Pondering...

A relief, of course, when I stepped out for that first look-see… No rain! No fog either, but there hadn’t been any in Winnie the day and evening before, either… I wondered what it would be like at the ferry terminal…?

A check of the weather guestimate on the tube followed… well, no solid answers there, as usual… The forecast map was colored green, naturally, and some percentage value had been ascribed for the probability of palpable moisture. What to do?

One of two terms apply when we become overly dependent upon weather forecasts… ‘Home-bound’ or ‘Wet’… Either we never venture forth, or we go and eventually get caught in whatever surprises are thrown at us… I knew what I had to do.

Our girl is never bothered with such considerations… She just handles whatever comes into play, and she just keeps on doing her duty. Her rider is the one who frets over such things… He isn’t a sissy, actually, but he does like everything to be at least somewhere within a broad ‘tolerable’ range… who doesn’t, right?

Well, anybody who has spent more than even a few days on the road knows, ‘ideal’ is a rather elusive, and rare, commodity, so… Time to quit worrying and take matters by the horns… Take your chances and be prepared to take your medicine! Yes, time to 'person-up'!

No fog at the terminal this time, and no backed-up traffic either. In fact, things were their more usual efficient and smooth, as we waited only a short time, then drove to our place on the ferry deck, parked, and prepared for the easy ride across…

The Bay seemed more crowded with ships of all descriptions than I’d remembered there being the last several times there. Is the economy really picking up with goods flowing around the world more so than in recent years? Everywhere I've wandered lately, it seems to this casual observer, there has been a very noticeable up-tick in activity… A good sign, I think!

Traffic was pleasantly light most of the way through Galveston… A cruise ship was being descended upon by would-be nautical adventurers, however, and they were all arriving at the parking lots along cruise-ship row at the same time… Dang! Reminded me of rush hour traffic back in the distant past, when I would daily fight a similar mess to get home from work! Patience paid off, though, as it almost always does, and in due course, we were beyond all of that and gliding along towards the next challenge…

I stopped at a familiar eatery under the Golden Arches once on HWY 6 headed for Alvin… Easy off and back on the highway, usually not crowded, no history of any bowel irregularities following previous visits… No grits, of course, but I would have ample opportunities to make-up for that glaring deficiency before arriving in the ‘dry zone’ further west!

I didn’t have a specific target in mind this day, figuring we’d just go until we wanted to stop… By the time we’d reached Goliad, TX, the sun had passed its zenith, the temp had risen to near its high point, and I was ready to relax and take a much-needed nap… We got a room, settled in and… I cranked-up my smart box. A word about that…

Sometime during that day, it had occurred to me that I’m really ‘not alone’ when I travel… I have nearly daily contact with my friends and kindred spirits on our message board! Funny, I hadn’t thought about it in quite that way before…

This portal into a special social realm has become rather important to this would-be solitary trekker, and I’ve become more involved with the interactions than I’d realized. Thanks, folks… it is mighty comforting to know you’re all out there, and you do help to fill a large void in my solitary journey!

I’ve ridden through Goliad several times over the years… My first trip there, however, had been on purpose. I’d read about the battle that had taken place there during the Texas war for independence, and of the tragedy that had followed. I’d wanted to visit the site and learn a bit more… and to consider the context of the times and to try and ponder the issue from both perspectives…

War is nasty business. Besides the ‘lofty’ strategic goals, the main object is to attrite the forces of opponents and reduce them to a point one side or the other capitulates. Terror and horror (think suicide-bombers, 'Shock and Awe', use of the A-bomb, and the like) are tools employed in hopes of intimidating opponents and encouraging them to give-up the fight…

There are also unanticipated tactical imperatives and realities that simply have to be dealt with. Difficult choices are made, but no matter the intentions, motives, or lack of viable alternatives, those choices will be judged with 'hind-sight' and with information that wasn't available when decisions were made. Judgements will also be based upon the morality of 'the judge', often in a different time and place. It has been so throughout history, and it continues even today.

Part of the difficulty in understanding history is the changes in perceptions, morality, value of life, even the 'view of death and suffering' one might have today versus then. In centuries past, death was much more a part of daily life... disease, starvation, war, murder, 'disappearances', all were much more frequent and familiar to folks back then.

Death and suffering in war was much 'closer' and more personal, so it seems logical that soldiers might have become somewhat calloused or numbed to the 'horror' of it. Even today, those who have been close to mass casualties have a different view of that than those of us who have never been exposed to it. It is extremely difficult to set aside our own 'values' and attempt to see things through the eyes of those who faced whatever it is that we're trying to understand.

Mexico had only been an independent nation for a decade and a half, a republic for little more than a dozen years. Their head of government was a charismatic military commander with little in the way of character or scruples... Santa Anna. He actually would become leader of that nation on five separate occasions throughout his career!

Mexico had also been a nation stitched together from various tribes and groups as well as classes of folks each with very different governing philosophies... a tenuous composite of quite divergent views. The inevitable struggle among factions resulted in the constant, perpetual efforts of various groups to withdraw from the 'union', with predictable resultant efforts by the central government, and the holders of power, to put down those who would break apart the new, and fragile, nation. The revolt in Texas was seen as just another attempt at dismemberment in the eyes of Santa Anna.

Santa Anna had instituted a largely 'zero tolerance' policy towards rebels. He believed that dealing with them harshly would discourage others from attempting to launch a revolt. It also relieved him of having to deal with prisoners, establish 'degrees of punishment', have considerations of mercy, and the always messy, time-consuming business of administration pestering him and sapping his attention. With capital punishment, recidivism rates tend to be much lower!

The Texans had deployed some of their forces in two similar-sized units to cover the likely avenues of approach by the anticipated large Mexican army. Colonel Travis and his detachment were deployed at the Alamo, near San Antonio, with Colonel Fannin and his larger force of around 200 soldiers at Goliad; there as screening barriers and outposts facing the Mexican army advancing from the south.

Their purpose was to stop or at least delay the advance of Santa Anna and his vastly superior force, to provide time for General Sam Houston to finish gathering his army, training his men, and preparing for the show-down battle to come at as of then an undetermined place and time.

When it was realized that the main Mexican force was advancing on San Antonio, Colonel Fannin was to move his detachment to reinforce the one stationed at the Alamo. By offering a stiff and spirited resistance to the Mexican army, precious time could be bought.

Santa Anna could not bypass the forward Texan units and leave them in his rear to disrupt his lines of supply and communication, so he had no choice but to engage them and remove them in order to advance upon, engage, and destroy the main Texas army.

Communications being what they were in 1836, word did not reach Fannin in time for him to withdraw from Goliad and relocate. Unknown to the Texans, Santa Anna had split a force off from his main body to engage the Texans at Goliad, and they had arrived while Fannin was still there awaiting instructions.

The Mexicans couldn’t allow the Texans to withdraw and reinforce other Texan units, and they couldn’t simply bypass them and leave them free to operate in their rear. They also had no plans or facilities for taking and holding large numbers of prisoners.

Prisoners and what to do with them was an aspect of warfare that Armies throughout the world had not really addressed up to that point in history. Even during the American Civil War nearly three decades later, both sides struggled with that issue and had to ‘wing-it’ in finding a way to try and deal with it… neither side did a very good job.

Rather than fight to the death, as the troops at the Alamo would soon choose to do, Colonel Fannin decided, following the initial battle and heavy casualties, to spare his remaining men and surrender his force when it became obvious his position was hopeless. This left the Mexican commander with a very difficult situation.

He couldn’t wait a week or two for an exchange of correspondence with Santa Anna, as he already had explicit orders to move north and rejoin the main body as soon as he could. He also knew his boss's view of what to do with rebels! He couldn’t permit Fannin to withdraw with his soldiers, he couldn’t release him and allow him to remain there, and he couldn’t spare men to hold him and his men as prisoners… he also lacked manpower (oops! person-power!), food and other supplies for handling prisoners.

As I said, war is nasty business. We can’t know of the struggle the Mexican commander may have had with his own conscience or with his fellow officers, but we do know what his ultimate decision was… (Some say Santa Anna had previously given this order in advance). He ordered the prisoners executed. One or two of those prisoners managed to escape by swimming down the San Antonio River, and it is by their later accounts that we’ve learned of the executions and burning of all the bodies…

Whether walking the battlefields of Culloden, Goliad, Gettysburg, or any number of others, I still feel the same revulsion for the atrocity, scourge, and terrible waste that is war; yet, I also still get the same feelings of reverence for those who lost their lives there… who gave their last full measure of devotion to something greater than themselves.

It matters little if they were there because they’d freely volunteered or had been manipulated, coerced, conscripted, sold a bill of goods, duped, conned, or forced into being there… They were there, and they did their duty… We can hate the sin, but we should have respect the sinner… Or, perhaps... that's just my 'contemporary values and view' causing me to think that way...

DDT