In the states of the former Confederacy, Reconstruction amounted to a second Civil War, one that white southerners were determined to win. An important chapter in that undeclared conflict played out in northeast Texas, in the Corners region where Grayson, Fannin, Hunt, and Collin Counties converged. Part of that violence came to be called the Lee-Peacock Feud, a struggle in which Unionists led by Lewis Peacock and former Confederates led by Bob Lee sought to even old scores, as well as to set the terms of the new South, especially regarding the status of freed slaves. Until recently, the...

Long before Texas became the Lone Star State, or even a Spanish territory, Indian Texans called it home. From prehistory, through European and American invasions, to the beginning of the twenty-first century, author James Smallwood traces the survival and revival of Native Americans in Texas. Smallwood highlights each Texas tribe, often providing readers the deeper understanding that comes from first-hand accounts. The Indian Texans features 62 illustrations boxed biographical sketches excerpts from the journals of Cabeza de Vaca and others. This book is part of a five-volume set from the...

Long before Texas became the Lone Star State, or even a Spanish territory, Indian Texans called it home. From prehistory, through European and American invasions, to the beginning of the twenty-first century, author James Smallwood traces the survival and revival of Native Americans in Texas. Smallwood highlights each Texas tribe, often providing readers the deeper understanding that comes from first-hand accounts. The Indian Texans features 62 illustrations boxed biographical sketches excerpts from the journals of Cabeza de Vaca and othersThis book is part of a five-volume set from the...

Marauding outlaws, or violent rebels still bent on fighting the Civil War? For decades, the so-called "Taylor-Sutton feud" has been seen as a bloody vendetta between two opposing gangs of Texas gunfighters. However, historian James M. Smallwood here shows that what seemed to be random lawlessness can be interpreted as a pattern of rebellion by a loose confederation of desperadoes who found common cause in their hatred of the Reconstruction government in Texas. Between the 1850s and 1880, almost 200 men rode at one time or another with Creed Taylor and his family through a forty-five-county...

Two family names have come to be associated with the violence that plagued Colorado County, Texas, for decades after the end of the Civil War: the Townsends and the Staffords. Both prominent families amassed wealth and achieved status, but it was their resolve to hold on to both, by whatever means necessary, including extra-legal means, that sparked the feud. Elected office was one of the paths to success, but more important was control of the sheriff's office, which gave one a decided advantage should the threat of gun violence arise.

No Hope for Heaven, No Fear of Hell...

The Stafford-Townsend feud began with an 1871 shootout in Columbus, Texas, followed by the deaths of the Stafford brothers in 1890. The second phase blossomed after 1898 with the assassination of Larkin Hope, and concluded in 1911 with the violent deaths of Marion Hope, Jim Townsend, and Will Clements, all in the space of one month.