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Old 5th February 2024, 07:14 AM   #9
Jim McDougall
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
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In posting this query, I should have been more explicit and specified what I am looking for, which is the swords used by the defenders of the Alamo. There is no doubt of course that Mexican officers were carrying swords.

In the attack, which actually took the defenders by surprise in the wee hours of the AM, the Mexican forces were using British firearms and primarily the bayonet.

It seems Travis was likely the only officer of defenders wearing a sword, but that is unclear, as is what type of sword it was.

With the Texian defenders were Tejanos under Seguin, who were also opposed to the Mexican government under Santa Anna. These were rancheros and vaqueros who most certainly would have had espada anchas as previously noted, again at least in some degree.

We know there was at least some presence of the Starr sabers in the overall theater of the Texas campaigns in this time, as they were pretty much primary surplus from the 1812 war from militias who had participated.

With the Virginia Manufactory sabers, it would be most interesting to find evidence of these. The key factor with these was the incredibly long and difficult to handle blade length, sharply curved over 40 inches long. This unusually long blade, making these sabers pretty notable, would seem likely to have been noted in accounts of Mexican forces, which are of course mostly the only records available.
That is hopefully where something might turn up.

I keep searching.......and I really appreciate ANY entry here, every thought or observation is important whether adding evidence or examples or not.

Last edited by Jim McDougall; 5th February 2024 at 03:24 PM.
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