Bad Hand

Bad Hand

Author: Charles M. Robinson

Publisher:

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13:

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A Civil War hero, victorious Indian fighter and eventual madman, General Ranald S. Mackenzie's fascinating life, his brilliant accomplishments, and his descent into madness are brought to life in a complete and thoroughly researched biography that reestablishes his importance in the history of Texas and the United States. Foreword by Stan Hoig.


Battles of the Red River War

Battles of the Red River War

Author: J. Brett Cruse

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2017-08-03

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1623491525

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Battles of the Red River War unearths a long-buried record of the collision of two cultures. In 1874, U.S. forces led by Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie carried out a surprise attack on several Cheyenne, Comanche, and Kiowa bands that had taken refuge in the Palo Duro Canyon of the Texas panhandle and destroyed their winter stores and horses. After this devastating loss, many of these Indians returned to their reservations and effectively brought to a close what has come to be known as the Red River War, a campaign carried out by the U.S. Army during 1874 as a result of Indian attacks on white settlers in the region. After this operation, the Southern Plains Indians would never again pose a coherent threat to whites’ expansion and settlement across their ancestral homelands. Until now, the few historians who have undertaken to tell the story of the Red River War have had to rely on the official records of the battles and a handful of extant accounts, letters, and journals of the U.S. Army participants. Starting in 1998, J. Brett Cruse, under the auspices of the Texas Historical Commission, conducted archeological investigations at six battle sites. In the artifacts they unearthed, Cruse and his teams found clues that would both correct and complete the written records and aid understanding of the Indian perspectives on this clash of cultures. Including a chapter on historiography and archival research by Martha Doty Freeman and an analysis of cartridges and bullets by Douglas D. Scott, this rigorously researched and lavishly illustrated work will commend itself to archeologists, military historians and scientists, and students and scholars of the Westward Expansion.


On the Border with Mackenzie

On the Border with Mackenzie

Author: Capt. R. G. Carter

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2018-02-27

Total Pages: 824

ISBN-13: 1789120179

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When it was first published in 1935, On the Border with Mackenzie, or Winning West Texas from the Comanches quickly became known as the most complete account of the Indian Wars on the Texas frontier during the 1870s, and remains one of the most exhaustive histories ever written by an actual participant in the Texas Indian Wars. The author, Capt. Robert G. Carter, a Union Army veteran and West Point graduate, was appointed in 1870 to serve as second lieutenant in the Fourth United States Cavalry stationed at Fort Concho, Texas. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1900 for his gallantry in action against the Indians occurring on October 10, 1871, during the battle of Blanco Canyon. Led by Col. Ranald Slidell Mackenzie, the Fourth Cavalry moved its headquarters to Fort Richardson, Texas, in 1871 where they soon became one of the most effective units on the western frontier. Among the battles and skirmishes they participated in were the Warren wagon train raid of 1871; the Kicking Bird pursuit of 1871; the Remolino fight of 1873; the Red River War of 1874-75; and the Black Hills War of 1876. “...a splendid contribution to the early frontier history of West Texas...a story filled with humor and pathos, tragedies and triumphs, hunger and thirst, war and adventure.”—L. F. Sheffy “...[Carter] pulls no punches in this outspoken narrative, and the reader always knows where he stands.”—John H. Jenkins, Texas Basic Books “...essential to any study of the Indian Wars of the Southern Plains.”—Charles Robinson, Foreword


Empire of the Summer Moon

Empire of the Summer Moon

Author: S. C. Gwynne

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2010-05-25

Total Pages: 394

ISBN-13: 1416597158

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*Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award* *A New York Times Notable Book* *Winner of the Texas Book Award and the Oklahoma Book Award* This New York Times bestseller and stunning historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West “is nothing short of a revelation…will leave dust and blood on your jeans” (The New York Times Book Review). Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches. Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined when the American West opened up. Comanche boys became adept bareback riders by age six; full Comanche braves were considered the best horsemen who ever rode. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne’s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads, and the amazing story of Cynthia Ann Parker and her son Quanah—a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being. Hailed by critics, S. C. Gwynne’s account of these events is meticulously researched, intellectually provocative, and, above all, thrillingly told. Empire of the Summer Moon announces him as a major new writer of American history.


Crossing the Border with the 4th Cavalry

Crossing the Border with the 4th Cavalry

Author: Richard Alva Thompson

Publisher: Texican Press

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13:

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The cavalry action described here was carefully planned and executed by Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie. His regiment, the 4th, provided six handpicked companies of experienced Indian campaigners. Also included were the famous Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts, a detachment of which was commanded by Lieutenant John L. Bullis. Carefully chosen by the President, because of the reputation of the regiment and its commander, a secret mission into Mexico was made to punish a band of hostile Kickapoo and Lipan's who had rendered life and property on the Texas frontier untenable.


Frontier Forts of Texas

Frontier Forts of Texas

Author: Bill O'Neal

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 1467128597

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With its vast size and long frontier period, Texas was the scene of more combat events between Native American warriors and Anglo soldiers and settlers than any other state or territory. The US Army, therefore, erected more military outposts in Texas, a tradition begun by Spanish soldados and their presidios. Settlers built blockhouses and even stockades, the most famous of which was Parker's Fort, the site of an infamous massacre in 1836. Successive north to south lines of Army forts attempted to screen westward-moving settlers from war parties, while border posts stretched along the Rio Grande from Fort Brown on the Gulf of Mexico to Fort Bliss at El Paso del Norte. Texas was the site of the first US Cavalry regiment employed against horseback warriors, as well as the experimental US Camel Corps. From Robert E. Lee to Albert Sidney Johnston to Ranald Mackenzie, the Army's finest officers served out of Texas forts, and 61 Medals of Honor were earned by soldiers campaigning in the Lone Star State.


Kickapoos

Kickapoos

Author: Arrell M. Gibson

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 1975-04-01

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 9780806112640

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The Kickapoo Indians, members of the Algonquian linguistic community, resisted white settlement for more than three hundred years on a front that extended across half a continent. In turn, France, Great Britain, the United States, Spain, and Mexico sought to placate and exploit this fiercely independent people. Eventually forced to remove from their historic homeland to territory west of the Mississippi River, the Kickapoos carried their battle to the plains of the Southwest. Here not only did they wage active and imaginative war, but certain bands became area merchants, acting as middlemen between the Comanche and Kiowa Indians and the United States government. They developed a flourishing trade in plunder and stolen livestock, but their most lucrative "goods" were the white captives whom they obtained from the Comanches and others. In 1873, after several profitable years of raiding in Texas for the Mexican Republic, the Kickapoos reluctantly settled on a reservation in Indian Territory. Corrupt politicians, land swindlers, gamblers, and whisky peddlers preyed on the tribe, and it was not until the twentieth century that the Kickapoos received just treatment at the hands of the United States government.