Posted on 05/10/2014 4:51:55 AM PDT by billorites
AUSTIN — The petition to wrest Santa Anna’s leg from Illinois and bring it to Texas was flat-footed from the start.
But Texas museum officials believe their heart was in the right place, even if that prosthetic leg is not.
Last month, the San Jacinto Battle Monument and Museum launched a petition on the White House website, hoping to get 100,000 signatures to lure an important artifact to Texas. It suggested that the wooden and cork leg used by Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna — the villain of the Alamo and Goliad and a figure deeply embedded in Texas lore — should join other historical items in a Texas museum.
The leg, curiously enough, is in the Illinois State Military Museum in Springfield. And officials there are in no mood to give it up.
“We know Santa Anna is a big deal in Texas history,” said museum curator Bill Lear. “But it’s here. It’s going to stay here. You don’t trade artifacts.”
Given that attitude, San Jacinto museum officials thought a petition might do something to kick it loose.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
Sounds like a knee jerk action by Illinois.
They will probably toe the line.
“Hmmm, the author of this article must have one leg with no prosthetic too.”
Too subtle? Author’s name: Christy Hoppe
No way man,
Put a sneaker on it and throw it in the waters around Cape Flattery.
Seems to be where everyone else disposes of em now a days.
He was a leg end in his own time.
When I visited the Chancellorsville battlefield some years ago, the guide pointed out the private property where Stonewall Jackson’s arm (left?) was buried after being amputated. Jackson died about a week later.
Wow you weren’t kiddin .....
As a fellow Illannoyan, I can assure you any money Texas might pay for that leg would go straight into Quinn’s pocket.
“Hopefully you will stay in Illinois”....
“Hopefully you will stay in Illinois”....
Rather snarky this morning, are we? Maybe you need to go back to sleep, snoring....
How did Santa Anna loose his leg?....was he defeeted in battle?
Agree.
There is just something about people that don’t really work for a living or actually produce anything.
As the story goes so went the leg:
Santa Ana’s leg went north. ;-)
Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna could be lucky in war, notably at the Alamo, but he had a problem with food, and it was notable. He lost his leg in the French Pastry War, fought between France and Mexico in 1838. His personal heroism in battle resulted in having several horses shot out from under him, and the loss of half of his left leg.
Then in 1842 he arranged for an elaborate ceremony to dig up the remains of his leg, and to parade with it through Mexico City Afterwards was placed on a prominent monument for all to see.
Then in 1847, facing the United States at the Battle of Cerro Gordo in Mexico, he stopped paying attention to the war long enough to savor a roasted chicken. His lunch was interrupted by the uninvited, unexpected regiment of Illinoisans, who ate the general’s chicken and carried off his new cork leg. Santa Anna hobbled away to fight another day.
Some of the soldiers returned to Piatt County, where the town of Griswold was renamed Cerro Gordo in commemoration of the battle. The Volunteers regiment would eventually become the Illinois National Guard, and its trophy of war, Santa Anna’s cork leg, now resides in the Guard’s museum, Camp Lincoln in Springfield.
Over the years, the Mexican government has asked for Santa Anna’s leg back. Not that it would do the general any good, though it might show a little sensitivity. Artificial legs aren’t as funny as they were in the 1850s, when veterans charged a nickel or a dime for curiosity seekers to handle the leg in hotel bars.
Someone at the San Jacinto Battlefield Museum thought it would be a cool thing to have, I guess. But it has no context for the battle of Texas independence. I wonder how many signatures that petition got? They only say it didn’t get the minimum 100,000 required. I’d be surprised if it got 1,000.
TEXAS ain’t trying to walk all over you. This is some pinhead who piddles around for a living.
The last thing us Texans give a hoot in hell about is Santa Anna’s fake leg. We booted him out 178 years ago, leg and all.
Illinoise is your own worst enemy on many fronts, Texan’s ain’t worried about anything you’ve got.
Let’s give the leg to O’bama .... the media’s leg has been pulled out of shape and he needs something to keep his leg pulling muscles excercises.
I agree, I am as much of a Texan as you are and we kicked his butt and don’t need his leg.
His "shoot the prisoners" philosophy came from his first commander in the Spanish Army when they fought Rebels in the early 1800's. This may have cowed Mexicans, but executing soldiers in cold blood seems to really pi$$ off Americans. Instead of cowing us, it gets our dander up, and folks who might have been ambivalent about hurting another human will become savage. See my Tagline.
““The leg is a big draw for our museum,” Lear said. “It’s a centerpiece.””
An artificial leg is a center piece for a museum? Not going to waste my time on that one.
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