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Post by quincannon on Dec 18, 2020 15:19:57 GMT
Duane: I you wish to take a trip into Alamoland literature, I would suggest you make a trip to your local library and get hold of Henson's "Alamo Reader" and Walter Lord's "Time To Stand". Read them thoroughly, then read Henson again. All this before you venture onto the site you mentioned. Those guys on that forum are real pros that know their stuff, most of them anyway.
For me, the San Antonio area is just right. Love the place, a great mixture terrain wise for all that Texas has to offer. That includes the area south of San Antonio, all the way up to Round Rock where Beth lives. My second favorite part is the Palo Duro Canyon area near Colt's homestead.
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Post by Beth on Dec 18, 2020 15:49:34 GMT
I admit I love the Hill Country. I have yet to make it to San Antonio, it seems like every time we plan to go something comes up. I will echo QC's reading recommendations. I really liked the Lord book-and will add the recommendation for one of his books that is totally off topic on the Alamo--A Night to Remember--which is about the sinking of the Titanic.
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Post by quincannon on Dec 18, 2020 17:15:35 GMT
"Dawn's Early Light" is another of Lord's must reads.
The thing that is so important about Lord's "Time To Stand" is that it starts out in the very first lines of the first chapter to tell the reader why the Alamo story is so important in its own time (1836), and why it is still so important today (2020), and on so many different levels. Taken in the context of our entire history the Alamo is in anyone's top five stories of the making of a nation, and there in the top three in shaping our national character along with the Declaration of Independence, and Valley Forge. In short the three together tell us, that there are principles worth standing for, enduring for, and fighting for.
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Post by rebcav on Dec 19, 2020 1:45:11 GMT
Mr. Quincannon:
Amen, Sir. Amen.
Duane
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Post by yanmacca on Dec 19, 2020 20:32:12 GMT
Steady Boys Steady now, front rank take aim!!!!
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Post by quincannon on Dec 19, 2020 20:56:44 GMT
There are several scenes in John Wayne's Alamo that makes one who likes historical accuracy want to puke first, then go out and shoot the technical adviser to the movie. That is one of them. Another is Harvey with telescope in hand calling out Mexican unit identifications to Festus (Ken Curtis).
Not to mention the place they were standing in that particular scene Ian was the location of a pretty large earthwork, large enough to hold one or two small cannon (sources differ), and is now one big frigging flower bed.
I tell myself I would rather jump off a bridge than watch that movie again, but when it comes on TV I am there watching, hoping it will get better I suppose.
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Post by Elwood on Apr 22, 2023 1:40:17 GMT
Happy San Jacinto Day from Texas!
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Post by quincannon on Apr 22, 2023 3:13:40 GMT
We were talking about generals on another thread Elwood. Sam Houston is in my view the most overlooked general in American history. The San Jacinto campaign runs neck and neck in my opinion with Cowpens. Cowpens was a tactical victory. San Jacinto was an operational masterpiece of the first order. Run the bastards ragged then let them catch you while you are fresh and they are winded. A masterpiece.
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Post by Elwood on Apr 22, 2023 3:44:56 GMT
Agree. Houston was a guy who could definitely see the big picture and fought accordingly.
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Post by quincannon on Apr 22, 2023 15:20:53 GMT
Not only the big military picture, but he also had a vision for Texas, and it broke his heart when Texas left the Union to engage in Mississippi led treason, against the United States.
The story that needs telling I think, and has never been adequately done, is the relationship between Houston and Jackson, in both supporting the Texas revolution and then bringing Texas into the Union. Manifest Destiny some call it, and that has been talked about until one wishes to vomit from over information, but I am talking about the real story behind that banner of manufactured glory. Texas owes what it is today to that behind the scenes scheming of 1834-35 on Pennsylvania Avenue.
It was no mere happenstance that all those Regular Army soldiers serving in Louisianna were granted leave in April of 1836 and decided to vacation on the banks of Buffalo Bayou
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Post by Elwood on Apr 23, 2023 14:22:43 GMT
Not only the big military picture, but he also had a vision for Texas, and it broke his heart when Texas left the Union to engage in Mississippi led treason, against the United States. Yes, I have read that as the Texas Congress was voting to secede, Houston locked himself in his governor’s office whittling (literally I think) the time away, refusing to acknowledge the move to leave the union. He could see the big picture, knew what it meant. Probably did break his heart, dead two years later I believe.
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Post by quincannon on Apr 23, 2023 19:26:22 GMT
As did Houston, I get real emotional about treason Elwood. When I think of the sacrifices made from 1775 onward so that we could govern ourselves, in a democratic manner, where the will of the people is expressed by majority vote, and not some clap trap idea of racial, religious, or ethnic superiority, where all mankind have value, and equality under the law, it breaks my heart too, when some big mouth criminal and his deluded and delusional followers try to sully that sacrifice, with the hateful garbage they spew.
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Post by quincannon on Apr 30, 2023 21:45:46 GMT
OK. Did everyone die, or are you just hiding?
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Post by miker on May 1, 2023 1:11:52 GMT
Nothing to say.
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Post by quincannon on May 1, 2023 2:40:18 GMT
Ok then, I'm going to start reciting Irish poetry, transition into a treatise on the Spanish Fandango, and as a finale a diatribe on the Constitution - of the Antarctic. That certainly ought to motivate someone.
Saw a wildcat today. First one in ten or fifteen years.
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