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Post by Herb on May 10, 2007 10:20:21 GMT -5
Ah, but music was/is part of the military heritage!
The museum curator at West Point, once told me, it's the everyday things in a soldier's life that become lost to history. Everybody records the big events and saves the dress uniforms, but how they lived, what they wore, and what they sang in the normal day to day routine often gets lost or overlooked.
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Post by stuart on May 10, 2007 10:41:13 GMT -5
That bit about boiling Ampudia's leg in oil does have some significance...somebody refresh my feeble memory: There's something in the history books, as I vaguely recall, that accused Pedro de Ampudia of boiling the corpses of the enemy dead down to skeletons, following an insurrection or such in Mexico. I need to look it up too. As I recall however it was pretty much his trademark to decapitate rebels and then preserve their heads by boiling them in oil, presumably with the intention that they could be stuck up in prominent places pour encourager les autres. There are two interesting spin-off from this charming habit. Firstly, given his ferocious reputation it was reckoned significant that although the Texians who surrendered to him at Mier complained of harsh treatment, they were in fact recognised by him as prisoners of war, not rebels. Secondly, knowing that Ampudia wasn’t the only practitioner of this particular technique, I’m reminded yet again of those 12 decapitated bodies supposedly discovered when the post office was built at the north end of Alamo Plaza, which is one of the reasons I still suspect that those men executed after the battle were Tejano rebels rather than Americans
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Post by TRK on May 10, 2007 12:25:39 GMT -5
Here's what I found re. Ampudia: In June 1844 he crushed an incipient revolt in the state of Tabasco led by Gen. Francisco Sentmanat, former governor of the state who had earlier been forced into exile. Ampudia captured Sentmanat and 38 followers; according to a report, although they put down their arms and surrendered on the pledge of clemency, Ampudia had them executed. He had Sentmanat shot and decapitated, boiled his head in oil, and displayed it in an iron cage. News of this incident got around, and Ampudia was relieved of command as a result. (Source: Sam Haynes, Soldiers of Misfortune: The Somervell and Mier Expeditions, p. 202) see also: www.sonic.net/~buscador/heads.htm
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Post by Jim Boylston on May 14, 2007 13:30:56 GMT -5
Ampudia is one of those gus who managed to be everywhere...the Alamo, San Jacinto, involved in the Mier Expedition episode, Palo Alto, Monterry, Buena Vista. Since this beheading has been attributed to him, one wonders if he may have been involved in the Alamo beheadings discussed in another thread here. Jim
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Post by stuart on May 14, 2007 16:00:27 GMT -5
Possibly, but my impression is that was pretty much an SOP for dealing with Mexican rebels at the time
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Post by tmdreb on Jun 9, 2007 21:30:59 GMT -5
I'm glad you posted it! Historical song lyrics are a great research tool, and bring us closer to understanding the mindset of our ancestors.
That's a good and popular tune. I also like the "Waxie's Dargle" version of the song as well.
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Post by Allen Wiener on Jun 10, 2007 0:16:46 GMT -5
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