Michelle

Equal parts serious historian and crazy history fangirl. Geeks out for Texas Rev, Independent Mexico, Jackson Era U.S., etc., etc.

[ol-remarkable]

Real, I saw

[theherbstorian]

"Dear Santa,

I've been really mostly good this year, and I really really really want the repeal of Article 11 of the Law of April 6th, 1830 for Christmas. I promise I'll pay my taxes and eat my vegetables. "

[theherbstorian]

My dearest General Manuel Mier y Terán's unhinged ex-commander Juan Nepomuceno Rosains accused him of not knowing Latin, and my man clapped back!

I love this footnote from his Manifestacion al Público so much...

...that I got on Canva and designed a t-shirt about it.

[rmelster]

reading classic’s old translations to Spanish in which the hispanisize the characters names has got me thinking, did Russia and English-speaking countries do the same? If so, does that mean that, there is a book sitting quietly in a forgotten antiquity shop in St. Petersburg about the bloody struggle between Semyon Ivanovich Bolivar and Pavel Lavrentyovich Morillo for the sovereignty of America, and does that mean there is some fading encyclopaedia in a garage sale in Gloucester in which the eminent Spanish dictator is some guy called Francis Frank

[theherbstorian]

1. The thought of seeing "Anthony Lopez de Santa Anna" in print immediately entered my brain and gave me the ick.

2. I do have an example! In her 1917 book History and Legends of the Alamo and Other Missions in and around San Antonio, historic preservationist Adina de Zavala refers to her grandfather as "General Lawrence De Zavala," but in the caption on his portrait does put "Lorenzo" in parentheses.

Who knows how much the cultural/racial climate of early 20th century Texas affected this decision, but it's also worth noting that her father had gone by the anglicized "Augustine De Zavala" rather than Agustín de Zavala.

[theherbstorian]

What got you into reenactment? I've always wanted to try it in some way, but I've never had the time. I have seen a few tours/events though.

Thanks for the ask!

As a nerdy homeschooled kid obsessed with the Texas Revolution since I was 11, I started off attending events with my family as a spectator. Eventually when you've been to the same events year after year, you get to know people in the hobby, and participating on the reenactor end starts sounding more and more fun.

The very short version of how I got into it is: Texas Rev events are always in need of more soldados. Moreover, Mexican Army reenactors are some of the most friendly, welcoming, helpful people you will ever meet in the hobby. I ended up getting recruited by a couple dragoons I met at Washington-on-the-Brazos one year, they introduced me to their friend who had some infantry loaner gear that would fit me, and I got hooked pretty quickly. (Esprit de corps, historic sites, and black powder make for a heady combination.)

Not to get too "woo-woo" about it, but there's something almost metaphysical about reenactment, too. You can get really attached to the people you portray, and that further motivates you to keep digging into the history, keep building/improving your impression [however slowly that may be, as life is busy and expensive], and do their memory justice.

[theherbstorian]

Friends, do you have a historical person who was executed (preferably, but not exclusively, by firing squad) sometime in the late 18th through early 19th century?

I'm working on a little comparative study of execution accounts/narratives to inform a biography I'm writing, and I figured this would be a good place to cast a wide net.

I'm especially interested in deaths with these elements:

Any touching last requests.

Asking the firing squad to aim for the heart.

Any last requests that were denied/ignored. 💀

Specific acts, gestures, or bearing of courage, stoicism, etc. on the part of the condemned.

Thank y'all so much for your help!!!

[theherbstorian]

This boy cries on firing squad duty and camps in a motel, but she's a pretty good soldier nonetheless.

[theherbstorian]

I was rolling blank cartridges for an upcoming event and realized that the scraps left over from cutting my cartridge papers were the perfect size for an American Girl doll.

Felicity is ready to burn some black powder.

[theherbstorian]

Apparently I have a weakness for the "single-minded and incorruptible" type, which is no surprise, as I'm already a big fan of Guadalupe Victoria.

But I've been bitten by the French Rev bug, and now I'm simultaneously fixating on BOTH Georges Cadoudal AND Maximilien Robespierre.

[theherbstorian]

I think I may have read Sir Walter Scott's Waverley and Alexandre Dumas' The Last Cavalier too close together for my own sanity....

I have become consumed by the desire to write a fanfic sequel to Waverley in which the elderly Benedictine nun formerly known as Flora MacIvor moves from Paris to Brittany when her community is dissolved, falls in with some non-juring priests, and takes up the white cockade once again.

She's going to end up running a Chouan safe house and doing some intelligence work for the Chouan General Georges Cadoudal.

I'd have her become a surrogate mother of sorts to Georges and his brother Julien Cadoudal. Drawing on her time in religious life coming to terms with her brother Fergus' execution in 1746, she counsels Georges through whatever survivor's guilt he may be suffering with since his mother, newborn sibling, and uncle died as a result of the family's imprisonment in 1794.

I'd have Flora die peacefully of old age sometime before 1800. (Honestly, I don't have the heart to make Georges live through another super-traumatic death of someone close to him, given that his BFF Pierre Mercier and Julien will both be killed in 1801.)

At some point while in England, Georges Cadoudal takes a side quest to Tully-Veolan in the Scottish Lowlands to return some of Flora's mementos to her old friends Rose and Edward Waverley, who I imagine are still alive with plenty of children and grandchildren.

Anywaaaaay, thank you for listening to my rambling, obscure pitch for a crossover story involving my favorite fictional and not-so-fictional royalist rebels.

[theherbstorian]

Pulled a shirt, stock, and glasses from my reenactment kit into my office wardrobe today. I was going for a *Congressman David Crockett* vibe, and I'm not sure I accomplished it, but I think it looks cute!!

[formulaireone]

the people yearn for my antonio art

i think

[theherbstorian]

Happy Valentine's Day!

Please enjoy some silly Texas History Valentines from me, Manuel de Mier y Terán, George Fisher, Anson Jones, James Fannin, and Stephen F Austin. 💘

[unanchored-ship]

why do some historians insist on saying "Guadalupe Victoria was his pseudonym" "His real name was José Miguel Ramón Adaucto Fernández y Félix" "You know him as Guadalupe Victoria but actually he was called-" LIKE NO he changed his name to Guadalupe Victoria thats literally his name straight up. thats it. Like he's not faking or whatever he started genuinely going by Guadalupe Victoria after Oaxaca (1812) he was not José Miguel anymore after that how is this so hard to grasp 😭

[theherbstorian]

Amen to this! One does not simply sign countless official state documents with their nom de guerre.

[miffy-junot]

What are you doing in 1832?

sailing the seas with Charles Darwin

visiting the newly formed kingdom of Greece

having fun at the Hambacher Fest

besieging Antwerp

joining the Egyptians in the war against the Ottoman Empire

going to university with Otto von Bismarck

mourning the Duke of Reichstadt aka Napoleon II

reading about the first ever Yeti sighting in the Himalayas

mourning Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

buying baby presents for the newborn Maximilian of Mexico

attending the hatching of Jonathan the tortoise, who is still alive today

dying from cholera

Voting ended onJan 29

some interesting things that happened in 1832 😯

I am deliberately excluding the stuff going on in France because that’s already tumblr famous and I don’t care about it even though I was raised in a les mis fan household ☺️

[theherbstorian]

Write-in for "Giving a half-hearted huzzah for Santa Anna and Federalism while heartbroken over the death of General Manuel de Mier y Terán."

[theherbstorian]

I finished Sir Walter Scott's Waverley a couple weeks ago, and the chokehold that this book has gained on me is truly unprecedented.

Among other things, one of the main characters, Jacobite true believer Flora MacIvor, is described by her brother to would-be suitor Edward Waverley thusly:

"...since she could spell an English book she has been in love with the memory of the gallant Captain Wogan..."

and

"for, to tell you the truth, I think her more in love with the memory of that dead hero than she is likely to be with any living one..."

I mean...I feel SEEN. I was not expecting to see girls-with-longstanding-childhood-history-crushes representation, but Flora and I are besties now.

[theherbstorian]

Fun fact: my most darling 19th century science nerd General Manuel de Mier y Terán had a favorite star, and it was Antares.

He drops this tidbit of information in the May 12, 1828 entry of his Boundary Commission journal, in between describing the astronomical calculations he had to perform and complaining about the swarms of mosquitos.

And I LOVE that we get to know that tidbit about the reserved 39-year-old veteran who had already endured and suffered so much, but still found comfort and joy in his scientific work. 💚🤍🤎

[theherbstorian]

A couple pics of my annual chiles en nogada!

Happy Consummation-of-Independence Day, Mexico!! Much love to the Ejército Trigarante; Happy Birthday, Don Agustín.

Now I have to go clean my kitchen.