Just read an account by Paco Ignacio Taibo II
[ame="[URL]http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/6070709268/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1[/URL]"]El Alamo: Una Historia No Apta Para Hollywood = The Alamo: Amazon.co.uk: Paco Ignacio, II Taibo: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Aqf8YKZuL.@@AMEPARAM@@51Aqf8YKZuL[/ame]
He obviously has a big agenda to de-bunk myths, but when you look at all his evidence, there's been so much rubbish written and 'recollections' (many years later), all conflicting etc, that it's difficult to know where to start from the old 'legend'
A few pointers though, from his book:
1) Slavery was illegal in Mexico, some folk were fighting so it would be allowed
2) Not many of the 'Texan' heroes had a lot to do with Texas, many had moved south to join in a sort of land grab from Mexico
3) Most people involved on both sides seemed to be immoral, incompetant or both, especially Santa Anna who turned an easy victory into a colossal defeat at San Jacinto by sheer idiocy.
4)The Alamo doesn't seem too relevant to what happened at San Jacinto. After the Alamo things could have gone either way, luckily Santa Anna was utterly useless.