Many imagine the settlement of the American West as signaled by the dust of the wagon train or the whistle of a locomotive. During the middle decades of the nin

Includes bibliographical references (p. 127).

In the last months of the American Civil War, the upper Texas coast became a hive of blockade running. Though Texas was often considered an isolated backwater i

Sam Houston's army reached Buffalo Bayou on April 18, 1836, and the ensuing Battle of San Jacinto called attention to the "meandering stream" as a link between