Posted on 03/15/2004 4:01:23 AM PST by aardvark1
REMEMBER THE ALAMO
"I am beseiged. The enemy has demanded surrender at discretion...I call on you in the name of liberty, of patriotism, and everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid...If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due his honor and that of his country."
These are the words of William B. Travis, who commanded the Alamo when Texas rebelled against Mexico's despot, Santa Anna.
March 6 was the 168th anniversary of the Alamo's fall, which cost Travis his life, along with almost 180 others who went down fighting on freedom's behalf.
That, at least, is how America once viewed the Texas Revolution, which ultimately led to Texas winning its independence from Mexico.
In recent decades, this explanation has been challenged by another revolution. Starting in the late 1960s, a "counterculture" emerged from the fever swamps of the hard Left and began its long march through our civilization, leaving nothing untouched.
Not even the Alamo.
Next month, a new movie about the Alamo will likely reach a theater near you. If it embraces the counterculture's critique, watch out: Travis, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and their other heroic friends may well be tarred and feathered with crackpot revisionism.
The Left's critique goes something like this:
The Texas Revolution was a devious scheme hatched by Washington to snatch the future Lone Star State from the Mexicans. Moreover, critics claim, even if it weren't, it couldn't possibly have been about freedom, since Texans were for slavery. According to this view, the Revolution was a racist struggle by whites who chafed under Mexican authority.
This critique is wrong on all counts.
Travis' famous words were indeed a plea for help from America. But that help never came. As the whole world watched, neither Congress nor President Andrew Jackson lifted a finger. As for the Texans, though they declared independence later, they initially fought only for their rights under Mexico's U.S.-style constitution of 1824, a constitution which the dictator Santa Anna had shredded.
As for alleged racism as a motive, why were so many of the Alamo's defenders themselves native-born Mexicans? And why did Mexican pro-democracy author, publisher, diplomat and politician Lorenzo de Zavala join the Texan cause as its first Vice President, leaving behind a lifelong career in Mexico and Spain?
As for slavery, even raising the argument misses the point. Slavery remained legal at the time across most of the world, including the United States itself, both North and South. Moreover, despite the unique evil of race-based slavery in the Americas, throughout time slavery cut across all racial lines. Just this week, The Washington Times reported on a new study from Ohio State University describing African Muslim slave raids into Europe down almost to the time of the Alamo, capturing at least a million white Europeans and denuding coastal towns as far north as Iceland. It is no marvel that 1836-era Texans -- or Mexicans, or Algerians, or Ibo owned slaves: the shock remains that, by the end of that century, slavery had been all but eradicated from the Earth.
In this same vein, the revisionists ignore how many of the Alamo defenders hailed from other states and even other nations. Why would they join Travis in the first place? To defend slavery? Hardly.
No, the Texas Volunteers -- whatever their human flaws -- fought for freedom. They fought against a wanton, authoritarian regime far richer and far more powerful than they. And their wisdom speaks for itself: one hardly need travel to Mexico to see the disaster the century and a half of socialism and one-party rule since Santa Anna has wrought upon that resource rich land and its proud, hard-working people. One need only visit the endless stream of Mexicans coming to gleaming modern Texas to grasp the point that liberty matters, that freedom works.
Gripped by their loathing of our civilization, academia's tenured radicals can't bear this truth. By debunking past heroism, they hope to cut off our culture from what inspires and sustains it. By rewriting the past, they hope to hijack the future -- and remake America.
The new Alamo movie's director is "Happy Days" and "Andy Griffith's" Ron Howard. Let's hope that in the making of the movie, this icon of Americana hasn't surrendered to its harshest foes.
Let's hope he remembers the Alamo -- the real story, of one of the most pivotal moments in all history.
Copyright: Rod D. Martin, 12 March 2004.
Succession seems more and more like a good idea. I don't care about forcing people in Boston to own guns, not marry homosexuals, or stop taxing themselves into poverty. They however, don't show reciprocal courtesy for their betters in the West. By force of numbers they insist on dominating the entire USA, and driving their sick agendas into our very bathrooms. (2 gallon toilets).
Before we get to all out Civil War 2 I sure hope we try to seperate ourselves and run a few states correctly. The Free State Project and it's offshoots is the way to go, in my opinion.
Jeff's books are awesome. I was one of the first to review them on Amazon. A great read. Jeff's book are a wake up call to the USA not to be complacent about the very real threats that China and the Moslem world pose to the USA. Not every war will be as complete a victory as teh Battle for Bhagdad was, history tells us this.
Travi's book kicks butt too! Travis postulates the dark methods the gun-grabbers will go to in the drive to accomplish their nefarious goals. Then he shows what a small group resisting can do and the effects it could have.
Of course Unintended Consequences is one of the first of the novels to deal with some of these questions and is still a fascinating read.
Boston T. Party's "Molon Labe" is the newest book to look at the country in transition. He describes in a lot of detail the methods used by an small committed group of activists to free the State of Wyoming. Part political primer, part novel it's a fun read.
And when done with those we all need to go back and re-read the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
The value and the impact of an individual vote is all but nil, given the near-miss in the last election. You can be sure that the 'Rats will have a better recipe for cooking the books this time around.
Politicians listen to nothing save that which will get them reelected. Politicans on both sides of the aisle routinely violate their oath of office, and they do so with impunity; they are in fact rewarded for it. Politicans will continue to violate their oath of office until the cost of doing so becomes more than they are willing to bear.
Who dares follow that last statement to its logical conclusion?
Guaranteed. The sad question, however, is whether such a dreadful prospect may be preferable to the alternative.
History is all too clear in that regard. It teaches us that there are things far worse than death.
Correct. Some Monday-morning quarterbacks have opined that the Alamo defenders might have bought even more time by abandoning the structure, breaking into small groups, and raiding Santa Ana's extended supply lines, hitting and running until Texian reinforcements could be assembled and arrive. However....
Houston's orders had been that: "I have ordered the fortifications in the town of Bexar to be demolished, and, if you should think well of it, I will remove all the cannon and other munitions of war to Gonzales and Copano, blow up the Alamo and abandon the place, as it will be impossible to keep up the Station with volunteers, the sooner I can be authorized the better it will be for the country ....
But Travis was there, and thought otherwise. And though his experience with engineering and fortification was not great, [cavalry officer] the fact that Crockett, Bowie [who had arrived on Jan. 19th] thought the fortification worth defending, and on February 2 Bowie wrote Smith that he and Neill had resolved to "die in these ditches" before they would surrender the post.
On February 3, Travis and his cavalry contingent reached the Alamo with 30 mounted volunteers, and he agreed that the position was worth defending, which he began to describe as the "key to Texas." About February 8, David Crockett arrived with a group of American volunteers, and they had come expecting to fight.
Two main roads led into Texas from the Mexican interior. The Old San Antonio Road a camino real crossed the Rio Grande at Paso de Francia (the San Antonio Crossing) and wound northeastward through San Antonio de Béxar, Bastrop, Nacogdoches, San Augustine, and across the Sabine River into Louisiana. Two forts blocked these approaches into Texas: Presidio La Bahía (Nuestra Señora de Loreto Presidio) at Goliad and the Alamo at San Antonio. Each installation functioned as a frontier picket guard, ready to alert the Texas settlements of an enemy advance. The defenders, Bowie in charge of the volunteers and Travis the Regulars, did not believe that Santa Anna could reach Bexar until March 15. His arrival on February 23 convinced them otherwise.
On March 1, thirty-two troops attached to Lt. George C. Kimbell's Gonzales ranging company made their way through the enemy cordon and into the Alamo. Travis was grateful for any reinforcements, but knew he needed more. On March 3 he reported to the convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos that he had lost faith in Colonel Fannin. "I look to the colonies alone for aid; unless it arrives soon, I shall have to fight the enemy on his own terms." He grew increasingly bitter that his fellow Texans seemed deaf to his appeals. In a letter to a friend, Travis revealed his frustration: "If my countrymen do not rally to my relief, I am determined to perish in the defense of this place, and my bones shall reproach my country for her neglect."
On March 5, day twelve of the siege, Santa Anna announced an assault for the following day. This sudden declaration stunned his officers. The enemy's walls were crumbling. No Texan relief column had appeared. When the provisions ran out, surrender would remain the rebels' only option. There was simply no valid military justification for the costly attack on a stronghold bristling with cannons. But ignoring these reasonable objections, Santa Anna stubbornly insisted on storming the Alamo. Around 5:00 A.M. on Sunday, March 6, he hurled his columns at the battered walls from four directions. Texan gunners stood by their artillery. As about 1,800 assault troops advanced into range, canister ripped through their ranks. Staggered by the concentrated cannon and rifle fire, the Mexican soldiers halted, reformed, and drove forward. Soon they were past the defensive perimeter. Travis, among the first to die, fell on the north bastion. Abandoning the walls, defenders withdrew to the dim rooms of the Long Barracks. There some of the bloodiest hand-to-hand fighting occurred. Bowie, too ravaged by illness to rise from his bed, found no pity. The chapel fell last. By dawn the Centralists had carried the works. The assault had lasted no more than ninety minutes. As many as seven defenders survived the battle, but Santa Anna ordered their summary execution. Many historians count Crockett as a member of that hapless contingent, an assertion that still provokes debate in some circles. By eight o'clock every Alamo fighting man lay dead. Currently, 189 defenders appear on the official list, but ongoing research may increase the final tally to as many as 257. It's very likely that many of those were Mexicans who could hide among the residents of San Antonio de Bexar or slip in with Santa Ana's troops.
To the People of Texas & all Americans in the World-- Fellow Citizens and Compatriots--I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna -- I have sustained a continual Bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man -- The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken -- I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls -- I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all despatch -- The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country -- Victory or Death.
William Barret Travis Lt. Col. comdt.
P.S. The Lord is on our side -- When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn -- We have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels, and got into the walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves-- Send this to San Felipe by Express night & day--
We can fix a mistake or two. It'll take some doimg, but it can be done.
Like the Alamo fight itself, it may not be obviously successful, but will at least poke a stick in the eyes of our adversaries, and may set the example for others to follow. In any event, that which Crockett, Travis, Bowie and the otyhers purchased with their blood should not be given up easily or without an equal cost to the other side. You are invited to join in and attend the ball if you so choose.
And though we may not live to see success, I'd not care to live to see a rollover surrender. And I don't expect to.
Then it's up to us to see to it that as a part and result of that fight, individual freedoms and responsibilities are restored wherever possible. And just as much, to make certain that those who've tried to tinker or dilute those freedoms pay an exacting toll personally, as a lesson both to them and to others whgo might try to follow their path.
That's going to end some Republican careerrs, but many, many more of those in the Democratic and Socialist camps. Maybe some rising young republicans can fill some of those emptied spaces and do a better job of it than their predecessors.
-archy-/-
Even taking along a piece of advanced modern weaponry and all the ammunition I could manage to carry, I doubt that one more body more or less would have made that much of a difference. And yet, if the opportunity would come my way, I'd go.
That leads to the interesting mental pushups of choosing the right tool for the job, one with enough range and power to get the work done with a single shot so as not to interfere with the acquisition and service of the next of the thousands of targets, yet with ammunition of minimal bulk allowing the carry of several thousand rounds of ammo. But then maybe, given what's immediately available, that might not be the smartest pick.
 "SAW" |
 "MAAWS" |
 Range Finder |
 Night Vision Binoculars |
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