The Devil's Triangle Ben Bickerstaff, Northeast Texans, and the War of Reconstruction in Texas

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smallwood, James M.

Contributor:

Taylor, Carol C.

Howell, Kenneth W.

Language:

English

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (239 pages) : illustrations, maps

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2021

Place of Publication:

Denton, TX : University of North Texas Press, 2019.

Summary:

In the Texas Reconstruction Era (1865-1877), many returning Confederate veterans organized outlaw gangs and Ku Klux Klan groups to continue the war and to take the battle to Yankee occupiers, native white Unionists, and their allies, the free people. This study of Benjamin Bickerstaff and other Northeast Texans provides a microhistory of the larger whole. Bickerstaff founded Ku Klux Klan groups in at least two Northeast Texas counties and led a gang of raiders who, at times, numbered up to 500 men. He joined the ranks of guerrilla fighters like Cullen Baker and Bob Lee and, with their gangs often riding together, brought chaos and death to the "Devil's Triangle," the Northeast Texas region where they created one disaster after another. "This book provides a well-researched, exhaustive, and fascinating examination of the life of Benjamin Bickerstaff, a desperado who preyed on blacks, Unionists, and others in northeastern Texas during the Reconstruction era until armed citizens killed him in the town of Alvarado in 1869. The work adds to our knowledge of Reconstruction violence and graphically supports the idea that the Civil War in Texas did not really end in 1865 but continued long afterward."--Carl Moneyhon, author of Texas after the Civil War: The Struggle of Reconstruction

Contents:

Chapter 10. Killing the Bravest Man in the South, March-April, 1869After Word; End Notes; Appendices:; Appendix 1. Major General George A. Custer's Congressional Testimony About Affairs in Eastern Texas; Appendix 2. Mrs. L.E. Potts Written Testimony About Affairs in Northeast Texas; Appendix 3. Report on Violence Delivered to the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1868-1869; Appendix 4. Charles Rand's Report on the Death of Ben Griffin; Appendix 5. General J.J. Reynolds Orders to Captain Adna Chaffee; Bibliography; Index

Intro; Contents; Dedication; Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction. The Devil Holds High Carnival in Texas; Chapter 1. The Makings of a Killer; Chapter 2. The World Turned Upside Down; Chapter 3. Initiating a Reign of Terror; Chapter 4. Living in Pandemonium Itself; Chapter 5. Every Loyal Man in the State May Fall, May-July, 1868; Chapter 6. The New Rebellion, August, 1868; Chapter 7. The Devil be Damned, September, 1868; Chapter 8. In a State Worse than War, October-December 1868; Chapter 9. Send All of Them to Hell, January-February, 1869

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-230) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-57441-782-7

OCLC:

1120691114