daughters of the Republic of Texas and John Wayne… Director of the 1960 movie, (John Wayne, not the Daughters) as well as playing the part of Davey Crocket… bravely dying while swinging his Kentucky rifle at the advancing Mexican army…
On the other extreme we have EXODUS FROM THE ALAMO: The Anatomy of the Last Stand Myth by Phillip Thomas Tucker… a recent 2011 retelling claiming The Mexican army surprised the Texans (many not from Texas… Tennessee was particularly well represented) while sleeping, Travis committed suicide and Davy Crockett was likely cut down by Mexican cavalry as he tried to flee… but other reports have him captured, and executed by the Mexicans, by some reports by being hacked to death by cutlass… (a good discussion of the Davy Crockett issue can be found here)
The truth is likely found between the two extremes… and the facts are few, and occasionally in dispute… and the whole Republic of Texas mythology makes it hard to find those facts that might be found…
The event took place a long time ago… there were no newspaper reports… few witnesses… One Mexican Army officer of English background seems to have said things… At least one Mexican soldier wrote an account. Joe, Travis’ black slave survived the battle and was interviewed (but the stories presented are second hand and offer too many chances for misinterpretations,) as did Susanna Dickinson (and daughter) the wife of defender Almaron Dickinson, an artillery man…
There were other women and children, all Hispanic, as well as other slaves.. a Mexican may have locked himself in a cell, and survived by claiming he was a prisoners… A number of defenders left in the final days as couriers or in search of supplies, one may have left when Travis (may have) drawn a line in the sand…
Tucker’s version of the battle (an night time assault, with most of the Texans asleep) seems to be disproven by the reports of Mexican solders… but those reports are in Spanish, and difficult to access… The idea of Travis, committing suicide to avoid capture is well presented, and rational, but is contradicted by the statements of Joe… The idea that the Kentucky men tried to flee makes sense, but the reports of the cavalry cutting them down could as easily have taken place in the large courtyard between the barracks…
The most even handed treatment I have found is from PBS… three accounts… well presented… (There may be rants about liberal media and lies to be found concerning PBS… I don’t believe them… you shouldn’t)
But… my favorite Alamo story involves Ozzie Osborn, one time lead man for Black Sabbath, who has been seen on stage biting the heads off animals, chickens or bats on occasion.
The story, which is at least as accurate any of the others associated with the site, is that he peed on the Alamo… and was banned from performing in San Antonio for the next 10 years until he paid off the Daughters…
The more likely truth is that Ozzie Osborn once peed nearby, likely on the plaza near the Cenotaph (A cenotaph is an "empty tomb" or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. The bodies of the Alamo defenders were burned, and maybe now found in a mass grave in a local cemetery or maybe not… such are the varied stories of the Alamo) in an act more likely linked to biology and personal need based on the size of his bladder than a political statement… An act that now with its own retelling has become Ozzie peed on the Alamo… (Apparently he was wearing his girl friend’s dress at the time…) Sometimes the facts are just too good to ignore…
Based on this blog posting, I probably should refrain from visiting Texas for a while… (maybe Austin would be OK, but defiantly not San Antonio or Dallas…) Might need to avoid Southwest Airlines… they are likely in on it too…
