Border Wars of Texas

Border Wars of Texas by DeShields, James T.. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780938349983.

In 1912 author James T. DeShields dedicated his Border Wars of Texas to "The Sons and Daughters of Those Noble Pioneer Fathers and Mothers who . . . battled so bravely for supremacy and . . . made possible all the glorious blessings that have followed," and herein are the accounts of the early battles of those advancing pioneers as they relentingly encroached across the borders of the territories which the Indians believed to be theirs. DeShields work, which used Texas earliest historical sources such as John Henry Brown, John W. Wilbarger, and Henderson King Yoakum, is made invaluable by his extensive use of other primary source material such as his numerous turn-of-the-century interviews and correspondence with early Texas Rangers and frontiersmen who were yet living. Many of his accounts are found nowhere else in publications of Texas history and thus provide fresh insights into the history of Texas wars against the Indians. Despite his view of Texas history as one in which the ultimate victory of the dauntless Anglo pioneer over the savage Indian was both predetermined and inevitable, DeShields work retains a humanistic viewpoint, supporting Houstons conciliatory Indian policies of total destruction or expulsion. Regardless of DeShields personal sympathies, the conflicts between the pioneer and Indian warring factions were bloody and savage, and DeShields superbly documents the savagery.