2200 hours, D-1, one hundred and seventy-seven years ago General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ordered that the artillery barrage which had fallen upon the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Bexar for twelve days be halted.
As he suspected, the exhausted defenders soon fell into a deep sleep, for most, the only sleep that they had managed during the course of the siege.
Just after 0000 hours, 06 MAR 1836, 1800 hundred Mexican infantry troops formed into four columns. 500 Mexican cavalry rode into position around the besieged mission, to prevent the escape of, well, anyone -- be they Texan defenders, or Mexican troopies.
At about 0530 hours, the three Texan sentries posted outside of the walls were silently killed, followed by the music of the Mexican bugles sounding the charge. This woke the defenders, and for the next fifteen minutes it really sucked to be a Mexican soldier. The columns they were arranged in only allowed the front line of troops to fire safely. Those firing muskets from any position behind the front line, often as not fired through the front line of Mexican soldiers. Their own artillery behind them inflicted massive blue-on-blue casualties, while the defenders opened up with their own cannon -- loaded with nails, chopped horse-shoes and even the hinges from the doors of the building.
Not to say that they were all ineffective. Colonel William B. Travis was killed during this time by a lucky shot to the head as he stood on top of the wall to get a better shot into the massed formation below him with his shotgun.
Pushed on by their reinforcing elements, the Mexicans mounted three different assaults, finally getting General Juan Amador over the wall, where he got a postern door open, which allowed the attackers to swarm the Mission.
One band of defenders -- Davy Crockett for certain, and probably his frontiersmen volunteers -- took up a position behind a low wall in front of the chapel, and made the Valkyries earn their overtime pay. When the Mexicans pressed too close to reload, the frontiersmen swung their rifles as clubs or switched to tomahawks and knives and exacted a terrible toll before being overrun.
An American slave named Ben, who was a cook for the Mexican army during the attack, states that Crockett went down swinging his rifle and was found surrounded by sixteen dead Mexican soldiers.
For the next hour or so, the Mexican army discovered exactly how bad Military Operations in Interior Urban Environments sucks, as they fought room-to-room in the Alamo. Just the attempt to replace the Texas flag on the roof of one building cost four Mexicans the ferryman's fee, before the fifth finally managed to replace the flag of Texas with the flag of Mexico.
Room by room, in the dark and confusion, the Mexicans died, but replacements kept coming, sparing no defenders. Colonel Jim Bowie, too sick to rise from his bed, still managed to kill three or four Mexican troops with his pistols and famous knife, before being shot and bayoneted.
At about 0630 hours 06 MAR 1836, the last 11 defenders of the Alamo were killed manning the pair of 12-pounder cannon stationed in the chapel.
Surveying the scene after the bullets stopped banging and the bodies quit bouncing, General Santa Anna remarked, "It is but a small affair." Hearing this, a staff officer stated, "Another victory like this, and we'll go to the devil."
When Jim Bowie's mother was informed of his death, she very calmly announced: "I'll wager no wounds were found in his back."
Indeed.
189 defenders of the Alamo died this day 177 years ago. They took a full third of the attacking force with them.
When news of the Alamo got out, men flocked to the Texas army, and on the afternoon of 21 APR 1836, Texas remembered the Alamo, and took a full 18 minutes to toad-stomp the crap out of the Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto, taking General Santa Anna prisoner in the process.
We still remember the Alamo.
LawDog
Good read
By way of Lady Tam, I discover the blog of Chris Hernandez and found myself lost in his archives.
Good man, writing well. Well worth the time.
LawDog
Good man, writing well. Well worth the time.
LawDog
Oh, dear.
I have apparently struck a nerve with at least one Nony Mouse -- maybe two, I'm not sure yet -- in regards to yesterday's post.
The first of such takes umbrage at my assertion that LAPD had murdered three people (so far!) in the manhunt for Chris Dorner. My bad.
To be fair, the Los Angeles Police Department only managed to wound one Hispanic woman with two shots to the back from vehicle ramming range, and injure her septuagenarian mother by way of broken glass...
... do keep in mind that Chris Dorner is neither Hispanic, nor female. Not in his 70's, either, come to think ...
... multiple officers, multiple gunshots -- two non-fatal (so far) GSWs to the back.
Well played, sir. The LAPD did not, in fact, kill those two people whilst multiple officers were Swiss-cheesing their car. At ramming distance.
The sheer number of "Only Imperial Stormtroopers are this precise" memes and posters springing up around the Internet would be making my inner science-fiction nerd giggle if the circumstances weren't so sad. And quite frankly, unnecessary.
The third person (so far) not only wasn't killed, but it wasn't the LAPD who did the shooting. Apparently it was Torrance PD who rammed a truck driven by a white dude (Dorner is male, however he isn't exactly pale of complexion) and then opened fire, giving the driver a shoulder injury and a concussion, according to his lawyer. None of which were bullet-inflicted.
So, I am mistaken. LAPD has NOT murdered as many people as Dorner has during the manhunt.
"It's two Hispanic females! Delivering papers!"
"It's Dorner!" BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM ... ad infinitum.
"Oh, it's not. Ah, well. We didn't kill them."
Hrm.
Very well, oh Anony Mouse of the Internet, you have caught me out. Consider me chastised.
The second commenter seems to ... well, I'm not sure.
He seems to have a laundry list of things he wants out of me -- mostly he seems to want me to respect people -- and he'll generously not lump me in with Chris Dorner. I think.
Huh.
New around here, aren't you?
Tell you what. Over on the left of your screen there are several years worth of archives. A lot of those archives deal with me interacting with people on a professional basis.
Why don't you read those archives before you start nattering about respect. That way you won't be (metaphorically speaking) stepping on your wedding tackle in front of the average Gentle Reader who has been reading me from the start of this blog, and -- I hope -- already knows what sort of person I am.
Take your time, there are a lot of them. You can start with this one.
Nothing but love,
LawDog
The first of such takes umbrage at my assertion that LAPD had murdered three people (so far!) in the manhunt for Chris Dorner. My bad.
To be fair, the Los Angeles Police Department only managed to wound one Hispanic woman with two shots to the back from vehicle ramming range, and injure her septuagenarian mother by way of broken glass...
... do keep in mind that Chris Dorner is neither Hispanic, nor female. Not in his 70's, either, come to think ...
... multiple officers, multiple gunshots -- two non-fatal (so far) GSWs to the back.
Well played, sir. The LAPD did not, in fact, kill those two people whilst multiple officers were Swiss-cheesing their car. At ramming distance.
The sheer number of "Only Imperial Stormtroopers are this precise" memes and posters springing up around the Internet would be making my inner science-fiction nerd giggle if the circumstances weren't so sad. And quite frankly, unnecessary.
The third person (so far) not only wasn't killed, but it wasn't the LAPD who did the shooting. Apparently it was Torrance PD who rammed a truck driven by a white dude (Dorner is male, however he isn't exactly pale of complexion) and then opened fire, giving the driver a shoulder injury and a concussion, according to his lawyer. None of which were bullet-inflicted.
So, I am mistaken. LAPD has NOT murdered as many people as Dorner has during the manhunt.
"It's two Hispanic females! Delivering papers!"
"It's Dorner!" BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM ... ad infinitum.
"Oh, it's not. Ah, well. We didn't kill them."
Hrm.
Very well, oh Anony Mouse of the Internet, you have caught me out. Consider me chastised.
The second commenter seems to ... well, I'm not sure.
He seems to have a laundry list of things he wants out of me -- mostly he seems to want me to respect people -- and he'll generously not lump me in with Chris Dorner. I think.
Huh.
New around here, aren't you?
Tell you what. Over on the left of your screen there are several years worth of archives. A lot of those archives deal with me interacting with people on a professional basis.
Why don't you read those archives before you start nattering about respect. That way you won't be (metaphorically speaking) stepping on your wedding tackle in front of the average Gentle Reader who has been reading me from the start of this blog, and -- I hope -- already knows what sort of person I am.
Take your time, there are a lot of them. You can start with this one.
Nothing but love,
LawDog
I take offence ...
... at the assertion that "We are all Chris Dorner".
Dorner is a critter who got a case of the arse towards the man who represented Dorner while Dorner fought his termination from the LAPD -- unsuccessfully. Dorner then decided that his case of the arse was best settled by murdering the man's daughter.
Allow me the re-state that: Chris Dorner felt that his advocate did not did his best to defend Dorner against termination. So Dorner butchered the daughter of that advocate.
This may sound like a laudable act to some sodding numpties out there, but I -- unlike Dorner -- am a man. If I have a problem with another person, that problem is between me and that other person -- I don't slaughter that other person's children.
So don't you dare state that I "am Chris Dorner."
You think we're all Chris Dorner? You think Chris Dorner is someone to be lauded? Go to hell.
I realize that the LAPD is a bunch of trigger-happy cowboys who have managed to murder just as many innocent people during the manhunt as Dorner did to start the hunt, but that just makes the LAPD officers responsible just as bad as Dorner -- it doesn't make Dorner anything other than the cowardly murdering scum that he is.
"We are all Chris Dorner". How dare you?
How dare you justify the murder of a 28-year-old woman -- who had absolutely nothing to do with her killer's dispute with her father -- because you don't like the LAPD? Or cops in general?
Who the hell are you to identify "We" with a man who would callously gun down a woman and her fiance in their car with no way to defend themselves -- just because he was mad at her father?
You think this is a good idea? You think this is praiseworthy? You think that this is something to be cheered? Feted? Something that we should all aspire to, since "We are all Chris Dorner"?
GO TO HELL.
LawDog
Dorner is a critter who got a case of the arse towards the man who represented Dorner while Dorner fought his termination from the LAPD -- unsuccessfully. Dorner then decided that his case of the arse was best settled by murdering the man's daughter.
Allow me the re-state that: Chris Dorner felt that his advocate did not did his best to defend Dorner against termination. So Dorner butchered the daughter of that advocate.
This may sound like a laudable act to some sodding numpties out there, but I -- unlike Dorner -- am a man. If I have a problem with another person, that problem is between me and that other person -- I don't slaughter that other person's children.
So don't you dare state that I "am Chris Dorner."
You think we're all Chris Dorner? You think Chris Dorner is someone to be lauded? Go to hell.
I realize that the LAPD is a bunch of trigger-happy cowboys who have managed to murder just as many innocent people during the manhunt as Dorner did to start the hunt, but that just makes the LAPD officers responsible just as bad as Dorner -- it doesn't make Dorner anything other than the cowardly murdering scum that he is.
"We are all Chris Dorner". How dare you?
How dare you justify the murder of a 28-year-old woman -- who had absolutely nothing to do with her killer's dispute with her father -- because you don't like the LAPD? Or cops in general?
Who the hell are you to identify "We" with a man who would callously gun down a woman and her fiance in their car with no way to defend themselves -- just because he was mad at her father?
You think this is a good idea? You think this is praiseworthy? You think that this is something to be cheered? Feted? Something that we should all aspire to, since "We are all Chris Dorner"?
GO TO HELL.
LawDog
For the love of all that is holy ...
I understand that the National Anthem is a difficult song to sing.
Tune being lifted from a British drinking song -- To Anacreon in Heaven, point of fact -- probably means that it wouldn't hurt to be slightly liquored up before attempting to sing it.
However, it is the National Anthem -- a symbol of this great land -- and as such, is not a song one should "Put some stink on".
Sing the bloody thing properly and with reverence, or don't sing it at all.
If you want to add some flourishes, or vocal pole dancing, find another song to embellish. There are plenty out there.
Thank you.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.
LawDog
Edit: I am lovingly informed that the correct term is "Put some stank on it". My bad.
LawDog
Tune being lifted from a British drinking song -- To Anacreon in Heaven, point of fact -- probably means that it wouldn't hurt to be slightly liquored up before attempting to sing it.
However, it is the National Anthem -- a symbol of this great land -- and as such, is not a song one should "Put some stink on".
Sing the bloody thing properly and with reverence, or don't sing it at all.
If you want to add some flourishes, or vocal pole dancing, find another song to embellish. There are plenty out there.
Thank you.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.
LawDog
Edit: I am lovingly informed that the correct term is "Put some stank on it". My bad.
LawDog
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