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Post by Jim Boylston on May 14, 2007 13:34:33 GMT -5
How many Mexican generals who participated in the Alamo battle were later photographed? Santa Anna obviously, and I've seen Almonte's and Urrea's. Who else? Jim
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Post by TRK on May 14, 2007 14:35:59 GMT -5
Many of the Mexican officers who fought at the Alamo doubtless survived into the age of photography, which began three years after the Alamo. Those of them who were still around in the 1860s--for example, José Vicente Miñon and Pedro de Ampudia--almost certainly were photographed. Yet, there aren't a lot of surviving, identified photos of the officers, as far as I know. Adrian Woll, Santa Anna's quartermaster on the Texas Campaign, arrived in Bexar two days after the fall of the Alamo, so he doesn't quite qualify, but there's a carte de visite portrait of him in the Genaro Garcia Collection, Netttie Lee Benson Latin America Collection, University of Texas at Austin, Box 15, Folder Q-Z. (Cartes de visite came into vogue around 1860.) The Garcia collection also has several photographs of Almonte. There are a lot of photographs of Mexican officers taken from about 1860 on, in the Garcia Collection. Here's a link to the online catalog; search for "portraits": www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utlac/00093/lac-00093.html
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Post by stuart on May 14, 2007 16:02:27 GMT -5
How reliable is that identification of the Urrea photograph? I've always thought there's something doesn't quite feel right about it somehow
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Post by Jim Boylston on May 14, 2007 16:14:52 GMT -5
I don't know. You've probably seen it in the same sources I have. What is it that rings wrong with you? Jim
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Post by TRK on May 14, 2007 17:24:13 GMT -5
I think the version of the portrait identified as Urrea that I've seen was in Jeff Long's book on the Alamo (forgot the title; don't own it). It looked like a copy of a copy from another book. My impression was that the original portrait may have been a daguerreotype.
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Post by Jim Boylston on May 14, 2007 17:29:50 GMT -5
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Post by Kevin Young on Mar 16, 2009 14:53:11 GMT -5
I am trying to remember the author, but someone did a great bio on Urrea back about ten years ago that had two additional dags of Urrea. The all matched up pretty well. It pretty much convinced me that the image we always see is him.
Oh yes-here is the book:General José Cosme Urrea General José Cosme Urrea: his life and times, 1797-1849 by Patricia Roche Herring Publisher: Spokane, Wash. : A.H. Clark Co., 1995. ISBN: 0870622412 LCC: F1232
I had a copy but let a college student borrow it and guess what...
Portilla, the executioner at Goliad had his image captued much later. There was also a excellent earlier painting of Almonte before the Alamo (and boy, does he look like his father).
You all know, of course, that the image of General Cos used in the time Time book is actually one of the Russian Tsars.
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Post by stuart on Mar 16, 2009 16:40:16 GMT -5
Yeah, I remember that one. Another I'm not convinced by is the "portrait" engraving of Canales in one of the Time Life Books. There seem to have been a lot of those Bandido portraits served up to an admiring public by US news editors.
However, back to the photos; what about the Placido Benavides one? As he died pretty soon after 1836 I'm kinda sceptical he was around long enough to be photographed.
One who certainly survived long enough was Reuben Brown, who was with Grant when he was killed. He later became a colonel in the Confederate Army so I'd be surprised if there wasn't a photo of him around somewhere. Anybody know of one?
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Post by mustanggray on Mar 16, 2009 20:51:06 GMT -5
Regarding the woodcut of Cos... I always wondered about that one, the medal stuck out in my mind for some reason.
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Post by Kevin Young on Mar 16, 2009 21:02:06 GMT -5
Scott
The hussar style coat is also interesting. Was the original source of this from Frost's Pictoral of the Mexican War?
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Post by mustanggray on Mar 19, 2009 12:12:53 GMT -5
Not sure about that... I don't think I have Frost but I'll see which one I've got and see if it's in there when I get in tonight. SMc
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Post by Kevin Young on Mar 19, 2009 12:30:05 GMT -5
Scott- I am checking as well. By the way, happy Coleto day (if that is possible).
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