The McArdle Scrapbooks > Dawn at the Alamo

The McArdle Scrapbooks Dawn at the Alamo

Reuben M. Potter to McArdle, August 13, 1874

Page 3 of 16

Potter's account of the siege

Office of the Post Quartermaster

Fort Wood, Bedloes Island NY Harbor

August 13^th 1874

To H. A. McArdle Esq^re

Independence, Texas

My Dear Sir,

I received on the 6th your letter of the 28^th of

July asking for suggestions in regard to your con-

templated historical painting in which the assault

of the Alamo is to be depicted. Any information

I can give is at your service; but advice, on such

a subject from one so deficient in artistic taste

and study as I am, can hardly be worth your atten-

tion. Still there is a possibility that any hint which

does not mislead may be suggestive of something

better than it aimed at.

First of all I must refer to what is more a

matter of right than of taste. I am aware that

historical events, when represented by painting, must

be idealized for artistic effect, as they are when

dramatized for the stage; but in my opinion no

poetical license can justify so entire a perversion

of fact as the conversion of massacre into victory

of the slain, unless it be in the sense which makes

Jump to:

Introduction | The Scrapbooks | The Paintings | The Artist

How to Use This Site | About the Digitization

Index of Subjects

Home

Reuben M. Potter to McArdle, August 13, 1874, The McArdle Notebooks, Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.