The settlers' war : the struggle for the Texas frontier in the 1860s / Gregory Michno.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Michno, Gregory, 1948-

Contributor:

Herman V. Ames Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pioneers--Texas--History--19th century.

Pioneers.

Frontier and pioneer life--Texas--19th century.

Frontier and pioneer life.

History.

Texas.

Indians of North America--Wars--Texas.

Indians of North America.

Indians of North America--Wars.

Indians of North America--Wars--1815-1875.

Texas--History--19th century.

Physical Description:

xiv, 448 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Caldwell, Idaho : Caxton Press, 2011.

Summary:

During the decades from 1820 to 1870 the American frontier line expanded 2,000 miles across the trans-Mississippi west. In Texas the frontier line only expanded about 200 miles. The supposedly irresistible European force met a nearly immovable Native American resistance and a contest for possession of Texas' hills and prairies ensued for decades. The struggle was down and dirty,

In Texas in the 1860s, there were no large scale battles between the army and the Indians. The targets of the Comanches, Kiowas, and Apaches usually were the homesteaders on the Texas frontier.

In Texas the non-combatants bore the brunt of the warfare, losing far more than the soldiers who were supposedly there to protect them.

Michno, today's best Indian Wars historian, superbly recounts the era's violent encounters, revealing 150 Indian depredations that other historians have somehow overlooked. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 Before the Bloody Decade

1 "By naked conquest." 1

2 "Your troubles and difficulties will not cease." 7

Part 2 1860

3 "I tried that Virginia back heel on him." 12

4 "They held up their Bibles." 16

5 "A drought of such continued severity was never known before." 26

6 "This knife will take off my scalp before I get home." 31

7 "Eating twice their own weight in beef." 38

8 "Glorious News-Nine scalps taken." 44

9 "I am going home to die no more." 50

10 "MeCinceeAnn!" 55

Part 3 1861

11 "We will swoop down upon him at night." 68

12 "He would not killey me." 75

13 "They are afflicted with the disease known here as the 'Indian Grab.'" 80

14 "One of the most daring and extensive raids ever known." 85

15 "The soldiers did their best, but... " 96

Part 4 1862

16 They behaved "cowardly and disgracefully." 100

17 "Kill all the grown Indians and take the children prisoners." 107

18 "In the dark corner of the Confederacy. 112

19 "Friendly and true to the White man for years." 118

20 "Stock raisers and herders for the benefit of the Indians." 124

Part 5 1863

21 "No army, no means, no system, no order." 128

22 "I am afraid to live in this country any longer." 138

23 "If you are a prisoner, don't be afraid." 144

24 "What is one man's family to the whole of the Confederacy?" 149

25 "We but little dread now of an invasion this winter." 153

26 'Too late to pray now, the devil has come." 159

Part 6 1864

27 "I saw my sister's ghastly look." 166

28 "I have never been in a country where the people were so perfectly worthless." 171

29 "There we found mother's bleached bones." 176

30 "Indians are coming; get in the brush!" 182

31 "I am astonished at the number of fools in Texas" 191

Part 7 1865

32 "He recognized no friendly Indians on the Texas frontier." 196

33 "Don't let them carry me away!" 201

34 "The booger-man did it." 207

35 "The wounds (from) scalping gave off such an offensive odor." 213

36 "There must be a frontier somewhere." 220

37 "They died of too large views." 228

Part 8 1866

38 "The last time I saw my father, he was running for the creek." 235

39 "They did not yell like white people." 244

40 "I never sent anyone in search." 251

41 "They are Indians we are gone." 260

42 "Go with him and be a good boy." 272

43 "Someone has killed a maverick here." 281

44 "The Indians can be taught that Texas is a Part of the U. S." 288

Part 9 1867

45 "When the soldiers got there the Indians got mean." 304

46 "Well, I would call them unfriendly." 311

47 "I regret to have to be laid away in a foreign country." 316

48 "The children cried for milk." 325

49 "The Indians of my agency have remained perfectly quiet and peaceable." 332

Part 10 1868

50 "He was scalped and frozen when we found him." 336

51 "This is my poor child's hair!" 346

52 "The savings of all our youthful days was gone." 351

53 "The troops delight in seeing the savages commit their murderous deeds," 359

54 "Father, you will never come back." 365

Part 11 1869

55 "What sort of a tale will we tell when we get home?" 373

56 "If the Indians are going to kill us we need not let them get the watermelons." 379

57 "If you can make Quakers out of the Indians it will take the fight out of them." 385

58 "They still feel aggrieved." 392.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 412-424) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Herman V. Ames Fund.

ISBN:

087004494X

9780870045035

0870045032

9780870044946

OCLC:

712591127

Publisher Number:

99947903351