Category Archives: History

Texas independence was never a simple matter of people refusing to conform to Mexican law.  It was, in fact, very complex, unsettling, highly contentious, lasting several years, and, I suspect, many sleepless nights among those who worked tirelessly to effect … Continue reading →

(Continued from last week) One of the first things that General Sam Houston did after being reinstated was ordering Fannin to withdraw his men and stores fromPresidio La Bahia at Goliad to the town at Victoria.  He might have complied … Continue reading →

James Walker Fannin Jr. (d. March 27, 1836) is not one of my favorite characters in Texas history.  In fairness to Fannin, however, he was a 32-year old colonel with comparatively no experience as a senior field officer.  What happened to … Continue reading →

Was Jim Bowie a hero of Texas, or a man who was simply trapped by his circumstances?  Was he a killer, or simply a man of his time who was willing and able to defend himself in a scrape?  Was … Continue reading →

Erasmus Smith was born on 19 April 1787 in Duchess County, New York.  When he was aged ten or eleven, his parents moved to Natchez, Mississippi … then known as the Mississippi Territory. Natchez is located in the far southwest … Continue reading →

Almeron Dickinson didn’t fall in love until he was 29-years of age.  A Pennsylvanian by birth in the year 1800, he served in the United States Army and was trained in the art and science of artillery.  He eventually found … Continue reading →

Owing to his participation in the civilization of the American West, I have mentioned James Henry Carleton on several occasions —usually as a backdrop to conflicts with American Indians— as a senior in the chain of command.  I thought for this … Continue reading →

… and the Buffalo Wallow Fight The Great Plains region of the United States and Canada is a broad expanse of flat and undulating land that includes such features as prairie, steppes, and grasslands. It begins just west of the Mississippi … Continue reading →

Long before the arrival of Anglo-American settlers, the people of the Great Plains had evolved into a nomadic form of existence.  Their pace of movement generally mirrored that of their primary food source, and because humans cannot exist without water, … Continue reading →

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján [1] was looking for the Seven Cities of Gold in 1541; his travels took him through what is today Hutchinson County, Texas.  Juan de Onate y Salazar [2] passed through the same area in … Continue reading →