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

Published: September, 2019  Pages: 240  Features: 12 b&w illus. 7 maps. Notes. Bib.

“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 more... about The Devil's Triangle: Ben Bickerstaff, Northeast Texans, and the War of Reconstruction in Texas

Single Star of the West: The Republic of Texas, 1836-1845

Published: March, 2017  Pages: 576  Features: 8 b&w illus. Map. Notes. Bib. Index.

Does Texas’s experience as a republic make it unique among the other states? In many ways, Texas was an “accidental republic” for nearly ten years, until Texans voted overwhelmingly in favor of annexation to the United States after winning independence from Mexico. more... about Single Star of the West: The Republic of Texas, 1836-1845

• 2017 Book of the Year, Alamo Society

Still the Arena of Civil War: Violence and Turmoil in Reconstruction Texas, 1865-1874

Published: March, 2012  Pages: 480  Features: 16 b&w photos. 3 maps. Notes. Bib. Index.

Following the Civil War, the United States was fully engaged in a bloody conflict with ex-Confederates, conservative Democrats, and members of organized terrorist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, for control of the southern states. Texas became one of the earliest battleground states in the War of Reconstruction. Throughout this era, white Texans claimed that Radical Republicans in Congress were attempting to dominate their state through “Negro-Carpetbag-Scalawag rule.” In response to these perceived threats, whites initiated a violent guerilla war that was designed to limit support for the Republican Party. They targeted loyal Unionists throughout the South, especially African Americans who represented the largest block of Republican voters in the region. more... about Still the Arena of Civil War: Violence and Turmoil in Reconstruction Texas, 1865-1874

The Seventh Star of the Confederacy: Texas during the Civil War

— Vol. 10: of War and the Southwest Series

Published: March, 2010  Pages: 464  Features: 23 b&w illus. 4 maps. Notes. Bib. Index.

On February 1, 1861, delegates at the Texas Secession Convention elected to leave the Union. The people of Texas supported the actions of the convention in a statewide referendum, paving the way for the state to secede and to officially become the seventh state in the Confederacy. Soon the Texans found themselves engaged in a bloody and prolonged civil war against their northern brethren. During the course of this war, the lives of thousands of Texans, both young and old, were changed forever. more... about The Seventh Star of the Confederacy: Texas during the Civil War

• The A. M. Pate, Jr. Award in Civil War History, 2009