Portable Magic
Reading, for me, is entertainment and an escape from the real world. But it can also inform and stretch the boundaries of the life I live.
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Duel of Eagles - page 267/431
The fate of the Mexican Army's wounded soldiers after the battle at the Alamo from Colonel José Enrique de la Peña:
“In fact, the plight of our wounded was quite grievous,” de la Peña bitterly declared, “and one could hardly enter the places erroneously called hospitals without trembling with horror. The wailing of the wounded and their just complaints penetrated the innermost recesses of the heart; there was no one to extract a bullet, no one to perform an amputation, and many unfortunates died whom medical science could have saved. General Santa Anna doubtless thought that he could alleviate the sufferings of his victims by appearing frequently among them, smiling at those miserable men who scarcely had the energy to see him, offering them their full pay with one hand but ordering it not to be disbursed with the other. There were many fools who were encouraged by his words, but to mislead them was an insult to their misfortune.”
Adding to this insult, Santa Anna refused to donate any of his linens to be used as bandages for the wounded and “grew angry when asked for so much as a single peso”.
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