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Post by sgtstryker53 on Jun 12, 2013 6:44:30 GMT -5
Regarding changes of clothes, remember, most of the defenders were volunteers from the states or other parts of Texas and not Bexarenos. How many changes of clothes are you going to pack in a saddlebag or tote on your back on your way to San Antonio? Weren't the remnants of the New Orleans Greys uniforms said to be in pretty much in disrepair? Niell was begging for supplies. The boys must have been pretty gamey, and again, I think that you wear your most durable outfit. Probably buckskins or wool.
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Post by ronald on Jun 13, 2013 19:02:26 GMT -5
I have read in more than one book that Crockett wore a fur hat with a fox tail on the way to Texas The GATES OF THE ALAMO gave some notes about the hat and the great coat he had
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Post by davidpenrod on Jun 15, 2013 9:34:51 GMT -5
I was under the impression that Crockett didn't wear a fur cap with tail until the 1835 election - that he had tried to assume the legendary "Davy" persona to better connect with eastern immigrants to his district (long time residents would not have been impressed as they knew him well).
Could the fox cap and tail he wore to Texas have been part of that? That folks who had never before laid eyes on him expected to meet "Davy Crockett" and not "David Crockett" and he feared they would be disappointed in him (especially since he was not well over 6' tall and no signs of alligator scars could be seen on him).
From the various accounts of his life - and his own terrific autobiography - I thought Crockett was embarrassed by the whole "Davy Crockett/Nimrod Wildfire" craze - and that's why he "wrote" his autobiography in the first place, to haul out his true self from the cave into which the craze had shoved it.
In many ways, wasn't Jim Bowie the real "Davy Crockett/Nimrod Wildfire"? He was a lifelong backwoodsman, a drunk, an unsophisticated loaf, and a loudmouth who could actually backup his braggadocio - utterly fearlessness in mortal combat.
Wasn't Crockett running away from that fur cap and tail and Bowie toward it? And Travis was caught between them - a man without a national reputation? How do you stand against such legends? Maybe that's why Travis wrote his famous letter to "All Americans in the World" and not just the Texans.
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Post by Allen Wiener on Jun 15, 2013 10:37:10 GMT -5
Regarding Crockett's image, we do have the story related by the painter Chapman about him putting on a hat and slouching in a chair to assume the character he thought visitors expected to see. He doesn't say what kind of hat it was. The Chapman painting has him holding a flat-brimmed hat. French, who apparently visited Crockett at his home in Tennessee, mentions him wearing a fur cap at that time in "Sketches & Eccentricities." There are the two statements about his wearing a coonskin cap on his way to Texas, one by his daughter and one by a Memphis historian, but both of these recollections were recorded 30 or 40 years afterward and could have been influenced by images of Crockett that were common by then. There is also the publicity image of James Hackett as Nimrod Wildfire, wearing an animal fur cap of some kind, which morphed into an image of Crockett.
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Post by Herb on Jun 15, 2013 16:54:42 GMT -5
Been following the discussion for awhile. A couple of points, first off remember that Crockett travelled to Texas cross country with the intention of exploring the country and HUNTING, it would be very surprising if he wasn't wearing buckskin or other rough outdoor clothing. Likewise, being a celebrity/politician it would be very surprising if he didn't have a suit and finery on his pack horse for when he was in a town.
As for the other defenders, remember most of them were volunteers who went off to fight a war, not to party. Most of them would have chosen clothes for that purpose - they weren't idiots.
The evacuation of Bexar on the 23rd lasted hours not the panicked minutes shown in different movies, plus remember at least half of the garrison was already living in the Alamo. Still the more unprepared or busy individuals living in town would have been hard pressed to move all their effects to the Alamo.
Personally I think John Wayne and Hancock both overstated their interpretation of the garrison's appearance. I expect the truth is somewhere in the middle. With a far more farmer appearance than Dicken's or Leatherstocking.
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Post by sgtstryker53 on Jun 17, 2013 6:43:08 GMT -5
Agree Herb, although if you recall, the "Leatherstocking" look in Wayne's movie were for the most part Crockett's Tennessean's. The rest of the defenders, other than a few uniforms for some of Travis' men had pretty much the farmer appearence. Or at least not buckskin.
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Post by loucapitano on Jun 20, 2013 14:09:02 GMT -5
Allen, I think the Osprey illustrations are probably as accurate as modern day informed speculation would allow. I found them inspiring but a little too clean since most of these men had not seen a bath or shave for almost two weeks. I'd also be interested on Terry's take of Osprey.
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Post by Rich Curilla on Jun 23, 2013 18:22:15 GMT -5
Picking up in the middle on this discussion. First, I lost all faith in the dependability of the illustrations in Osprey's The Alamo and the War of Texan Independence 1835-36 the moment I realized that the image of Jim Bowie was lifted directly from a publicity photo of John Wayne in The Sons of Katie Elder -- complete with the same double-breasted "John Wayne" shirt! (History of Western Movies by Leonard Mathhews, p. 99.) Regarding the John Gadsby Chapman quote about Crockett's garb in the painting, it had nothing to do with Crockett trying to live up to a Nimrod Wildfire image, as I remember. Crockett himself was displeased with previous portraits that made him look like a Methodist minister. Chapman said that Crockett wished a painting to show him how he felt most comfortable -- on a hunt with his dogs. Unfortunately, according to Chapman, Crockett had none of his normal hunt clothes in Washington with him (Walt Disney forgive him), so they literally went shopping for clothing to meet Crockett's approval -- the hat and the rest were therefore Crockett's own choice.
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