"Thermopylae had her messenger of defeat, but the Alamo had none"

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

This once-very-famous quotation is not in the Yale Book of Quotations.  
Perhaps Fred can use it, as this has been said to have been "ghost-written" for  a 
Texas general (who couldn't pronounce Thermopylae).
...
I don't have ProQuest Historical Newspapers, the American Periodical Series  
Online, HarpWeek, 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, and the full edition of  
Newsbank's America's Historical Newspapers, so perhaps someone can find better  
cites?
...
...
... 
_http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/thermopylae_had_her_messenger
_of_defeat_but_the_alamo_had_none/_ 
(http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/thermopylae_had_her_messenger_of_defeat_but_the_alamo_had_none/) 
...
 
Entry from August 04, 2007 
“Thermopylae had her messenger of defeat, but the Alamo had  none”
 
"Thermopylae had her messenger of defeat, but the Alamo had none.” The  
comparison of the events of the Alamo (1836) to the Battle of Thermopylae (480  
B.C.) occurred as early as 1836. This particular quotation is said to have been  
given in a speech by General Edward Burleson in 1841 or 1842, ghost-written by 
 Thomas Jefferson Green. It was soon afterward included with three other  
quotations on the first Alamo monument. A debate about the origin of the phrase  
occurred in Texas newspapers in 1887 (below). 

In an 1896 article (also  below), it was said that “almost every school boy” 
knew this quotation.  

The quotation implies that no one survived the Alamo battle to tell the  
Texans’ story, but at least three people (non-combatants) did survive.  


_Bartleby.com_ (http://www.bartleby.com/73/32.html)  
Respectfully  Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations.  1989. 
AUTHOR: Thomas Jefferson  Green (1801–63) 
QUOTATION: Thermopylae had her messenger of defeat—the Alamo  had none. 
ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to THOMAS JEFFERSON GREEN. 

Green  is said to have included the sentence in a speech he helped Edward 
Burleson  prepare. While Burleson has often been credited with originating the 
sentence as  well as using it, he lacked the classical education necessary to 
have made the  allusion. The sentence became popular after it was engraved on 
the first  monument to the Alamo, which is located in Austin, Texas. The 
10-foot-high  statue, made of stones from the Alamo, was destroyed by fire when the 
Capitol at  Austin burned. Another monument subsequently erected on the Capitol 
grounds also  included the sentence.—J. Frank Dobie, “The Alamo’s 
Immortalization of Words,”  Southwest Review, summer 1942, pp. 406–10. 
SUBJECTS: Alamo  
(...)





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