| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Joelly |
Posted - May 12 2004 : 7:22:37 PM
I need to know some detailed information about some people that faught in this battle and i need to know how many people died... If you could help me with this information then i would be deaply gratified... Thanks alot
Joelly |
| 5 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| joseph wiggs |
Posted - June 11 2005 : 11:26:57 PM
I checked, you'er right,I salute you! I believe a zero was dropped. |
| joseph wiggs |
Posted - January 24 2005 : 8:42:52 PM
To say that I am shocked would be an understatement. Now I realize why you and I got off to such a rough beginning concerning this battle. I had no idea what I was talking about! Is it not amazing how myth can consume truth, digest it, then regurgitate a hybrid of reality that takes on a new life of its own?
I would have argued, until the cows came home, that the one certainty about this battle was the overwhelming lost of Mexican troopers relative to the lost of American lives. Well, I am going to do some homework and then challenge you to a real duel of wits. This time I'll come well armed.
Hasta La Vista! |
| Anonymous Poster8169 |
Posted - January 24 2005 : 8:09:11 PM
quote:
Originally posted by joseph wiggs
Larsen, I have heard that thousands of mexican troopers died during this battle. This against 180 to 183 Americans. I suspect this not to be true, your thoughts?
My own opinion is that Filisola's tabulation by unit, amounting to 60 killed and 251 wounded, is probably most nearly correct. Figures for Mexican casualties are all over the place, I think partly due to normal post-battle confusion and disorder; several Mexican soldiers kept diaries or wrote letters on March 6th, and their entries almost uniformly disagree, though none of them puts any exorbitant figures such as a thousand dead Mexicans. If memory serves, I think the highest number offered was 110.
In Filisola's favor, his list was published in 1849, based on his access to official Mexican army documents, when enough time would have passed for all the units to re-order themselves and compile accurate figures. More importantly though, Filisola's figures receive independent confirmation in other documents. He lists one cavalryman killed, and this is confirmed in an official report by General Sesma, who names the single dead cavalryman as Cpl. Jose Hernandez. In addition, he records the San Luis Potosi regiment as having suffered 9 killed and 37 wounded. By chance, an itinerary kept by an officer in that battalion has survived, and this officer happens to list, by name, all the casualties his group suffered in the attack on the Alamo: 9 killed, 37 wounded, the same numbers Filisola gives.
Since Filisola checks out in those cases, I'm inclined to give him credence overall.
I know there are some who would genuinely be offended at the idea that the Mexicans might have took only 60 directly killed in action, but then I think the Alamo is the most misunderstood episode of the entire American west. It wasn't really a battle, per se; it was a massacre, like Fort Pillow. Mexicans stormed the fort, broke through the outer defenses, then slaughtered everybody inside, allowing no prisoners. The whole story in one sentence. The myth seems to obscure this for many.
R. Larsen |
| joseph wiggs |
Posted - January 23 2005 : 9:13:38 PM
Larsen, I have heard that thousands of mexican troopers died during this battle. This against 180 to 183 Americans. I suspect this not to be true, your thoughts? |
| Anonymous Poster8169 |
Posted - May 12 2004 : 11:31:34 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Joelly
I need to know some detailed information about some people that faught in this battle and i need to know how many people died... If you could help me with this information then i would be deaply gratified... Thanks alot
Joelly
No one knows exactly how many died. By best counts at least 180, possibly as many as 260 if some Mexican accounts are accurate. The traditional figure is 183, but recent historians have tended to go with a figure of "about 200".
Feel free to ask if you have any other specific questions.
R. Larsen
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