Remembering the Alamo

(LoC) Texans or Texians, according to some sources, began fighting for independence from Mexico in 1835. By December the small Texas army had captured the important crossroads town of San Antonio de Bexar and seized the garrison known as the Alamo. Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna recaptured the town on March 6, 1836, after a thirteen-day siege; the Mexican army suffered an estimated 600 casualties. Of the official list of 189 Texan defenders, all were killed. Historians continue to debate the number of defenders inside the Alamo.
The defense of the Alamo is well-known for those who fought for Texas. David Crockett, James (Jim) Bowie, and William Barret Travis were among those remembered by the "Remember the Alamo" reported to be yelled at the victory at San Jacinto. Continued  

1847: Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government

(Wikipedia) On January 4, 1847, Captain Samuel Walker and the Texas Rangers, who had acquired some of the first Colt revolvers produced during the Seminole War, saw the holster revolver and ordered 1,000 of these revolvers for use in the Mexican-American War. The large order allowed Colt to re-establish his firearm business. As he no longer owned a firearm factory, or even had a model of a firearm ready for sale, Colt hired Eli Whitney Blake, who was established in the arms business, to make his guns. Colt and Captain Walker drew upon the prototype Colt had built with some improvements from Walker. From this new design, Whitney produced the first thousand-piece order known as the Colt Walker. The company then received an order for a thousand more; Colt took a share of the profits at $10 per pistol for both orders.
With the money he made from the sales of the Walkers and a loan from his cousin, Elisha Colt, a banker, Colt bought the machinery and tooling from Whitney to build his own factory: Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company factory at Hartford. Continued

Photo: The most powerful handgun until the introduction of the .357 Magnum, the Colt Walker. This reproduction is made by Uberti. (Flickr via Wikipedia)

Remembering the Alamo

(LoC) Texans or Texians, according to some sources, began fighting for independence from Mexico in 1835. By December the small Texas army had captured the important crossroads town of San Antonio de Bexar and seized the garrison known as the Alamo. Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna recaptured the town on March 6, 1836, after a thirteen-day siege; the Mexican army suffered an estimated 600 casualties. Of the official list of 189 Texan defenders, all were killed. Historians continue to debate the number of defenders inside the Alamo.
The defense of the Alamo is well-known for those who fought for Texas. David Crockett, James (Jim) Bowie, and William Barret Travis were among those remembered by the "Remember the Alamo" reported to be yelled at the victory at San Jacinto. Continued

A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent

(NYTBR) President James K. Polk has languished in obscurity long enough to have become the subject of an amusing — and remarkably accurate — rock ’n’ roll song. “In four short years he met his every goal,” the alt-rock band They Might Be Giants sings in “James K. Polk,” which the group first released on an EP in 1990. The man secured the Oregon Territory, slashed tariffs, reformed the national banking system and seized “the whole Southwest from Mexico.” And yet, the song concludes, “precious few have mourned the passing of / Mr. James K. Polk, our 11th president / Young Hickory, Napoleon of the Stump.” Continued

Photos: Library of Congress