The Raven

The Raven PDF Author: Marquis James
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 9780292770409
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 566

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Book Description
A portrait of Houston's diverse careers that sheds light upon his heroism, romanticism, and contributions to the Republic of Texas

The Raven

The Raven PDF Author: Marquis James
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 9780292770409
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 566

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Book Description
A portrait of Houston's diverse careers that sheds light upon his heroism, romanticism, and contributions to the Republic of Texas

Texian Iliad

Texian Iliad PDF Author: Stephen L. Hardin
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292792522
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 419

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Book Description
Hardly were the last shots fired at the Alamo before the Texas Revolution entered the realm of myth and controversy. French visitor Frederic Gaillardet called it a "Texian Iliad" in 1839, while American Theodore Sedgwick pronounced the war and its resulting legends "almost burlesque." In this highly readable history, Stephen L. Hardin discovers more than a little truth in both of those views. Drawing on many original Texan and Mexican sources and on-site inspections of almost every battlefield, he offers the first complete military history of the Revolution. From the war's opening in the "Come and Take It" incident at Gonzales to the capture of General Santa Anna at San Jacinto, Hardin clearly describes the strategy and tactics of each side. His research yields new knowledge of the actions of famous Texan and Mexican leaders, as well as fascinating descriptions of battle and camp life from the ordinary soldier's point of view. This award-winning book belongs on the bookshelf of everyone interested in Texas or military history.

Texian Macabre

Texian Macabre PDF Author: Stephen L. Hardin
Publisher: TX A&m-McWhiney Foundation
ISBN: 9781933337562
Category : Hanging
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Mandred Wood may have caught a glint off the Bowie knife that sank into his belly--but probably not. On the afternoon of November 11, 1837, he had exchanged "harsh epithets" with David James Jones, a hero of the Texas Revolution. When words failed, Jones closed the argument with his blade. Such affrays were common in Houston, the fledgling capital of the Republic of Texas. This one, however, was singular. Wood was a gentleman and Jones a member of a disruptive gang of vagrants that the upper crust denounced as the "rowdy loafers." Jones went to jail; Wood went to his grave. In the weeks that followed, the killing resounded throughout the squalid, verminous city that one resident described as the "most miserable place in the world." Stephen L. Hardin's suspenseful and witty narrative reads like a contemporary page-turner, yet all is carefully documented history. He entwines the murder into the story of the sordid city like the strands of a hangman's rope. It is an astonishing tale peopled by remarkable characters: the one-armed newspaper editor and political candidate who employs the crime to advance his sanctimonious agenda; the Kentucky lawyer who enjoys champagne breakfasts and collecting human skulls; the German immigrant who sees rats gnaw the finger off an infant lying in his cradle; the Alamo widow whose circumstances force her to practice the oldest profession; the sociopathic physician who slaughters an innocent man in a duel; the Methodist minister horrified by the drunken debaucheries of government officials; and the president himself--the Sword of San Jacinto-- who during a besotted bacchanal strips to his underwear. Skillfully conceived and masterfully written, Texian Macabre: A Melancholy Tale of a Hanging in Early Houston will transport readers to a lost time and place.

Eighteen Minutes

Eighteen Minutes PDF Author: Stephen L. Moore
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publications
ISBN: 9781589070097
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 548

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Book Description
The book follows General Sam Houston as he takes command of the Texas Volunteers to lead them to victory six weeks after the fall of the Alamo.

Exodus from the Alamo

Exodus from the Alamo PDF Author: Phillip Thomas Tucker
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1935149520
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
The award-winning historian provides a provocative new analysis of the Battle of the Alamo—including new information on the fate of Davy Crockett. Contrary to legend, we now know that the defenders of the Alamo during the Texan Revolution died in a merciless predawn attack by Mexican soldiers. With extensive research into recently discovered Mexican accounts, as well as forensic evidence, historian Phillip Tucker sheds new light on the famous battle, contending that the traditional myth is even more off-base than we thought. In a startling revelation, Tucker uncovers that the primary fights took place on the plain outside the fort. While a number of the Alamo’s defenders hung on inside, most died while attempting to escape. Capt. Dickinson, with cannon atop the chapel, fired repeatedly into the throng of enemy cavalry until he was finally cut down. The controversy surrounding Davy Crockett still remains, though the recently authenticated diary of the Mexican Col. José Enrique de la Peña offers evidence that he surrendered. Notoriously, Mexican Pres. Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna burned the bodies of the Texans who had dared stand against him. As this book proves in thorough detail, the funeral pyres were well outside the fort—that is, where the two separate groups of escapees fell on the plain, rather than in the Alamo itself.

Unsettled Land

Unsettled Land PDF Author: Sam W. Haynes
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 1541645405
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 451

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Book Description
A bold new history of the origins and aftermath of the Texas Revolution, revealing how Indians, Mexicans, and Americans battled for survival in one of the continent’s most diverse regions The Texas Revolution has long been cast as an epic episode in the origins of the American West. As the story goes, larger-than-life figures like Sam Houston, David Crockett, and William Barret Travis fought to free Texas from repressive Mexican rule. In Unsettled Land, historian Sam Haynes reveals the reality beneath this powerful creation myth. He shows how the lives of ordinary people—white Americans, Mexicans, Native Americans, and those of African descent—were upended by extraordinary events over twenty-five years. After the battle of San Jacinto, racial lines snapped taut as a new nation, the Lone Star republic, sought to expel Indians, marginalize Mexicans, and tighten its grip on the enslaved. This is a revelatory and essential new narrative of a major turning point in the history of North America.

101 Essential Texas Books

101 Essential Texas Books PDF Author: Glenn Dromgoole
Publisher: ACU Press/Leafwood Publishers
ISBN: 9780891123248
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
If you are interested in building a library of Texas books or just reading some books you might not know about, this selection is the place to begin.

Three Roads to the Alamo

Three Roads to the Alamo PDF Author: William C. Davis
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061754072
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 680

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Book Description
"William C. Davis's Three Roads to the Alamo is far and away the best account of the Alamo I have ever read. The portraits of Crockett, Bowie, and Travis are brilliantly sketched in a fast-moving story that keeps the reader riveted to the very last word." — Stephen B. Oates Three Roads to the Alamois the definitive book about the lives of David Crockett, James Bowie and William Barret Travis—the legendary frontiersmen and fighters who met their destiny at the Alamo in one of the most famous and tragic battles in American history—and about what really happened in that battle.

Sam Houston

Sam Houston PDF Author: James L. Haley
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 080615215X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 537

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Book Description
"From his rise and fall in Tennessee politics and through his many roles in Texas, Haley paints a lively picture of Houston as a sometimes deeply troubled man. While this is not a definitive biography, it is a refreshing, important look at a weighty yet often overlooked figure in American politics."--"Library Journal." Illustrations.

The Texas Revolution and the U.S.-Mexican War

The Texas Revolution and the U.S.-Mexican War PDF Author: Paul Calore
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476614857
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
This narrative history describes the events preceding, and the prosecution of, the Texas Revolution and the U.S.-Mexican War. It begins with the introduction of the empresario system in Mexico in 1823, a system of land distribution to American farmers and ranchers in an attempt to strengthen the postwar economy following Mexico's independence from Spain. Once welcomed as fellow countrymen, the new settlers, homesteading on land destined to be called Texas, were viewed as enemies when in 1835 they revolted against the government's harsh Centralist rulings. Winning independence from Mexico and recognition from the United States as the independent Republic of Texas only intensified the Mexican refusal to accept their loss of Texas as legitimate. The final straw for both sides came when Texas was granted U.S. statehood and 11 American soldiers were ambushed and murdered. As a result, Congress declared war on Mexico, a bloody conflict that resulted in the U.S. gain of 525,000 square miles.