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Truce
May 27, 2007 9:58:43 GMT -5
Post by Jim Boylston on May 27, 2007 9:58:43 GMT -5
I figured a new thread on this topic might be in order, since the "Osprey" topic was spinning that direction. I looked over Almonte again last night. I consider him to be a reliable source, dispassionate and direct. Based on Almonte's notes, I think the idea of a truce is out of the question.
24th-brisk fire, 18 pounder and another piece dismounted 25th-firing commenced early, ceased in the afternoon 26th-Skirmish, firing from Mexican artillery continued during the day 27th-Little firing from either side, though Santa Anna was fired upon. 28th-Cannonading continued 29th-No mention of artillery, but a mention that one soldado was killed that night.
1st-Defenders fired 2 12 pounders at President's house 2nd-No mention of fire 3rd-Enemy fired a few cannon and musket shots at the city 4th-commenced fring very early 5th-brisk fire from north battery 6th-assault
Something else I've noticed in rereading Almonte is that apparently, the artillery fire from the Mexicans did stop at night. There doesn't seem to have been the nightly bombardment that is so commonly discussed. Almonte clearly mentions a number of times that in the morning firing "commenced". The evenings were often taken up with moving the batteries and entrenching.
I get the sense too, that despite an almost daily exchange of fire, that the fire was not particularly heavy...sometimes he mentions the defenders only firing a couple of rounds, perhaps these were the signal rounds mentioned by Houston. This also jibes with Wolfpack's report on the ordinance.
Jim
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Truce
May 27, 2007 11:28:17 GMT -5
Post by Allen Wiener on May 27, 2007 11:28:17 GMT -5
This raises one other question. My impression was that there was heavy daytime shelling, and moving the artillery closer by night, while the defenders worked at night to shore up the damaged walls (the north wall at least). But if the shelling was so light, how much damage could it have done to the north wall? I also had the impression that the shelling got heavier the last few days, when the northern battery had been moved ever closer, where it had more effect on the north wall.
Do we have a good idea of how much of the Alamo defenses was built or strengthened by Jameson and how much was done by Cos and already in place? How seriously was the small garrison working on fortifications prior to Santa Anna's arrival? Travis and the others seemed to believe they had plenty of time and that Santa Anna would not march so soon or arrive before March.
AW
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Truce
May 27, 2007 13:49:16 GMT -5
Post by Herb on May 27, 2007 13:49:16 GMT -5
Until the arrival of the 1st Brigade on March 3, there simply weren't that many cannon available. IIRC, counting howitzers and very light pieces there were only 6 total pieces with the Mexican Army until the 3rd. The actual usable cannon were placed at the River Battery until the Northern Battery was established on Feb 28. But even then the River Battery was still maintained. With the exception of the cannon duel on Feb 24, it seems that most of the "bombardment" was harrasing fire from the two howitzers.
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Truce
May 27, 2007 15:23:36 GMT -5
Post by Allen Wiener on May 27, 2007 15:23:36 GMT -5
Hence the stepped-up bombardment on March 4 and 5, and the moving of the northern batter closer each night, possibly doing the damage to the north wall.
AW
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Truce
May 27, 2007 15:43:12 GMT -5
Post by Herb on May 27, 2007 15:43:12 GMT -5
Something else I've noticed in rereading Almonte is that apparently, the artillery fire from the Mexicans did stop at night. There doesn't seem to have been the nightly bombardment that is so commonly discussed. Almonte clearly mentions a number of times that in the morning firing "commenced". The evenings were often taken up with moving the batteries and entrenching. Something to keep in mind, is the fatigue factor of the artillery men, and rates of fire. While the infantry may do a lot of the entrenching work, it's very doubtful in a trained army that any but artillerymen were manning the pieces. Rate of fire is an important factor to keep in mind prolonged constant fire, will damage/destroy a piece. While in an emergency situation, any commander will risk the damage, but there was no emergency for the Mexican Army, and sustained fire almost calls for a casual rate of fire. You know, this ties into the multitude of capture munitions the Mexicans inventoried after March 6th (and also ties into the lack of evidence we've been able to find about defender cannon fire on the 6th)!
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Truce
May 28, 2007 6:05:09 GMT -5
Post by stuart on May 28, 2007 6:05:09 GMT -5
To a very large extent the ammunition expenditure is the key to all of this. I know I keep harping back to the parallels with Culloden but a lot of the primary research I've done on that battle is directly relevant.
Now in this case popular authors are wont to blithely speak both of gunners banging out two or more rounds per minute and a devastating bombardment of about half an hour before the Highlanders finally charged.
Trouble is, that even with my sometimes tenuous grasp of arithmetic it isn't difficult to work out that with only 40 rounds per gun, including the reserve in the park, the Royal Artillery would have run out of ammunition after only 20 minutes at that rate of fire.
Same thing goes for Santa Anna's army. Sure he'll have brought plenty of ammunition, but not enough for a "continuous" heavy bombardment over a two week period. Leaving aside the other factors Wolf mentions of gunner fatigue and barrel wear, that factor alone explains Almonte's picture of something pretty desultory.
Think of it another way; there are 24 hours a day. Fire one round every hour on the hour and that's 24 rounds gone. Do it for 10 days on the trot and that's 240 rounds - per gun. Does one gun per hour constitute a continuous bombardment? No? Well say its 12 hours a day firing every half hour. Same overall expenditure but still a long way from a heavy bombardment and probably nothing at all during the night. Are we getting the picture...
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