The Dark Corner Of The Confederacy

Collection of forty documents dating from the eve of the Civil War to the collaspe of the Confederacy chronicling the Civil War in Texas.

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 curse of this war, the lives of thousands of Texans, both young and old, were changed forever. This new anthology, edited by Kenneth W. Howell, incorporates the latest scholarly research on how Texans experienced the war. Eighteen contributors take us from the battlefront to the home front, ranging from inside the walls of a Confederate prison to inside the homes of women and children left to fend for themselves while their husbands and fathers were away on distant battlefields, and from the halls of the governor’s mansion to the halls of the county commissioner’s court in Colorado County. Also explored are well-known battles that took place in or near Texas, such as the Battle of Galveston, the Battle of Nueces, the Battle of Sabine Pass, and the Red River Campaign. Finally, the social and cultural aspects of the war receive new analysis, including the experiences of women, African Americans, Union prisoners of war, and noncombatants.

Charlie Siringo (1855-1928) lived the quintessential life of adventure on the American frontier as a cowboy, Pinkerton detective, writer, and later as a consultant for early western films. Siringo was one of the most attractive, bold, and original characters to live and flourish in the final decades of the Wild West. His love of the cattle business and of cowboy life were so great that in 1885 he published A Texas Cowboy, or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony--Taken From Real Life, which Will Rogers dubbed the "Cowboy's Bible." Howard R. Lamar's biography deftly shares Siringo's story within seventy-five pivotal years of western history. Siringo was not a mere observer but a participant in major historical events including the Coeur d'Alene mining strikes of the 1890s and Big Bill Haywood's trial in 1907. Lamar focuses on Siringo's youthful struggles to employ his abundant athleticism and ambitions and how Siringo's varied experiences helped develop the compelling national myth of the cowboy.

How much do you know about booze? Not just those unusual craft beers with odd names, but the real history of alcohol. It’s a wild world filled with pirates, bootleggers, prohibition agents, writers who never turn down a cocktail, drunk monks, and so much more. Told from a humorous perspective, this book helps to separate the lore from the facts. It’s a fun and historical look at the history of alcohol and some of the many peculiar people who played a role. If you’ve ever wanted to have a bevy of booze-related stories to toss out to friends or strangers while sipping on a drink at a bar or party, well, you’re in luck. Inside these pages, you’ll find a wealth of weird and interesting information. Colorfully written, the book covers several periods in time when people drank way too much alcohol and did some rather strange things. Have you ever heard of the man who sold alcohol to most of Congress during Prohibition? Do you know about the illegal alcohol operation on the isle of Inishmurray? Have you heard about the weird antics and drinking games of the Song Dynasty poet Shi Manqing? Got an inkling about why pirates were reported to drink so much? You’ll find out all of this information and more when you grab a copy of this book and take a jaunt through history. This book spans several periods of history to help give you a better understanding of just how pervasive alcohol has been throughout humanity. You’ll learn more about the origins of alcohol in ancient China and how it was used as medicine. You’ll learn about the moonshiners from the American South (co-written by Maxim Sorokopud), the pirates who controlled the rum trade in the 1700s, and just how important alcohol was during the Black Plague.