Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/04/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Clayton: As a native Texan now residing in So. Korea for over ten years, I really appreciate, more than most, your images of that re-enactment. God bless Texas. Thanks, Bill --- On Mon, 4/18/11, R. Clayton McKee <rcmphoto at yahoo.com> wrote: From: R. Clayton McKee <rcmphoto at yahoo.com> Subject: [Leica] [IMG]'s To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org> Date: Monday, April 18, 2011, 11:38 AM About 175 years ago a ragtag bunch of tired, annoyed, and not especially well-armed Texans seceded.? From Mexico. (Seceding from the US came later and didn't work out as well for them....) They made up their own Constitution, their own president (David Burnett), and their own army, commanded by General Sam Houston. The Mexican dictator of the time, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna etc etc, objected to this, of course. As a result, a lot of people got shot, sliced, and otherwise killed in unpleasant ways.? After several battles, all ending badly for the Texians, and a whole lot of running away across the state, the argument finally? came to a head on April 20, 1836, when the Texians, somewhere between 700 and 900 of them, turned around near Lynch's Ferry.? After a few inconclusive skirmishes, about midafternoon of April 21, the Texians went for an after-lunch stroll and caught SantaAnna's Mexican regulars napping. Literally. It was siesta time; the Mexican commanders didn't even have guards or pickets posted.? (There are rumors that while Santa Anna was entertaining in his tent, he may well NOT have been napping, but that's for history to argue.)? The 18 minutes that followed made the existing maps obsolete.? And if Santa Anna was indeed not napping, that was the high point of his day. Hundreds of Mexicans were killed, hundreds more captured.? A few escaped, but most of those were caught within hours or days.? Santa Anna himself fled the battlefield but the Texians had burned the bridge over the bayou leaving him nowhere to run, and the next day the Napoleon of the West was captured dressed as a private hiding in the weeds. Fewer than 20 Texians died.? (I've seen casualty counts of 17 and 19, but don't know which is correct.) The two things to remember, though these days they get harder to believe: 1.? The good guys won. 2.? The Texians, with their guns, were the good guys. About 20 years ago various Texas history buffs got together and decided that that first 18 minutes was so much fun they wanted to do it again.? So every year since, around about the 21st, they do. I try to make it when I can.? With cameras,of course.? ? http://rcmckee.smugmug.com/Other/2011-San-Jacinto-Reenactment/16660270_ZwX5p7 http://tinyurl.com/426cdjq Enjoy. Send Friends. Buy Prints. Compliment the Photographer.? Have fun. R. Clayton McKee PhotoJournalist from somewhere just south of somewhere else... _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information