| MYTH: |
That
Texans were the good guys and Mexicans the bad guys
|
| FACT: |
The
Mexicans were fighting to defend their country and to hold it intact.
While Texans were fighting for certain freedoms and a more liberal judicial
system. One of the freedoms they were seeking was the right to own slaves.
|
| MYTH: |
There
were no survivors of the Alamo.
|
| FACT: |
As
many as 17 people who did not take part in the fighting survived
the battle, including Susannah Dickenson, her daughter, a black
slave and about 14 pro-Texan Hispanics. Other accounts of survivors
among the fighting men also have surfaced although these are in dispute.
|
| MYTH: |
Davy
Crockett died fighting, swinging his rifle, "Old Betsy," with a heap
of dead Mexican soldiers at his feet.
|
| FACT: |
There
are varying accounts of what happened, including several that say he
was captured along with six other Alamo defenders and executed.
|
| MYTH: |
That
William Travis drew a line across the courtyard and told those willing
to stay to step across the line. Jim Bowie, taken ill, asked that his
cot be carried across the line to signal his willingness to stay.
|
| FACT: |
This
story didn't surface until 1873, when William Zuber claimed to have
heard it from Louis Rose, the one who is supposed to have refused to
cross the line. But there is no other record to support the story.
|
| MYTH: |
The
Texas Lone Star flag flew over the Alamo during the 13-day siege.
|
| FACT: |
It
did not, although debate continues over which flag did fly over the
mission-fortress. Earlier accounts had the defenders flying the flag
of the Louisiana Greys while others claimed it was a Mexican
flag bearing the date 1824, the year Mexico passed a liberal constitution
favorable to Texans. Most historians now believe the most likely flag
used at the Alamo was the tricolor Tejas
y Coahuila flag.
|
| MYTH: |
The
ashes of the Alamo defenders reside in a marble coffin in the San Fernando
Cathedral.
|
| FACT: |
When
Juan N. Seguin returned to San Antonio in February of 1837, he collected
what ashes remained into a single coffin. After a brief religious service
at the San Fernando Cathedral, the ashes
were taken back and interred on the spot where they were found.
The stones that marked the spot are gone and the exact location of the
grave is now lost.
|
Source: Dallas Times Herald, Monday, April 18, 1988 Related Article: Mythologizing The Alamo |
|