Today, my spouse and I attended an interesting talk by Stephen Harrigan, author of the book “Gates of the Alamo.” He has written several other book but the Alamo book is his most famous work. He has certainly researched the subject of the fall of the Alamo. Harrigan claims that the story about Travis drawing the line in the sand is a myth. This is the famous story about drawing the line in the sand with his sword and inviting all that were willing to stay and fight to the death to cross over. The story is that all but one stepped over the line. The lone dissenter was a fellow named Moses Rose who claimed he had a family and was too young to die.

There is no good historical evidence that this drawing the line ever really occurred. A fellow named William Zuber wrote a book about his 80 years in Texas in which he claimed that Rose came to his home in Shiro, Texas and told the story to him. Harrigan doesn’t believe the account by Zuber because Zuber told the story 40 years after it occurred and his memory was getting rather dim. Harrigan claims the whole story is a myth.

In history, it’s hard to tell what is myth and what is fact. I grew up thinking the Yankees were evil invaders of the South. Now the story makes the South the total bad guys. Some now believe that the holocaust never occurred. This will become dimmer with time and the Muslims may eventually convince the world that there was no holocaust. The Bible has really been picked apart about fact vs. fiction. Did Moses and God part the Red Sea and did Jesus perform all those miracles or was this all myth.

I write the blog mostly for fun, but it’s also a little historical account of the terrible things happening in the world. I’m keeping these on files but most likely no one will ever read them. I often wonder about my great grandfather who fought in the Battle of San Jacinto. I wonder what he really thought about things and I even wonder about what he ate and the ordinary things in his daily life. If future generations care I will have an account of the view from my porch and about the beginning of the deer before they completely took over the world.