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Texas historian Stephen L. Moore's Texas Rising, the official companion to the epic History Channel series of the same name, brings to life the violent Texas frontier and the Rangers' heroic deeds during the Texas Revolution.
"The official nonfiction companion to the History Channel dramatic series Texas Rising (produced by the same team that made the record-breaking Hatfields & McCoys): a thrilling new narrative history of the Texas Revolution and...
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Some of the law officers who served the West during the last half of the nineteenth century drifted from one side of the law to the other and sold their talents to whichever side offered the most advantage. Others used their positions as cover for their criminal activities.
The lawmen in this book were serious offenders against the laws they had at one time sworn to uphold. Their skills were honed in range wars and family feuds and polished along...
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The #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Miracle of Dunkirk tells the story of the Texans who fought Santa Anna’s troops at the Battle of the Alamo. Looking out over the walls of the whitewashed Alamo, sweltering in the intense sun of a February heat wave, Colonel William Travis knew his small garrison had little chance of holding back the Mexican army. Even after a call for reinforcements brought dozens...
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Notorious Gamblers of the Old WestTexas historian, G. R. Williamson, tells the "unvarnished truth" about one of the integral facets of the American West—gambling. Rich in detail and jargon, yet written in an easy to understand style, the book tells how the games were played, legitimately and otherwise; it presents the stories of some of the infamous gamblers and con men of the era; and it covers the notorious saloons and gambling houses where fortunes...
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The Santa Fe Trail's role as the major western trade route in the early to mid-nineteenth century made it a critical part of America's Westward expansion and the stories of its heyday include some of the greatest adventures in the history of the Old West.
Drawn from first-hand accounts of early entrepreneurs and emigrants who braved the Santa Fe Trail between 1820 and 1880, this history reveals the lure of the West and puts its importance to American...
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True stories of murder and mayhem from the Old West. Benson, Arizona was founded as a railroad town in the San Pedro Valley in 1880 when Geronimo still roamed the valley and terrorized settlers and travelers. Because Benson was a small town, it never received the notoriety of its neighbor Tombstone. But the images one conjures up of the Wild West-shootouts, saloons, hangings, fights-could be found in Benson. The printed version is illustrated with...
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Though the Republic of Texas existed as a sovereign nation for just nine years, the legacy lives on in the names that distinguish the landscape of the Lone Star State. Austin, Houston, Travis, Lamar, Seguin, Burnet, Bowie, Zavala, Crockett--these historical giants, often at odds, fought through their differences to achieve freedom from Mexico and Santa Anna, establishing a republic fit to be the twenty-eighth state to join the Union. In nineteen historical...
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In the 1840s and 50s, the Jicarilla Apache were the terror of the Santa Fe Trail and the Rio Arriba. They repeatedly clashed with the cavalry and raided wagon trains, and there was bad blood between the band and the Army after the Battle of San Pasqual, when they were on opposite sides during the Mexican American War. In 1854, as traffic was on the increase along the historic trade route, the Jicarilla soundly defeated the 1st United States Dragoons...
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In April 1846, tensions between the U.S. and Mexico along the disputed border were high. About half of the U.S. Army, then tiny, was camped outside of Matamoros, Mexico, and rumors were flying that the much larger and better outfitted Mexican army was about to undertake efforts to remove the troops from their territory. Captain Seth Brett Thornton led his 2nd mounted dragoons on an expedition to try to confirm those rumors and gain intelligence about...
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Death of a Texas Ranger is the thrilling, action-packed story of the murder of Texas Ranger John Green by Cesario Menchaca, one of three Rangers of Mexican descent under Green's command. Immediately word spread that the killing may have been the botched outcome of a contract taken out on Menchaca's life by the notorious Gabriel Marnoch, a local naturalist who had run up against the law himself. But was it? Much more than just a story about a tragic...
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The Notorious Texas Pistoleers—Ben Thompson & King Fisher (Second Edition) Known as two of the best pistol fighters of their day, Ben Thompson and John King Fisher have remained an enigma in the chronicles of the Western Frontier. While other gun fighters have achieved notoriety through the stories told in the pulp magazines and newspapers of the day, these two men have been largely ignored. Both were credited with killing a string of men during...
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This historical study offers "a new understanding of the human cost of the [Republic of Texas's] vainglorious attempt to attack Mexico" (Western Historical Quarterly).
The Somervell and Mier Expeditions of 1842, culminating in the famous "black bean episode" in which Texas prisoners drew white or black beans to determine who would be executed by their Mexican captors, still capture the public imagination in Texas. But were the Texans really martyrs...
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On February 23, 1836, a large Mexican army led by dictator Santa Anna reached San Antonio and laid siege to about 175 Texas rebels holed up in the Alamo. The Texans refused to surrender for nearly two weeks until almost 2,000 Mexican troops unleashed a final assault. The defenders fought valiantly-for their lives and for a free and independent Texas-but in the end, they were all slaughtered. Their ultimate sacrifice inspired the rallying cry "Remember...
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For the Texas Rangers, the Mexican-American War was an opportunity for vengeance. When the United States declared war on Mexico in 1846, the Texas Rangers were eager to settle scores with their familiar foe and quickly became the eyes and ears of the US army. Commanded by established legends like Samuel H. Walker, Benjamin McCulloch, and John "Jack" Coffee Hays, Texas Rangers led the American charge at Monterrey and saved General Taylor's army at...
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Fort Selden was a small frontier fort built in 1865 with the mission of protecting the citizens of the Mesilla Valley in southern New Mexico. This book tells the story of Fort Selden's beginning, its years of service, and its eventual abandonment. Throughout Fort Selden's history, its troopers conducted patrols, provided escort for wagon trains, and chased horse thieves, bandits, and Apaches through spring dust storms, drenching rains, winter cold,...
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The Cradle of Texas Road encircles the Lone Star landscapes that nurtured so much of the state's early history, from European settlement through the Texas Republic. The first attempt at Texan liberation ended in the bloodiest battle in Texas history, after the insurgents divided their forces along racial lines at Medina in 1813. It required Sam Houston's more collaborative approach at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836 to finally realize the dream...
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From a headless burial to cocaine toothache drops, the true stories hidden in the Wild West's medical records are a match for its tallest tales.
In the 19th century, when dying young was a fact of life, a routine bout of diarrhea could be fatal. No one had heard of viruses or bacteria, but they killed more soldiers on the frontier than hostile raiding parties. Physicians dispensed whiskey for TB, mercury for VD and arsenic for indigestion. Baseball...
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The second installment of a no-holds-barred look at the history of the famed Texas Rangers from western author Mike Cox
Following up on his magnificent history of the 19th century Texas Rangers, Mike Cox now takes us from 1900 through the present. From horseback to helicopters, from the frontier cattle days through the crime-ridden boom-or-bust oil field era, from Prohibition to World War II espionage to the violent ethnic turbulence of the '50s...
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Anyone who is as fascinated about the era surrounding the establishment of the Republic of Texas as I am, will understand my excitement on discovering this book in German written in 1840. G.A. Scherpf was a German who had been living for some time in New York and decided to undertake an expedition to see with his own eyes which of the conflicting reports about Texas were true. He became so enamored with the country that he decided to settle there...
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Delve into San Antonio's wicked past, from the lawless lore of the Spanish settlement through the criminal misdeeds of the modern metropolis.
Residents of the Alamo City tolerated scores of cockfighting pits, gambling joints, opium dens, around-the-clock saloons and other places of ill-repute. Some disturbers of San Antonio's peace, like Judge Roy Bean, left town to achieve greater notoriety elsewhere. Others, like the thief who stole the McFarlin...
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