Books published by publisher State House Pr

The Life of Albert Sidney Johnston, selected by John H. Jenkins III as one of the basic Texas books, reads like a litany of the important events in the life of the Texas Republic and early statehood through the Civil War. A native Kentuckian and 1826 graduate of West Point, and a veteran of the Black Hawk War, Johnston arrived in Texas in 1836 shortly after the battle of San Jacinto and enlisted as a private in the Texas Army. Soon discovered in the ranks, he was immediately appointed the army's adjutant general. His injury from a duel with Felix Huston later prevented his taking command of the army. In 1838 he was appointed Texas' Secretary of War, and later led the expedition against the Cherokee Indians in East Texas. He commanded the 1st Texas Rifle Volunteers dring the Mexican War and became a regular officer in the US Army—one of the few Texas military men permitted to do so.<br>At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, Johnston was offered a position second in rank only to the aging Winfield Scott, but he refused the Federal government's offer and instead became commander of the Confederacy's Department No. 2, the Western Department. Keenly aware of the military weakness of the South, he issued a call for men at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and formed and drilled his army. On April 6, 1862, Johnston was killed at the battle of Shiloh.<br>The author, Johnston's son, presents "a whole picture of the character of a difficult, generally taciturn man, and defends his actions in a balanced, scholarly manner." The son, having access to all of his father's private correspondence and papers, including his complete Confederate archives, was able to provide anecdotes only a son could know, and was able to persuade many of his father's associates to submit memoirs about him.<br>Never before reprinted since its last publication in 1878, this new volume is of inestimable value and interest to historians and to other readers of Civil War history and early Texas history.<br>This edition contains a new introduction by Charles P. Roland, author of Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics, and Jefferson Davis's Greatest General: Albert Sidney Johnston (McWhiney Foundation Press, 2000).

Ray Perry was a farm boy from rural West Texas when America entered World War II. He always had a fascination with planes, so he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps with the intention of becoming a pilot. The Army Air Corps needed tail gunners, however, so Ray served his country at the back end of a B-17, completing thirty-five combat missions before the war’s end. This is the story of his World War II adventure, wrought with tragedy and excitement and every emotion in between. This is also the story of how a young man from a small West Texas town handled the upheaval that comes with war. Based off numerous primary source materials, Ray’s story unfolds through his letters, photos, and mementos. The book’s foreword is written by his son, and former Texas governor, Rick Perry. “I never was rattled . . . . I could never remember really being scared. I know I was. Had to be. But I had control of it.” “The pilot sent the radio operator back there to see if they got me . . . and he climbed, crawled, right there beside the side of that tail wheel, and he never did get back all the way where I was at, but he . . . saw me sitting up and he saw me move a little. So, he went back and told the pilot, ‘I guess he’s alright. I think he’s still alive.’” —Ray Perry, from the book

The slaughter of the great buffalo herds of the West took place between 1874 and 1884. The southern herds in the Texas Panhandle were gone as early as 1878. John R. Cook was one of the hunters taking part in the extermination. His book, The Border and the Buffalo, first published in a small edition at Topeka, Kansas, in 1907, is one of the most important first-hand accounts about buffalo hunting that has been written. The organization of hunts, camp routines, and marketing of the buffalo hides are all described in detail. The book also highlights battles with the Cheyenne and Comanche Indians, and various scouts with the U.S. Cavalry on the plains of Texas.

The history of Texas has had an important effect on the history of the United States, and Texas heroes such as Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, and Robert E. Lee are also national heroes. Most of the major personalities and events of Texas from Cabeza de Vaca to Robert E. Lee are presented in this children's book consisting of thirteen stories that will appeal to readers of all ages. Originally published in 1901, it is appropriate for grades 4–7. Included in the book are stories about Cabeza de Vaca, Robert Cavelier de la Salle, Ellis P. Bean, Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, the Alamo, Goliad, San Jacinto, the Mexican War, Castle Peroté, Dick Dowling, and Robert E. Lee.

Blood on the Bayou: Vicksburg, Port Hudson, and the Trans-Mississippi takes a well-known story, the struggle for control of the Mississippi River in the American Civil War, and recasts it as a contest for control of African-American populations. The Emancipation Proclamation may have freed the slaves, but the task of actually moving these liberated people into the Union lines and directing their labor to the benefit of the Union fell to the Federal army and navy. Control of the Mississippi has often been cast in economic terms. This book, by examining the campaigns from west of the river, shows how the campaign to reduce these Rebel forts also involved the creation of a black army of occupation and a remaking of the social and political landscape of Louisiana and the nation. This book is new scholarship and, most importantly, fresh research that challenges many commonly held notions of the Vicksburg and Port Hudson campaigns. In the past, the movement of large armies and the grand assaults garnered the most attention. As Blood on the Bayou reveals, small unit actions and big government policies in the Trans-Mississippi did as much to shape the outcome of the war as did the great armies and famous captains of legend and lore. No student of the Civil War should ignore this book. Scholars of Vicksburg and Port Hudson will find their studies incomplete without a thorough examination of this work. As with the other books in the Louisiana Quadrille series, the military campaigns remain front and center. I trace the movements of obscure regiments and battles fought on unfamiliar trans-Mississippi landscapes in June and July, 1863, and tell a little-known aspect of the sieges of Vicksburg and Port Hudson. I examine the evolution of Federal and Confederate strategy and sketch the leaders tasked with carrying these plans forward. There is enough combat to satisfy even the most ardent student of campaigns and commanders. The sources, however, revealed an almost obsessive concern over slavery by both sides. Actually, these soldiers, civilians, and politicians did not fret over the institution of slavery as much as control over the slaves themselves. Both Federal and Confederate authorities seemed preoccupied with who physically controlled the enslaved population. This led me to review Republican views on this subject, and especially those held by Abraham Lincoln. The tug-of-war over people—whom some considered persons held in bondage and others considered human property—also caused me to reexamine the peculiar institution as a salient feature of Confederate national identity. A greater appreciation for the causes of the war emerged. While states’ rights certainly provided a framework and context for the argument, slavery caused the war, not vice versa. Physical control of the slave population impacted how the Federal Government conducted the war. When war broke out, slaves emerged first as “contraband,” then morphed into “self-emancipated” persons, before becoming the raison d’être of the Mississippi Valley campaigns in 1863. The African-Americans became plunder, if you will. I came to the conclusion that the gathering of these persons drove, in part, Union military strategy in the Mississippi Valley. Lincoln wanted slaves removed from southern owners, concentrated in areas convenient to Union logistics centers, and then redistributed to serve as soldiers or farmers on behalf of the United States. The longer the military campaigns in the Mississippi Valley dragged on, the more Federal officials could feed liberated slaves into the system. This strategy held that, once Union troops had removed slaves from bondage and repurposed them to other tasks, it would be nearly impossible for their former masters to re-enslave them. No matter the outcome of the war, the Federal government set out to break slavery—forever. Fearing a rapid collapse of the Confederacy, abolitionists intended to make sure that readmitted states did not reestablish slavery. Remember, slavery was then a state prerogative. Passage of the Thirteenth Amendment still lay months into the future. Concurrently, Lincoln believed Black troops would help achieve victory and then secure the peace. One the shooting ended these African-American regiments might serve as an army of occupation. The largest concentration of slaves lay in the Mississippi Valley and this population needed to be under Federal control. The Rebel forts at Vicksburg and Port Hudson were impediments. Even so, despite the presence of these Confederate citadels, US troops could remove the African-American population of this region into zones of their choosing with increasing impunity. The fall of these positions facilitated commerce and navigation on the Mississippi. Yet, the great gathering of African-Americans began, and continued, notwithstanding the Rebels in the earthworks.

José Antonio Navarro (1795–1871) played a central role in Texas history. A close associate of and facilitator for Stephen F. Austin, he was a signatory of Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico, an important figure in the drafting of the Texas Constitution, and a State Senator. At the end of his life, the name of José Antonio Navarro was a household word in San Antonio and was well-known and respected across Texas. However, in later years Navarro never received the recognition due him as one of the most influential of the founding fathers of Texas. Navarro's narratives, written between 1853 and 1857, constitute the first Tejano publication of Texas history.<br>