With Milam and Fannin facts for kids

Texas und Seine Revolution is an account of the Texas Revolution written by Herman Ehrenberg and published in 1843. It was reprinted in 1844 as Der Freiheitskampf in Texas im Jahre 1836 and in 1845 as Fahrten und Schicksale eines Deutschen in Texas.

The book was translated into English, heavily edited, and published in 1935 as With Milam and Fannin: Adventures of a German Boy in Texas' Revolution.

Background

Herman Ehrenberg was born in Germany in 1816 and immigrated to the United States in 1834. Days after his arrival in New Orleans in 1835, Ehrenberg joined a militia group known as the New Orleans Greys. He claimed to be the third volunteer for the Greys, and he was most likely the youngest member. Ehrenberg participated in several battles in 1835 and 1836 and was taken prisoner by Mexican troops and survived an execution. He kept a diary of his adventures but abandoned the book after his escape from the Mexican troops.

Ehrenberg was given an honorable discharge from the Texian Army on June 2, 1836. He returned to Germany and enrolled at Freiburg University to study mining. In the early 1840s he worked at University of Halle, teaching English. Sometime in the late 1830s or early 1840s, Ehrenberg wrote an account of his service during the Texas Revolution.

Plot

Both the German version and the Bartholomae translation begin with a chapter describing Mexico before 1835. This is omitted from the Churchill translation, likely due to its extreme anti-clerical content. Chapter two marks Ehrenberg's arrival in New Orleans, a city abuzz with news of the newly declared Texas Revolution. On October 11, Ehrenberg attended a rally, organized by Adolphus Sterne, in support of the Texians in their fight against Mexico. The next day, Ehrenberg enlisted in the volunteer militia company which became known as the New Orleans Greys for the color of the uniforms that they wore.

The Greys were divided into two companies. Ehrenberg was assigned to one led by Captain Thomas H. Breece. He detailed his company's travel upriver to Natchitoches, Louisiana, where they began their overland journey to Texas. Ehrenberg participated in the Siege of Bexar, was briefly part of the Matamoros Expedition, and then joined the garrison stationed at Goliad under James Fannin. Following the Battle of Coleto, Ehrenberg served as translator in Fannin's surrender negotiations. When Mexican troops were ordered to execute the Texian prisoners at the Goliad Massacre, Ehrenberg was one of a very few men to survive.

Ehrenberg wandered the countryside for several days. Unable to find food, Ehrenberg approached Mexican troops and claimed to be a Prussian traveler who needed protection. He traveled with the Mexican army for several weeks before escaping with another Texian shortly after the Mexican defeat at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21.

Publication history

German

Ehrenberg's memoir was published in Leipzig, Germany by Otto Wigand in 1843 as Texas un Seine Revolution. It was reprinted without text changes in 1844 as Der Freiheitskampf in Texas im Jahre 1836 and in 1845 as Fahrten und Schicksale eines Deutschen in Texas.

Bartholomae translation

Ehrenberg's book was first translated into English in 1925 by Edgar William Bartholomae as his master's thesis at the University of Texas at Austin. Bartholomae received his degree in history, not German, and his graduating committee did not include any professors from the foreign language department. Historian James Crisp notes several glaring discrepancies between the original German and Bartholomae's version and describes it as a "clumsy translation".

Only excerpts of Bartholomae's translation have been published. Passages have been quoted in various scholarly works since the 1920s.

Churchill translation

In 1930 or 1931, Charlotte Churchill came across a second edition of Ehrenberg's book. Churchill, a cousin of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, taught French at Our Lady of the Lake College in San Antonio, Texas. After learning that the book was unavailable in English, Churchill began working to translate it. She probably finished the effort in 1932. She thought it fitting that the translation be published on the 100th anniversary of the Texas Revolution and sent her manuscript to John H. McGinnis, who edited the Southwest Review.

Two weeks after learning that the translation had been accepted for publication, Churchill quit her job and returned to England. The book contained many anti-Catholic passages and Churchill was told that this made it impossible for her to continue working at a Catholic college.

The translation, published in 1935, was one of several dozen books released by the Tardy Publishing Company in honor of the Texas Centennial. The publisher, William Tardy, was a high school Spanish teacher, and he was determined to publish only books suitable for schoolchildren. To ensure the content was appropriate for children, Tardy instructed the editor Henry Nash Smith, to sanitize the book. Smith removed two chapters and altered or removed single words, sentences, and paragraphs. Crisp counted "sixty-five identifiable omissions from the original text", half marked with ellipses, and half without any notice that the text had been changed. All anti-Catholic content was removed, as was some violence and some racial slurs. Ehrenberg's ending, which described the events after the Goliad Massacre, was replaced by a four-page summary.

After Smith had turned in the final copy of the manuscript, someone else added a note that only "unessential details" had been excised from the translation. This confused many scholars into taking the book as a primary source, which was not the intention of the publication. Smith was troubled that the book was marketed as being historically accurate and reliable, with no mention of the excised text. Smith later left the book off of his resume, and later publishers did not connect the editor of this book with the man who later became a well known scholar.

The book was illustrated by Jerry Bywaters. It included an introduction written by historian Herbert P. Gambrell. Gambrell was given only two weeks to produce several pages of biographical information about Ehrenberg. He relied heavily on an 1880 work by Gustav Körner detailing influential Germans in 19th-century America. Historian James Crisp maintains there is "not a shred of evidence to suggest that this story is true".

With Milam and Fannin was marketed to public schools in Texas. It was reprinted in 1968 by Pemberton Press.