THE MATH DOESN'T WORK

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Jim Barlow
  • Randolph Air Force Base, Texas
Via e-mail --  I first want to commend you on a fantastic magazine! You not only promote safety awareness, but you do so in a creative, inspiring and entertaining way. You give your readers reason to stop and think, ask ourselves questions, perhaps laugh and sometimes shed a tear. This all results in more folks wanting to read Torch more often, which gets out your safety message.

Now, I have a question. One of your recent thought-provoking articles, "The Black Bean" from the July/August 2010 issue ("From the Director" column on the opening page), gave me reason to question my math skills. The story relates that Santa Ana ordered 10 percent of the 176 Texan prisoners be killed, and that indeed, 17 unlucky men drew the black bean and were shot by firing squad. But didn't they round up in those days?

Ten percent of 176 is 17.6. Why didn't they round up and shoot 18 instead of 17? Just curious.

As part of the research used to craft "The Black Bean" column, we stumbled upon your thought-provoking issue. In fact, we discovered the Mexican Army did indeed execute 18 Texans, versus the 17 reported in history books. But the last man was killed a month later, and he did not face the firing squad for picking a black bean. Instead, the explanations surrounding this unfortunate soul's death seem to be more sinister.

The victim was Capt. Ewen Cameron, a Scotsman who had fought during the Texas Revolution and other skirmishes against and for the Mexican Army (Cameron County in south Texas is named in his honor).

There were a few reasons the captain may have been chosen to be executed. Some historians suggest that he was selected to make up for the lack of rounding up to an 18th victim. Others propose that he was targeted because he was the leader of the escape from Hacienda Salado. Still a third reason, too, could have been because of the fact that a few years before he'd had a dispute with a revengeful Mexican general, Antonio Canales. It is rumored that Canales was the one who ordered Cameron's execution.

Others believe all of these factors combined led to Cameron's execution, but we may never know for certain why they didn't initially round up to 18.

It just goes to show that you may dodge a bullet and get away with mistakes one day, but lady luck might leave you the next. So make the right choices!