From: laro@idworld.net   
      
   "Gerald Clough"  wrote in message   
   news:jYSdnXYyu8wptOLd4p2dnA@texas.net...   
   > GTT wrote:   
   >   
   > > Well, if that era in Texas history is of interest to you, you should   
   read   
   > > it.   
   > > If not, .... ?   
   > > Jackson is an objective writer who tells it like he sees it in all of   
   his   
   > > books.   
   > > This one, of course, is merely Almonte's diary.  I forget if it was   
   > > annotated or not.   
   >   
   > I don't find it reviewed, but the blurbs mention annotation. I suspect,   
   > though, that Jackson, as editor, would certainly add notes to put things   
   > into perspective and point out the significance of various reports. An   
   > important work, since Almonte's reports would, even if they were   
   > reporting what his boss wanted to hear, have shaped Santa Anna's   
   > attitudes and intentions. And, not in the diary, of course, Almonte   
   > supposedly makes his own contribution to the accounts of the Alamo   
   > aftermath, via George Dolson's account of interviews while Almonte was a   
   > prisoner in Galveston.   
   >   
   > The diary is also one piece of what is, to me, a surprisingly large and   
   > still extent amount of paraphernalia collected off the battleground and   
   > preserved after San Jacinto. I'll have to look for it. It sounds like a   
   > work that goes far to clarify the why's, since what mattered most was   
   > the president's view of happenings in Texas.   
      
   That was Jackson's intent.  That, and to make a dollar or two. :-)   To make   
   this   
   more interesting, the existence of the diary was not even known to modern   
   historians   
   until only very recently.  Jack has a habit of stumbling over things like   
   this.  He spends   
   a lot of time in Mexican archives, too.   He's written the most complete   
   books on   
   mapping early Texas yet published.   (if that interests you, you'll have go   
   to go a library.   
   the price is not kind to private collectors.)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)