When Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna conquered the Alamo he still had two legs.
He lost one of them in 1838 during a battle known as the Pastry War and replaced it with a cork-and-wood prosthesis clad in a black dress boot. When the general fled the battlefield at Cerro Gordo in 1847 on a donkey he left behind a gilded carriage containing the leg, a lockbox full of gold, and partially eaten chicken. The boys from Illinois finished the chicken, turned in the cash, and took the leg back home, where it has resided at the Illinois State Military Museum ever since. Now Texas wants the leg for a museum near the Alamo and some Texas students are lobbying to have the leg returned to Mexico but it looks like the Illinois Museum is sticking to its guns and won't give up the leg without a fight.
More: Dallas News
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