The Alamo and the
War for Texan Independence
1835-1836

Osprey Men-At-Arms

Reviewed by Jon Williams

authored by Philip Haythornthwaite

Santa Ana came storming, as a storm might come There was rumble of cannon, there was rattle of blade There was cavalry, infantry, bugle and drum Full seven thousand in pomp and parade The Chivalry, flower of Mexico Anda gaunt two hundred in the Alamo

Even when Joaquim Miller penned those lines over one hundred and forty years ago the siege of the Alamo had already entered popular legend. Today the Alamo is still remembered in both history and popular mythology. To my taste it isjust fine. We need heroes and excellent myths to revere. We also need and welcome some well done historical information. Paradoxically, this has been hard to come by in regard to this most famous of American sieges. Perhaps the heroic legendary quality of the tale has hurt as well as helped honest historical research. Texans in particular and Americans in general like the Alamo story as it is.

For years there was only one scholastic source on the Alamo; that being Amilia Williams' doctoral thesis. Dr. Williams' work unfortunately partakes largely from half-baked legend and tall tales of the story. Uniform information likewise has been scarce. Even very serious hobbyists have been forced to rely upon Hefner's Mexican Soldier, an available but not always reliable text, films, and a precious series in old "Tradition" magazine.

In a single slender volume Osprey has greatly eased the hobbyist's research needs. The coverage of the siege as well as the following San Jacinto campaign are sound and well balanced. Travis, Bowie, Crockett, and Houston all are portrayed reasonably, with their legendary personalities absent (for better or worse). Haythornthwaite's text isvery well done if one can get over the certain feeling of loss for the legend which fails to touch the author's soul as it does for all Americans. I for one liketo believe that Travis drew the line in the dust.

I am also not drawn to the plates, albeit this is purely a matter of taste as from a research standpoint they are excellent. There are, for example, outstanding renderings of such hard to come by information on the New Orleans Greys and the Alabama Red Rovers. The Mexicans are also well done but as a Californian I can say with some authority that all Mexicans do not look like Cheech and Chong.

All in all however, Osprey has done it again, filling a gap and providing an excellent single reference. I highly recommend it, now if they will just do one on the Sikh Wars. - PAUL KOCH

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