Post by stuart on Nov 7, 2007 10:53:08 GMT -5
Yoakum's version is pretty straightforward (2:28-9):
"In the evening the fire from the Mexicans became active from all their works. Colonel Milam, in passing from his position to that of Johnson at the Veramendi house, was instantly killed by a rifle-shot in the head. He fell just as he enterted the yard"
A footnote, (same page) then says he was buried where he fell.
No source is given, but its clearly based on Johnson's account as quoted earlier
I would however make a couple of observations on the Johnson/Yoakum version. Yoakum was never one to let the truth get in the way of a good story, yet here he contents himself with paraphrasing Johnson's account which clearly suggests he was hit by just one of a hail of bullets flying about at the time, rather than shot by a "lone gunman", so that particular version of the story probably wasn't current in 1856. I think the key is the otherwise innocuous reference to "a rifle-shot in the head". The fact it was a rifle-shot may simply have been a deduction from the nature of the wound rather than a specific identification of a killer. Afterwards however the story was improved on in so far as a rifle bullet "obviously" means he was deliberately picked off by a marksman...
Secondly I suspect too much has been read into the statement that he was buried where he fell. Surely it should simply be read generally as meaning that he was buried in the yard rather than in a more formal burying ground, and shouldn't be interpreted so narrowly as to imply that they rolled his body out of the way just long enough to dig a hole on the exact spot where he was lying.
"In the evening the fire from the Mexicans became active from all their works. Colonel Milam, in passing from his position to that of Johnson at the Veramendi house, was instantly killed by a rifle-shot in the head. He fell just as he enterted the yard"
A footnote, (same page) then says he was buried where he fell.
No source is given, but its clearly based on Johnson's account as quoted earlier
I would however make a couple of observations on the Johnson/Yoakum version. Yoakum was never one to let the truth get in the way of a good story, yet here he contents himself with paraphrasing Johnson's account which clearly suggests he was hit by just one of a hail of bullets flying about at the time, rather than shot by a "lone gunman", so that particular version of the story probably wasn't current in 1856. I think the key is the otherwise innocuous reference to "a rifle-shot in the head". The fact it was a rifle-shot may simply have been a deduction from the nature of the wound rather than a specific identification of a killer. Afterwards however the story was improved on in so far as a rifle bullet "obviously" means he was deliberately picked off by a marksman...
Secondly I suspect too much has been read into the statement that he was buried where he fell. Surely it should simply be read generally as meaning that he was buried in the yard rather than in a more formal burying ground, and shouldn't be interpreted so narrowly as to imply that they rolled his body out of the way just long enough to dig a hole on the exact spot where he was lying.
