Post by Rich Curilla on Sept 16, 2013 14:55:02 GMT -5
By the way, I have just "uncovered" something about Bowie's death room that has been in plain view throughout and seems to have been totally overlooked. It is in the first (1836) plat and key done by Jose Juan Sanchez-Navarro (the one with Gen Cos' attack route on it).
We have heretofore been thinking of Bowie's room as having a door that opened onto the plaza on the north side of the low barrack, just to the left of the gate as we look at it from the north. I now believe that was not so. While much can be (and has been) debated about S-N's map and its accuracy, this is one detail that I believe he had direct knowledge of, perhaps saw the site himself. This to me has extra credibility (and actually supports the accuracy of his plat in other ways too) due to the fact that he draws the room exactly as he describes it in the key, literally illustrating his point.
On his plat, the rooms in the low barrack east of the gateway are collectively labeled "L." In his key for "L" he says, "Hospital. In the inner room located in the fore part toward the main gate, the braggart James Wuy [Bowie] died without resisting." On the plat, he shows the portion of the low barrack labeled "L" as having only one door to the outside opening onto the plaza and it is at the eastern end of the long room. The only other door as indicated is in the partition wall separating this long room from the smaller room to the west which is right next to the gateway as described. This smaller room has no other door but the one into the long room. This was James Bowie's isolation chamber -- and would have served as additional protection for him in case of overrun since access to it would be through a room full of infirm but probably fighting men.
If this is dependable information (and I believe it is), then the Mexican soldados would have entered the outside door, turned right, fought and killed all the sick in the long room, and then entered the "inner room" door at the far end (west end) of the hospital room to find a sole figure under covers.
To me, this scenario clears up a mystery. Why would the Texians *isolate* Bowie in a long, empty room (at least 15 x 38 feet) in the low barrack as depicted in Mark Lemon's very cool drawing. Space was at a premium. The original hospital (upstairs over the south end of the long barrack)was a room 14 x 26 feet and could house eleven cots with almost no space to walk between them, thus the need for other areas to be used as hospital as well. This is why the rooms in the low barrack (and one in its north wing) were put to that use. Certainly, Bowie wouldn't have been moved to a room with other sick or wounded men if, as Juana Navarro assures us, he was contagious. Most likely, the attempt would have been to isolate him in a small room that could be spared for the purpose. Therefore S-N's carefully detailed description on his original plat makes perfect sense. It must be noted that, in several publications (including George Nelson's widely read book), a shortened version of S-N's key is used which simply says: "L - Hospital. James Bowie died here." This, of course, completely removes this strikingly logical probability from Alamo history, if one pursues it no further than George's book. [P.S. -- Lest you misunderstand, his book is one of my bibles, and I use it constantly -- as a first step.]
We have heretofore been thinking of Bowie's room as having a door that opened onto the plaza on the north side of the low barrack, just to the left of the gate as we look at it from the north. I now believe that was not so. While much can be (and has been) debated about S-N's map and its accuracy, this is one detail that I believe he had direct knowledge of, perhaps saw the site himself. This to me has extra credibility (and actually supports the accuracy of his plat in other ways too) due to the fact that he draws the room exactly as he describes it in the key, literally illustrating his point.
On his plat, the rooms in the low barrack east of the gateway are collectively labeled "L." In his key for "L" he says, "Hospital. In the inner room located in the fore part toward the main gate, the braggart James Wuy [Bowie] died without resisting." On the plat, he shows the portion of the low barrack labeled "L" as having only one door to the outside opening onto the plaza and it is at the eastern end of the long room. The only other door as indicated is in the partition wall separating this long room from the smaller room to the west which is right next to the gateway as described. This smaller room has no other door but the one into the long room. This was James Bowie's isolation chamber -- and would have served as additional protection for him in case of overrun since access to it would be through a room full of infirm but probably fighting men.
If this is dependable information (and I believe it is), then the Mexican soldados would have entered the outside door, turned right, fought and killed all the sick in the long room, and then entered the "inner room" door at the far end (west end) of the hospital room to find a sole figure under covers.
To me, this scenario clears up a mystery. Why would the Texians *isolate* Bowie in a long, empty room (at least 15 x 38 feet) in the low barrack as depicted in Mark Lemon's very cool drawing. Space was at a premium. The original hospital (upstairs over the south end of the long barrack)was a room 14 x 26 feet and could house eleven cots with almost no space to walk between them, thus the need for other areas to be used as hospital as well. This is why the rooms in the low barrack (and one in its north wing) were put to that use. Certainly, Bowie wouldn't have been moved to a room with other sick or wounded men if, as Juana Navarro assures us, he was contagious. Most likely, the attempt would have been to isolate him in a small room that could be spared for the purpose. Therefore S-N's carefully detailed description on his original plat makes perfect sense. It must be noted that, in several publications (including George Nelson's widely read book), a shortened version of S-N's key is used which simply says: "L - Hospital. James Bowie died here." This, of course, completely removes this strikingly logical probability from Alamo history, if one pursues it no further than George's book. [P.S. -- Lest you misunderstand, his book is one of my bibles, and I use it constantly -- as a first step.]