Being that this year marks the 175 anniversary of the Texas War for Independence - the Come and Take it Fight, the seige of the Alamo, the Goliad Massacre and the Battle of San Jacinto and all that - the San Antonio Living History Association and other reenactor organisations are making a special effort this year. I love going to reenactor events, just to get an ideas to build my own visualization of the 19th century. So - here are some pictures I took this weekend at Alamo Plaza.

Do not cross the 1836 time-line. No idea what the punishment would be - whacked  with a sonic screwdriver, I guess.

This gentleman volunteer had come all the way from Illinois to take part - as did the member of the Alamo garrison that he portrayed. The cannon is a replica 18-pounder, and was constructed for the 2004 movie.

Close-up of wooden canteen, tin drinking cup and haversack - made from canvas waterproofed with green paint.

Another volunteer - this man wearing a hunting coat of fringed leather. Hunting coats were very popular at this time - a loose A-line coat with a kind of cape collar; often without  front buttons, just loosly wrapped and secured by a belt or a sash. They were very often made of hevy canvas and trimmed with fabric fringe.

Bullet-pouch, powder-horn, bedroll  and top-hat! All ready to go. Texian volunteers  who didn't have boots wore shoes or moccasins and leather leggings.

These were the Tejano element - yes, there were Mexican volunteers among the Alamo garrison. The gentleman to the left is portraying Juan Seguin, scout and cavalryman ... alas, they are a titch older than their historical counterparts would have been. But still - quite dashing.

The march of the Texian volunteers - kind of a mixed bag, sartorially-speaking. And yes, there was a bag-piper among them, historically. A Mr. John McGregor from Nacogdoches, who occasionally competed with Davy Crockett as to who could make the most noise - bagpipe or fiddle.

Cannon with gear and supplies. My guess is a ten or 12 pounder. When fired with black powder, it makes a heck of a noise.

Ok, then - the tools of the trade ... if your trade was as a surgeon. Note that a chloroform mask, or syringes do not feature among them. They hadn't been invented yet. The only medical-surgical accessory not shown here is the large and strong orderly needed to hold the patient down.

Seriously, on this one, the Mexicans had the corner on sartorial splendor. Which is another war to chalk up to the Sukhomlinov Effect... 

There seemed to just about as many Mexican soldier reenactors as there were Texians. Really, reenactor events like this  must be one of the last places around where straight guys can really let their their primal urge to make a fashion statement out for a romp.

I am hoping the tall guy with the apron and slight case of Dunlops is portraying a Mexican Army cook. That, or he's really got to do some some serious crunches and sit-ups.

Yep, the Mexican Army had an edge when it came to  numbers, discipline and in actually looking like what people then imagined an army to be. But sometimes guts and crazy-brave will carry the day. Or at least, hold out for 13 of them, against overwhelming odds.

And not to forget the ladies ... yes, there were women in the Alamo, aside from Susannah Dickinson and her daughter. Juana Navarro Alsbury and her baby, her sister Gertrudis (who were cousins to James Bowie's dead wife), Mrs. Gregorio Esparza and her children  were there, although Madam Candalario probably wasn't. There were others - Juana Melton, the wife of the garrison's quartermaster, and her mother or sister, possibly a woman with the surname de Salina and her daughters ... but amazingly, no one took very much time to search out and question these women during their lifetimes. Even Susannah Dickinson never got quite the rigerous cross-questioning that historians of today would like to have administered. They told their stories long afterwards, and some of them were children at the time anyway, and didn't see much during those last horrific hours in the shelter of the sacristy of the old church.

Anyway, that's how I spent my Saturday. You?