LA REBELION DE TEXAS; MANUSCRITO INEDITO DE 1836 POR UN OFICIAL DE SANTA ANNA…[THE REBELLION OF TEXAS, 1836, UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT BY AN OFFICER OF SANTA ANNA…]

Mexico City: Printer Mexicana, 1955.  [8],xi-l,321pp. Index. Bibliography. Illustrations. Map. Thirty-two appendices. Leather spine with leather corners, brownish-maroon leather boards and leather spine label. First edition. Very slight rubbing to the corners, else, a fine copy. Jenkins, BTB (citing the second edition) 39: “Written by an intelligent and perceptive Mexican staff officer, this is one of the most important eye-witness records of the Texas Revolution, and especially of the Siege of the Alamo. Llerena Friend called it: ‘the detailed story by a participant observer who had military training and who also was well read, observant of the natural scene and of human character and passionately devoted to his country…” Carmen Perry, who translated and edited the first edition in English, described the book as “significant because he was an active participant, an eyewitness and a trained officer, who had advantages in observation and evaluation coupled with honest objectivity.”  It was De la Pena who made the claim that Crockett and several others surrendered at the Alamo (Dan Kilgore would create a firestorm of controversy when he revealed De la Pena’s account in his monograph, How Did Davy Die?). The importance of this book is that it gives us an account of events from the Mexican perspective, the most detailed and accurate rendition of the siege and storming of the Alamo, and the best account of defeated Mexican army’s retreat from Texas. The thirty-two appendices, not found in Perry’s translation, were collected by De la Pena to support his own narrative. An exceptionally nice copy of cornerstone work on Texas. The binding of the first edition differs from the second edition in that it is approximately ¼” shorter (same width) as the second, lacks the raised bands, exhibits a simpler leather spine label, slightly different color of maroon boards, and lighter colored leather corners. Internally, it was observed that the title page is different with a fort-like image (possibly the Alamo) and a copyright date of March 15, 1955.