Surveying the Siege: #1~3, #2~1, #3~5

[stuart]

Nov 20, 2008 9:30:10 GMT -5 @lorinfriesen said:

Thanks AW,

Milam, Johnson and Grant did seem to have a higher cause. Did any of these three purchase lands from Lorenzo De Zavala?

No known connection. Grant's involvement in the land business is detailed in my book; Johnson was just an opportunist, but I'd like to find more about Milam - or rather get behind the Texas hero whose "public" story has been told before seemingly in some detail. Once you get behind the legend you find he was not only a long-time associate and sometime partner of another British agent named Wavell, but his association with Grant also goes back to his (Grant's) earliest days in Mexico. As I relate in the book he was also arrested by Cos at the same time as Grant and Viesca and his subsequent "escape" was part of the same plot which got them out and up to Texas in concert with Mexia's attempted coup in Tampico.

So no, Ben Milam was not the uncomplicated Texas patriot we have been led to believe, not by a long way...

[lorinfriesen]

Secret War for Texas,

Looking forward to understanding this!

I set out in this survey to learn others views and to begin this dialog. As I have learned from past commentators, we all tend to take sides for one or another individuals of history. Mine is of Edward Burleson. I view his life as a typical settler, his motivations to create a secure home for all his whole family and neighbors. The motivations of other Texians is just as intriguing especially how they all came together, yet maintaining their own drive to survive in this new country.

Best of luck in your continued researching Stuart, a daunting lifes work!

[lorinfriesen]

My responses thus far

1. Bio of Edward Burleson, Texas Frontier Leader and the book by Paul Lack, The Texas Revolutionary Experience. I have yet to read this one but am getting a copy.

2. Ten!

3. James Burleson, Stephen Austin