Dac Crossley's Western Blog

Going with Old Ben Milam

“Who’ll go to San Antonio with Old Ben Milam?” Mom posed that question and my brother Walter and I broke into cheers. Late May, school was out and we were ready! San Antonio meant excitement, the Breckenridge Zoo, big city lights, the peacock dancing atop the Majestic Theater.

For Ben Milam it was a dead serious question. Late in the year 1835 San Antonio was besieged by a rag-tag Texas army. Mexican troops under General Cos occupied the little city. Their numbers about equaled the Texans. The Mexicans were trained soldiers, well disciplined, but were short of supplies. The Texans were volunteers sadly lacking in discipline but re-supplied as needed.

Stephen F. Austin, the father of Texas, was a respected leader but lacked military experience. He wasn’t an effective commander. The Texans became disgruntled after a few months of siege. Some packed up and went home. Austin himself decamped for the newly-formed governing body in San Felipe, leaving a fragmented command.

As was the custom at that time, the citizen soldiers took a vote. Attack San Antonio or go home? Leadership was uncertain. Just when it seemed that the army would disperse, up stepped an old Indian trader and impresario.

“Who will go with Old Ben Milam into Bexar?”

(It wasn’t called San Antonio until Texas gained her independence. Right, Mom?).

During several days of bitter fighting, house to house and knife to knife, General Cos yielded. He was given his parole and vowed never to return. Soldiers were allowed to keep their weapons and ten rounds of ammo, for protection against Indians during their return to Mexico.

A few months later a large Mexican army led by El Presidente Santa Anna returned to San Antonio. The Texans fortified the Alamo. You know the rest of the story, right?

I will go to San Antonio again, this summer, for sure. And visit the old places. I can show you the river cypress from which a Mexican sniper killed Old Ben Milam.

Wish I could take Mom along, one more time.

Dac Crossley
May 29, 2012

“Some defeats are only installments to victory.” – Jacob Rils

A Sense of Place

A weekend on Sapelo Island, Georgia. Relax and write at the old Reynolds Mansion. Isolated from the usual, we relished the isolation along with beaches, good food and reliable friends.

Here I am, cruising around in the “Escape from the Alamo” golf cart – notice the steer horns and the images of my book covers on the windshield.

The Reynolds Mansion is a reminder of antebellum opulence,
now faded, a Grand Dame whose ostrich feathers droop a bit. The Island itself carries a long history of seas and storms and wars, slavery and cotton, the Old South.

On the South Georgia coast, several little museums recount the history of two brutal occupations – British and Yankee. The docent spoke of the Civil War as last week’s events. Philip Lee Williams, Georgia’s best writer, says, “You Westerners got over the Civil War. We never have.”

I’d like to write a novel set on a fictional Sapelo Island. I’ve tried it, off and on, for six years now. The sense of place is strong here, almost overpowering. On this visit I’ve come to realize that the mansion itself must be a major character in such a story.

I feel a sense of place on returning to South Texas. More than the familiarity of the images, there’s an awareness that it’s part of my identity, part of me. Do all of us have that one place, that “secret garden?” The Texas of my youth has moved on. So have I. Even so, when my feet connect with the streets of San Antonio, Corpus, Kingsville, I am in my place.

Perhaps, one day, I can express that aura in a tale set on Sapelo Island.

It’s good to be home again.

Dac Crossley
May 15, 2012

“One must learn to be silent just as one must learn to talk.” – Virginia Woolf.

Cinco de Mayo Again

Yes, Bob, I will remember to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla in 1862, when Mexican forces won an unexpected victory over an invading French army.

Of course, the French ultimately won the war and established Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico. It was a clear violation of the Monroe Doctrine, but Abe Lincoln couldn’t help Mexico. He had his hands full at the time. Mexican Patriots led by Benito Juarez ultimately expelled the French. Mexican resolve was strengthened by the Battle of Puebla.

I suppose it’s a international holiday now, a universal celebration of Mexican pride. Here are some international connections:

The triumphant Mexican general at the Battle of Puebla, Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin, was born in Texas in a village now known as Goliad.

I’ll celebrate here in Athens, Georgia, at La Fiesta, a Mexican restaurant owned and operated by a Lebanese family.

I’ll drink a Margarita, a tequila cocktail invented in 1941 and named for Margarita Henkel, daughter of the German Ambassador to Mexico.

I’ll have an appetizer of nachos, a snack created by Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya at the request of a group of ten soldier’s wives at Fort Duncan in Eagle Pass, Texas.

I’ll dine on fajitas, a Tex-Mex dish which originated in the Rio Grande Valley in the 1960’s.

And I’ll chase it all down with one of the good Mexican beers now available all over the US. Perhaps a Corona – “The Beer that Made Milwaukee Jealous.”

Dac Crossley
Cinco de Mayo, 2012

“He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.” – Jonathan Swift.

The Month of May

In Athens, Georgia, May brings finals week and the start of summer sessions at the University. Athens is still a college town and its pulse relaxes when Spring Semester ends. Fewer students, perhaps more serious ones. Less traffic. More room at the Globe bar.

In my day, summer school ran June through August. Now it goes May through July. We fire up again in mid-August. Why the change? No answer…

This is a political summer. The telephone tells all, with calls afternoon and evening, young volunteers from unknown numbers begging your financial support. What can’t be cured – etc.

It has become so nasty. I can understand the frustrations of my conservative friends, in this chaotic and confusing time, reaching for a touchstone of long-cherished beliefs. And my liberal friends, anxious to steer the ship into bold new seas, unaware of the reefs of unintended consequences.

Reach out, my bellicose friends. Try on the huaraches of your adversaries. In truth – one size fits all.

Forgive me. I never blog about politics.

Dac Crossley
May 4, 2012

“Building more dams, more reservoirs that will not fill is like opening more bank accounts when you don’t have any cash-flow.” – Chris Manganiello