ForgetAlamo

• http://wiki.keithl.com/ForgetAlamo

Forget the Alamo

The Rise and Fall of an American Myth

• Bryan Burrough . Chris Tomlinson . Jason Stanford
• 2021 . Bvt Lib 976.403 BUR .
• Book cover shows campulate on front of building, added years after the battle

• four maps

• pxix Introduction

• p001 Ch01 Bloody Texas

• p002 . Book Anglo Texans embrace Lone Star 1968 by T. R. Fehrenbach PSU Basement F386.F4 . Claims battle about "ethnic hatred"

• p013 . Louisiana slave trader Jim Bowie

• p001 Ch02 The Americans, their cotton, and who picked it

• p015 . "Nothing is wanted but money, and negros are necessary to make it" - Steven F. Austin, 1832

• p018 . Moses Austin (father) too old to make Texas colony happen, son Stephen F. Austin did

• p021 . Austin spent a year in Mexico city, 15 pages in his best biography, no mention that he was there lobbying to keep his slaves.

• p021 . allies Lorenzo de Zavala and Juan N. Almonte. Slavery "repugnant" but lucrative to Austin.

• p022 . Iturbide either allow slavery or surrender Texas to the Comanche

• p023 . 1825: 1800 people in Austin's colony, 25% enslaved
• p024 . new Mexican federalist government outlawed slavery, San Antonio governor didn't enforce that

• p025 . Texas merged with state of Coahuila, capital Saltillo

  • Coahila constitution Article 13 freed all slaves
• p026 . compromise limited slave imports after six months
• p027 . restrictions became law in September 1827

• p029 Ch03 The American Middle Finger, Extended

• p037 . "a pair of malcontents at Anahuac, Juan Davis Bradburn and William B. Travis

• p041 Ch04 "The President Santana is Friendly to Texas

.p188 .

• p043 . Santa Anna 1794-1876, general at age 25, 8th president between 1833 and 1855

• p044 . Santa Anna repelled 1829 Spanish invasion. called himself "Savior of the Motherland"

• p044 . Followers called Santanistas. Governance bored Santa Ana, #2 Valentin Gómez Farías ran things.

• p044 . Austin demanded statehood from Farías, then asked Erasmo Seguín to prepare for a state government

• p044 . Saltillo commanding general Pedro Lemus arrests Austin 1834 January 2

• p045 . Austin returned to Mexico City and imprisoned
• p045 . Santa Anna madMoldovaMoldovae many concessions, Austin overjoyed

• p046 . mestizo Juan Almonte became Texas governor's assistant, called the "copper colonel"

• p046 . letter from Mexico City asking Texas cotton planters to fight the central government, see pXXX

• p047 . Almonte horrified by slave abuse, slaves imported from Cuba, agreement from Baltimore abolitionist Benjamin Lundy

• p048 . Austin freed Christmas Day 1834, urged Santa Anna to visit Texas, unaware of changing attitudes there

• p048 . Santa Anna surpresses revolt in Zacatecas province, soldiers raped and plundered

• p049 . trouble in Coahuila bordering Texas, Texians worried

• p050 . young general Martín Perfecto de Cos sent to restore order

• p050 . Tejanos first rebelled against Santa Anna

• p051 . Tejanos bought and illegally resold land to Texians
• p052 . Seguín wrote about Texians, "... talk about a revolution ... armed movement was still remote.

• p052 . "seasoned swindler" Jim Bowie escaped Mexican jail, spread alarm in Texas

• p053 . returning by ship to Texas, Austin watched battle between Mexican schooner and two small Texas ships.

• p055 Ch05 The War Dogs

• p055 . 12 to 24 "War Party" or "War Dogs"
• p056 . Travis: "Sir Walter Disease", Mark Twain neologism
• p056note . Travis cousin of great-great-grandmother of author Chris Tomlinson, whose household is deeply disturbed by their physical resemblance

• p057 . Travis left Claiborne GA and teenage wife and baby behind, promising to ret urn for her when his debts were paid; he never did.

• p057 . Travis diary: "I fucked the 56th woman in my life", then venereal disease, treated with mercury. Possible emotional disturbance.

• p060 . Anahuac attack, war fever, defending Travis from Mexican execution

• p064 . Sam Houston married (and weeks later abandoned by Eliza Allen), abandoned, miserable, Indian nickname "Big Drunk"

• p065 . first battle at Mission Concepción three miles outside of San Antonio

• p067 Ch06 San Antonio]]

• p067 . Texians had long range rifles. One Texian dead, 14 (or more) Mexicans dead and 39 wounded
• p070 . Santa Anna treated Texians better than Mexicans, but would not support slavery (Mexicans ardently abolitionist) and insisted Texans pay taxes like everyone else
• p071 . Texians called slaves "hands" or "Negros" to avoid international censure

• p079 Ch07 The Worst Kind of Victory

• p082 . Texians seized state property and attacked the state, hence pirates and executable without trial.
• p082 . Santa Anna intended to free all slaves.
• p083 . Bowie a swindler, might have been hanged if he remained in the United States.

• p084 . Jean and Pierre Lafitte smuggled slaves from Cuba and sold them to the Bowies on Galveston Island

• p085 . Bowie land grab in Coahuila Mexican border state south of Texas

• p085 . Then "wobbly claims" to a million acres of Texas land

• p087 Ch08 Countdown

• p089 . escaped slave William Wells Brown writes 1853 novel Clotel

• p089 . David Crockett Tennessee Congressman (1827-31, 1833-35)

• p090 . Crockett exploited his bear-killing talents to become "know'd"https://web.archive.org/web/20250820144855/

• p091 . 1831 play "The Lion of the West" by James Kirke Paulding, dimwitted congressman Colonel Nimrod Wildfire clearly modeled on Crockett

• p091 . Dr. Bruce Winders, Curator of the Alamo - An Introduction

• p091 . Sketches and eccentricities of Col. David Crockett of west Tennessee pub 1833

• p091 . I'm that same David Crockett, fresh from the backwoods, half-horse, half-alligator, a little touchéd with the snapping-turtle, can wade the Mississippi, leap the Ohio, ride upon a streak of lightning, and slip without a scratch down a honey locust; can whip my weight in wild cats -- and if any gentleman pleases, for a ten dollar bill, he may throw in a panther

• p092 . "I told the people of my district that, if they saw fit to re-elect me, I would serve them as faithfully as I had done; but if not, they might go to hell, and I might go to Texas."
• p099 . Alamo defenders died because they ignored warnings of Santa Anna's approach, made no vote or conscious decision, and were trapped defending an indefensible outpost.

• p101 Ch09 The Final Days

• p101 . The Alamo church was one building of several on three acres, the rest demolished and replaces with San Antonio buildings and streets
• p102 . Texian crews visible, easy targets

• p102 . Texians had 200-yard-accurate long rifles, Mex army used inaccurae India Pattern muskets Brown Bess

• p104 . Travis 1836 letter from the Alamo Victory or Death

• p104 . Most Texians and Tejanos never wanted to revolt, none volunteered, Travis a troublemaker
• p106 . Feb 29, 32 reinforcements from Gonzales, 70 miles east of San Antonio

• p106 . James Fannin 400 men at Goliad Texas 100 miles southeast nearest possible reinforcements

• p107 . Fannin started late Feb 25 for rescue mission, broke down, went home (critics say chickened out )

• p107 . Constitutional convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos 180 miles northeast of San Antonio

• p108 . Lorenzo de Zavala admired US federalism

• p108 . de Zavala helped write 1824 Mexican constitution, instrumental in American settlement in Texas

• p111 . George Childress declaration of independence, adopted unanimously

• p111 . Texas constitution guaranteed slavery and outlawed any emancipation, most militant slavocracy anywhere

• p111 . supposed de Zavala Texas flag a fraud

• p113 . two Santa Anna officers said Travis sent a surrender offer

  • Vicente Filisola memoir cited in The Alamo Reader, seems dubious

• p115 Ch10 The Battle of the Alamo

  • 1836 Feb 23 to Mar 6

• p118 . José Enrique de la Peña most ladders didn't reach the walls

• p119 . Texians on the wall shot hundreds of Mexicans below
• p120 . Mexican reserves attacked, mostly shooting other Mexicans, controlled the north and west walls after 15 minutes
• p122 . Half the rebels still alive after the Mexicans took the Long Barrack
• p124 . Mexican sergeant Manuel Loranca claimed 62(?) defenders sallied from east side, killed by Mexican lancers
• p126 . some (7?) Texians surrendered, all were killed
• p126 . Bowie was killed in his sickbed, Crockett may have surrendered, then executed

• p127 . historic comparables Battle of Fort Pillow 1864 and Battle of Rorke's Drift 1879

• p129 Ch11 A First Draft of History

• p129 . Alamo survivor Susanna Dickinson helped by General Juan Almonte

• p132 . Runaway Scrape Texan civilians fleeing eastward

• p134 . Harrisburg newspaper Telegraph and Texas Register

• p135 . unidentified author: "... so glorious to Texas ..." Actually a boneheaded loss, delayed Santa Anna by only 4 days
• p135 . ... Alamo defenders died for pretty much nothing.

• p140 . Battle of San Jacinto 1836 April 21

• p143 Ch12 Remember the Alamo?

• p145 . Austin's cousin Mary Holley "The Anglo-Saxon American race are destined to be forever proprietors of this land of promise and fulfillment ..."

• p145 . critical book: The History of Texas 1836 by Gonzales seminarian David Barnett Edward

• p146 . many Texas novels were anti-Catholic
• p148 . Alamo structures ruined, stone sold and hauled away, only inhabitants a bat colony

• p148 . Reuben Marmaduke Potter first Alamo aficionado

• p151 . Potter's San Antonio newspaper story 1860, then 16 page monograph
• p154 . Anglo swindlers Smith and Goodman claimed Tejano property, Seguín stopped then
• p155 . Laws forbid Tejano men from marrying white women, but white men could marry Tejano women

• p155 . José Antonio Navarro first Tejano historian

• p156 . William Physick Zuber confabulated many Alamo fables

• p160 . Anne Hardwicke Pennybacker 1888 published A New History of Texas for Schools, became standard Texas history textbook

• p165 Ch13 The Second Battle of the Alamo

• p165 . battle's 50th anniversary in 1886 ignored, the Long Barrack turned into a grocery store

• p166 . Adina De Zavala 1861 – 1955 granddaughter of Lorenzo De Zavala, organized :

• p167 . Daughters of the Republic of Texas, DRT descendants of Texas revolt participants

• p168 . San Antonio's De Zavala chapter of the DRT made a few repairs, many tea parties

• p169 . Clara Driscoll raise thousands of dollars of donations and purchased the Alamo in 1905 with the DRT

• p172 . Second Battle of the Alamo, Driscoll "build a hotel" vs. De Zavala "save the historic Long Barrack"

• p176 . 1911: new Texas governor Oscar Colquitt "I will spend every dollar at my disposal to make it (the Long Barrack) look like it did then"

• p176 . Governor removed the wooden structure around the Long Barrack's stone walls.

• p179 Ch14 The White Man's Alamo

• p179 . Texas Creation Myth

• p179 . University of Texas founded 1883

• p179 . 1893 frontier thesis of Frederick Jackson Turner

• p180 . Nullification thesis

• p180 . David Franklin Houston 1896 book A Critical Study of Nullification in South Carolina

• p181 . teach folklore, not history

• p182 . Paul D. Lack

• p182 . Eugene C. Barker Texas ancestors not slavers, but defenders of liberty

• p184 . Heroic Anglo Narrative

• p184 . Texas through Time 1991 book

• p185 . Amelia W. Williams 1876-1958 began PhD history studies at UT in 1925

• p186 . full-throated endorsement of the Heroic Anglo Narrative

• p186 . Paul Andrew Hutton 1986 : Williams work "of stunningly poor quality"

• p186 . Thomas Ricks Lindley 2003 book Alamo Traces 2003

  • 50 errors and distortions in "Texas through Time"
• p187 . D Magazine: 1920s Dallas the most racist city in America
• p187 . 428 comic strip episodes of "Texas History Movies" between 1926 October and 1928 June, stunningly racist
• p188 . claimed all enslaved Black people fully educated and free to change masters at will
• p188 . Still in schools 1974 "... you can't say this crazy shit anymore", so overt racism removed in updated edition
• p189 . "Daughters" fanciful Alamo tales of fighting in the church; Long Barrack languishing
• p189 . 1936 speaker read the names of those who had died, excluded the Tejanos

• p190 . Alamo Cenotaph 1949

• p193 Ch15 The Alamo Goes Global

• p193 . 1915 film Martyrs of the Alamo most perversely distorted Alamo narrative

• p194 . D. W. Griffith following the 1914 Birth of a Nation

• p194 .forget Mexican tyranny; instead the perils of miscegenation

• p195 . in 1945 Arthur Schlesinger Jr. called Crockett a "con artist" not "smart enough to cut it in Washington"

• p197 . Disney 1954 Davy Crockett TV series
• p198 . coonskin caps; raccoon tails went from 25 cents per pound to eight dollars
• p198 . In two months, Americans spnt $100M on Crockett merchandise

• p199 . Murray Kempton 4 part series debunking Crockett legend, fans picketed

• p200 . John Wayne (Marion Morrison) imagined Alamo movie in 1945, too expensive

• p201 . rewritten as surprisingly accurate 1955 The Last Command

• p202 . The Alamo 1960 John Wayne film, 202 minutes

• p205 . Wayne hoped his movie would stop JFK

• p207 Ch16 The Alamo Supremacists

• p209 . Critics panned movie, most lavish B (for banal) picture ever made

• p212 . Lyndon Johnson Alamo Syndrome "My great-great-grandfather died at the Alamo." Not.

• p214 . T. R. Fehrenbach 1968 Lone Star: A History of Texas PSU Basement F386.F4

  • Torah of the Heroic Anglo Narrative

• p217 Ch17 The Rise of Alamo Revisionism

• p218 . 1969 movie Viva Max!

• p219 . Latinos in Texas simmered in silence, now 40% of Texas population, more than 38% non-Hispanic white
• p220 . "We didn't know we were different until they told us we killed Crockett"
• p222 . your houseguests kicked you out ... Texans in Tejas

• p224 . legislator José Tomás Caneles

• p225 . LULAC, League United of Latin American Citizens

• p227 . Olvídate de "El Alamo" by Rafael Trujillo Herrera

• p231 . Walter Lord 1961 A Time to Stand PSU Basement F390.L66

• p233 Ch18 Revisionism Unleashed

• p234 . James E. Crisp 2005 Sleuthing the Alamo Central 976.403 C932s 2005

• p237 . Daniel E. Kilgore 1978 book How Did Davy Die? - Crockett surrendered and was executed
• p237 . broadly accepted, for now
• p238 . 150 years later, revisionists silent

• p239 . Jeff Long 1990 Duel of Eagles PSU Basement F390.L63 1990

• p241 . unleashed Alamo revisionism
• p241 . "If the Alamo had that many defenders in 1836, Santa Anna would have turned tail and run."

• p245 Ch19 The Alamo Under Siege

• p245 . in 1980s Alamo environs rundown, unsafe at night
• p246 . Filmmaker Gary Foreman, restore the Alamo since the 1980s

• p247 . " Daughters" patrolled shushing visitors, more about John Wayne than the Alamo, amateurish 10 minute B&W movie

• p252 . The land around the church had been a cemetery, 1006 burials, 921 of Native American or mestizo descent
• p252 . restoration would interrupt a main street

• p253 . Daughters hire new (1994) Texas Christian PhD and reenactment buff Bruce Winders

  • Reset project

• p257 Ch20 The Sisters of Spite

• p257 . Connecticut native 1946 George W. Bush the younger Harvard MBA, 1968 USAF and Texas National Guard, 1972 to Alabama, 1974 discharged. So, Texas connection from 1968. Failed run for Congress in 1978, ran for Governor in 1993

• p257 . Bush: Heroic Anglo Narrative, fond of inept Alamo references

• p258 . Disney 2004 The Alamo 6/10 136 min runt screen, 4 copies WCCLS, not Beaverton

• p259 . Daughters new member Sarah Reveley

• p259 . Daughters plan renovation, replacing original distinctive antiques with "nice brass ones"
• p259 . old paintings on nails rather than museum mounts

• p260 . Erin Bowman

  • "Daughter" and elite San Antonio fundraiser, fired by Daughters, kept going with the Alamo Endowment
• p261 . "Daughters" diverted more than 80% of Alamo funds to two other Austin museums

• p266 . Daughters president Karen R. Thompson threatened legislators, eviscerated by State Senator Leticia Van de Putte

• p266 . Jerry Patterson popular head of the General Land Office

• p269 Ch21 This Politically Incorrect Nonsense

• p269 . Ruben Cordova

• p272 . San Antonio 300th anniversary, organized art show

• p272 . The Alamo Hump ( "campanulate" or bell-shaped ) added in 1850, a century after construction, and 15 years after the Battle of the Alamo

• p273 . 1997, Texas children not taught about Crockett or Bowie or Tejano doctor Lorenzo de Zavala, instead Tejano general Juan N. Seguín

• p274 . History teacher Stephen Cure

• p275 . "I know the name of your seventh-grade Texas History teacher" ... "Coach" (also at Sunset High School)

• p276 . Don McLeroy dentist, chairman of the Texas State Board of Education 2007-9, Young Earth Creationist, caricature of angry arch-conservative

• p276 . Stephen Cure's group gave their more diverse recommendations to the state board; didn't go smoothly
• p277 . Jefferson excision from American History standards, because he advocated separation of church and state
• p279 . Funhouse reflection of Santa Anna's Mexican government trying to halt Anglo immigration
• p280 . teach "all the heroic defenders" who died at the Alamo - not manageable "groups" or "examples"

• p280 . Arthur J. Torget 2015 book Seeds of Empire

• p281 . Conservative politicians attack "politically correct nonsense" that is merely correct

• p283 . Cure: The word 'heroic' hasn't been required since we started teaching Texas History in 1936

• p285 Ch22 The Alamo Reimagined

• p285 . 2019, armed protesters "defended" the 80 year old Cenotaph from repair and relocation
• p288 . San Antonio is 2/3 Latino, many are liberals
• p289 . update the Alamo narrative to include the Tejanos
• p290 . 95% of Alamo visitors are from out of state
• p291 . battle an entry point to a larger history
• p292 . conservatives elected, strange conspiracy theories

• p292 . 38yo George P. Bush, son of Jeb, half Hispanic

• p293 . Daughters ejected from the Alamo

• p293 . Refused to hand over the library, Bush had the locks changed

• p295 . "... boondoggle in the furtherance of a politically correct Alamo" Rick Range

• p295 . Texas General Land Office (GLO) Alamo fundraising committee

• p298 . George P. Bush's Last Stand at the Alamo

• p299 . Alamo "... in which every Texan can be proud" (except for more numerous Tejano voters?)
• p300 . 1) Restore church and Long Barrack, 2) original footprint, 3) sense of arrival, 4) reverence, 5) visitor center and museum

• p301 . Ramon Vasquez "... a frickin' (native) cemetery in the middle of downtown"

• p301 . 25th annual Sunrise Ceremony locked out of the church

• p304 . Fox & Friends cohost Brian Kilmeade 2019 book Sam Houston and the Alamo Avengers, referred to slaves as "servants"

  • also shows years-later campulate on building on cover

• p307 Ch23 The Problem with Phil

• p307 . $450M revitalization effort remains real, new museum built around Phil Collins Alamo collection

• p307 . Compton J. LaBauve New Iberia, Louisiana collector 1941-2024

• p308 . Jim Guimarin 1934-2025

• p310 . Alex McDuffie protege of Guimarin, home near Lake Travis

• p310 . Sam Nesmith 1942-2018

• p310 . Mexican army bullets made of bronze

• p312 . 13 Days to Glory by Lon Tinkle 1958, 13 chapter story of siege, retells every myth, ridiculed by historians

• p312 . Alfred Van Fossen -2006, fake artifacts

• p314 . Joseph Musso Los Angeles knife collector

• p317 . Arkansas? (Santa Fe?) dealer Gary Hendershott never sent promised documentation

• p317 . Glorieta NM antiquities dealer Jeff Hengesbaugh

• p320 . Antique knife worth $5K, Alamo knife worth $60K

• p320 . The Alamo and Beyond By Phil Collins 2012

• p320 . Collins gave collection to State of Texas, requiring $$M museum to house it

• p321 . Thomas Nuckols "I could actually write a book lampooning this (Collin's) book

• p322 . Stephen L. Hardin 1994 Texian Illiad

• p322 . lots of qualifiers, hedging, standard academic practice
• p324 . Santa Anna cavalry horseshoes? Late 1800s blacksmith shop on that site
• p324 . "Jim Bowie's knife" probably made in England 1971/2 . London Daily Telegraph photo of counterfeiter's girlfriend holding it.
• p325 . counterfeiter Dickie Washer, artificially aged 1972 knives
• p325 . Hengesbaugh "It's a fake! I've seen this 100 times."

• p327 . Henry Yallop initials and date are insufficient proof, (might) enable further research

• p328 . GLO staffer: no due diligence, get the most press coverage
• p329 . claimed detailed reports "confidential"
• p329 . Texas Attorney General's Office made them available under the Texas Public Information Act
• p329 . Nesmith signed most of the certificates, master class fairy tales
• p329 . professional description, then storytelling
• p330 . "Sam's Psychic Impressions on JB's Knife"
• p331 . Collins increasingly fabulist between 2008 and 2011
• p331 . Bruce Winders forced out in 2008 for avocating vetting of the collection
• p332 . Collins impatient, considers getting his collection returned
• p334 . Bush will never publicly admit that he accepted a pig in a poke.

• p335 Epilogue Another Battle of the Alamo

• p335 . Heroic Anglo Narrative rooted in white supremacy, older conservative whites
• p335 . Young Texans, "many of color" in the poorest large US city,learning about spending $450M to glorify a battle for slavery
• p336 . GLO built 8 foot barrier around the Alamo to protect it from vandalism

• p337 . lieutenant governor Dan Patrick attacked Bush from the right

• p337 . Gene Powell, agreement to tell all sides replaced by John Wayne's Alamo

• p338 . Tãp Pĩlam Coahuiltecan Cemetery

• p339 Afterword We are what we Remember

• p339 . "Remember the Alamo" battle cry of rebels attacking a national army, seven generations ago
• p339 . In 2036, the majority of Texans will be Hispanic
• p341 . The Alamo might as well be a Confederate monument

• p341 . "Forget the Alamo" is a historiography, a history of the history

• p342 . post 9/11 US military encampments named Alamo in Iraq and Afghanistan
• p342 . Alamo myth justified violence against Mexicans, Tejanos, Mexican-Americans, Vietcong, and al-Qaeda
• p343 . Phil Collins can Remember the Alamo in the privacy of his own home