Sleuthing the Alamo essay.doc

John Robinson Pope, Texas History 3310 2/4/2010 Sleuthing The Alamo I?ll start by saying that I enjoyed the text thoroughly. Crisp?s dedication to fact despite pressure to glorify heroes of the Alamo is inspiring. His focus on the De La Pena diary was very important to me, because I feel like his diary is the best remaining script of what actually happened at the time, and the best gauge of the climate, both political and social in Texas and Mexico. As the book went on, and more discoveries were added on to the De La Pena text, I found myself just as excited as Crisp to see the documentation of the Independence struggle continue, and more history unfold itself. The most interesting part of it all to me is that this is a story that I was under the impression had been solved. I didn?t realize there were still so many grey areas to be clarified, so to learn of these things was a great experience. I had always assumed that Davy Crockett was killed in combat, of no particular note, and subsequently his death was romanticized by word of mouth, much like the rest of his tall tale addled life. I had no idea the controversy over his last moments was so intense, nor that he was in all likelihood captured and executed as one of the last defenders of the Alamo. His character has been so played up throughout Texan history that it strikes one as odd that his role in the Alamo occurred only four months after he arrived in Texas. Nonetheless, I would argue that surviving as long as he did in such an improbable fight is impressive enough, and that those who say he was too great to ever be capture should probably take a step back and look at the big picture. Imagine Thermoplyae, except a Persian army that has rifles. Kudos to Davy for surviving as long as he did, and to Crisp for illuminating the facts among the legend. The story of Onderdonk?s great canvas being slashed is really not much of a mystery in my opinion, based solely on the manner of the slashes. Three perfectly parallel lines, made by a thin, sharp blade? Clearly these damages were inflicted while the painting was in transit at some point, and a careless mover let it scrape against a wall. I understand that the painting garnered some negative sentiment from the Hispanic population, but to assume that they are so brutish as to simply slash it is a bit racist, and to think that someone could inflict precision, machine-like cuts into it while maintaining a stealthy, nonchalant façade is just silly. However, one must consider that in DeShield?s time, it may not have seemed this way to a loyal Texan.