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Minimalist wrote:Santa Ana made a big show of cleaning up the battle site by burning the bodies of the defenders. He would not have left their weapons lying around, however.

It is unlikely that he would have had any military use for the weapons of the defenders as his army used the British Brown Bess and thus had standardized ammunition. While any sort of systematic collecting of arms is not likely, except to throw them on the fire, it is certainly likely that individual Mexican soldiers may have picked up some souvenirs that caught their fancy.

Equally feasible since Santa Ana had only about 700 men with him by the time of San Jacinto, is that he had been forced to make numerous detachments in order to protect his LOC on his advance. The defeated troops at San Jacinto would have been in no position to retain their personal baggage but those who were not defeated would have been able to withdraw with whatever they could carry.

Thus it is still quite possible that numerous arms from the Alamo and Goliad were brought back to Mexico by the parts of the army which were not defeated at San Jacinto but how you prove that any particular weapon had such a history is beyond me.

Minimalist wrote:Good question but it's important to remember the relative small number of troops engaged in the War.

What is your opinion of the Colonel De La Pena diary controversy, Dog?

Charlie Hatchett wrote:BTW, again...lol...

My dad collects firearms. He's got a couple of these:



And a couple of these:



And this beauty of a .22 hex barrel:


That's quite an interesting firelock your dad has Charlie. The flintlock looks like it could be German. It appears to have an octagon barrel which could mean that it's a rifle. However the size of the lock looks to be musket size. The trigger guard is of the military or even a Fowler profile. The incised carving around the tang is European. What exactly is it? Do you have a bigger picture?

That's quite an interesting firelock your dad has Charlie. The flintlock looks like it could be German. It appears to have an octagon barrel which could mean that it's a rifle. However the size of the lock looks to be musket size. The trigger guard is of the military or even a Fowler profile. The incised carving around the tang is European. What exactly is it? Do you have a bigger picture?

whitedog wrote:

Minimalist wrote:Good question but it's important to remember the relative small number of troops engaged in the War.

What is your opinion of the Colonel De La Pena diary controversy, Dog?

Jose Enrique de la Pena difinitely wrote about what he saw and felt. Not much about what he heard. I think that the accounts of Co. Crockett's death along with another six defenders is accurate. I 'm aware, however of the controversy over the handwriting being different in certain passages of the diary. There're more questions brought up than firm answers given, that's for sure. The de la Pena parers along with other eyewitness accounts are extremely revealing. Good reading!