Among the greatest of tragedies of the American frontier was a little known but no less tragic event--the Texas Mier Expedition. Originally part of a 1,200-man invasion to retaliate against Mexican incursions on Texas soil in 1842, the Expedition unfolded when several hundred fighters stubbornly defied President Sam Houston's orders to disband and return home at once. Fiercely independent and recently reorganized under new leadership, this motley mix of Texas volunteers and militia turned south and proceeded to invade Mexico, determined to avenge past humiliations at the hands of Mexican dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna.Once in Mexico they engaged the enemy in a dramatic day-long battle when they were suddenly tricked into surrendering and marched 1,300 miles to Perote prison. It was a march of attrition during which many Texans were executed or died from exposure, disease, or starvation.Drawing from over a dozen first-hand accounts, the author extracts this exciting narrative recounting in compelling detail the pathos of these fighting men--from the blood-soaked Battlefields of Mier and the subsequent surrender to their harrowing 1,300-mile forced march to Perote Prison. Once in Perote, they were forced to sleep on stone floors in chains and put to hard labor. Of the original three-hundred-and-eight members of the rogue expedition who survived, only half eventually left the prison alive. After two years in captivity, the prisoners were finally released only to be ignored and forgotten by their own countrymen upon their return home.
An abolitionist and a spy, father and son, in the forgotten Western theater of the Civil WarThe abolitionist legacies of Orville Brown and his son, Spencer, live on in this historic and daring 19th-century account. Journeying apart from each other, but with similar passion, Orville and Spencer's stories span virtually every major abolitionist event: from the battles of Bleeding Kansas and the establishment of the free-soil movement to the river wars of Memphis, Vicksburg, and Shiloh. Readers will follow Orville west as he struck out for Kansas Territory to help ensure its entry as a free state. But the life of his precocious eldest son, Spencer, serves as an eventful accompaniment to Orville's own adventures.As a young Navy recruit in the Civil War's Western theater, Spencer volunteered to go behind enemy lines on numerous occasions. With his bold sleuthing and detailed diaries, Spencer's life unfolds vividly against the exciting backdrop of the Union and Confederate battle for control of the Mississippi River. The lives of these daring men are a fortifying record of American perseverance.
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