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When Americans settled Texas in the 1830s, they brought their booze with them and found some made by the locals when they got here! Before long, the Lone Star State had a thriving distillery business, more than a century ahead of modern craft distillers that are changing the face of the spirits industry today. This is a fascinating history filled all too frequently with floods, fires, explosions, and lots of bad luck. Had the development of Texas happened a little differently, the state might have well become a major whiskey producer intertwined with barbed wire, refrigeration, cattle, railways, oil, and cooperage all coming into play.Texas distilling is older than both the American and Texan Republics, but the history of transforming grains into whiskey in Texas goes back to at least the early 1840s. No spirit is more associated with the state's frontier history than American whiskey. But even during its wildest days, there was a vocal prohibitionist element in Texas that was working to outlaw distilleries, and more importantly, close the saloons. Texas distillers also made liquor for the Confederate war effort, and operations in Tyler and near present day Denison played an often-overlooked role in supporting the troops in the field with medicinal whiskey. After the war, home-grown Texas whiskey found a market and seemed destined to takes its place among the great American spirits of its day.

The famous siege and fall of the Alamo in 1836 is the stuff of legends. What is often missing from most discussion of that battle is why the Texian defenders were in the Alamo in the first place! Richard L. Curilla's pathbreaking book, Battleground Béxar, shows how the famous compound that has become such a Texas icon was just a small piece of the strategic real estate that now composes downtown San Antonio. In 1835, Mexican Centralist soldados faced a deteriorating political situation in the region and the very real threat of an insurgent attack by the Texian Federalist Army of the People. They fortified the main plazas in the frontier town of Béxar to meet the attack they knew must certainly come. Today, where traffic and pedestrians compete for the right of way, once stood cannon, earthworks, and barricades that transformed streets and blocks of downtown San Antonio into a stronghold. >This book made possible in part by a grant from Summerfield G. Roberts Foundation.

There was never any doubt that Emma Burgemeister shot and killed beer and real estate magnate Otto Koehler on November 12, 1914. The question remained: Why? The deceased was one of the wealthiest and most respected persons in the Southwest and a pillar of the community. As a result, his murder and trial drew national attention. Soon, the entire affair was one of the most famous murder cases ever tried in Bexar County-a part of Texas known to have some notorious characters.Now, for the first time ever, MONEY, MURDER, SEX, AND BEER presents testimony from the trial, legal analysis, and other information that allows the readers to draw their own conclusions regarding the guilt or innocence of the alleged murderer. What makes the story unique is the efforts of officials in San Antonio and friends of Otto Koehler-the victim-to subvert the judicial process to avoid having the case go to trial. For a dead man with a recently spurned mistress, who could predict what secrets might come to light on the witness stand?

"State House Press and the McWhiney Foundation Press are part of the Texas A&M University Press Consortium."--Publisher's website.

By 1850, the frontier settlement of San Antonio had seen more than its share of hardships, Indians attacks, rebellions, and repeated military occupations. These events all marked the towns recent past. In 1854, though, the editor of the Alamo Star felt confident enough in the town's progress to announce that the embattled outpost would soon be known as the "Queen of the West." The Star, of course, capitalized on the name of the town's most famous landmark--the Alamo.Although historians have written about the battle and the town, no one has yet adequately explained how they are connected to each other. A deeper look at the development of San Antonio shows that it was not only the site of the Battle of the Alamo, it was the center of much of the history of Spain, Mexico, Texas, and the United States. Queen of the West: A Documentary History of San Antonio, 1718-1900 takes readers through a series of important writings detailing how San Antonio transformed from an important but threatened outpost to a thriving Edwardian city. The author, Richard Bruce Winders, provides an introduction to each eye-witness account providing diverse perspectives on the history of San Antonio by the people who actually lived it. The author is an internationally noted authority on the topic of the Alamo. The work will be a valuable resource for students of history and teachers. The book draws together a body of work that readers would have a difficult time finding on their own.The cover art is by noted artist Don Yena.

Offers an approachable and accessible history of some of the most life-altering events in the story of man. Chipman examines the contributions of Christopher Columbus and Hernando Cortes in creating the foundations of the Spanish Empire in North America.

"Juneteenth has been touted as a national day celebrating the end of slavery. Observances from coast to coast have turned this event into part of the national conversation about race, slavery, and how Americans understand, acknowledge, and explain what has been called the national "original sin why Juneteenth? Where did this celebration--which promises to become a national holiday--come from? What is the origin story? What are the facts, and legends, around this important day in the nation's history? This is the first scholarly book to delve into the history behind Juneteenth. Using decades of research in archives around the nation, this book helps separate myth from reality and tells the story behind the celebration in a way that provides new understanding and appreciation for the event."--From jacket flap.

Explores the Tonkawa tribe in the history of the Lone Star State and the greater Southwest. This chronological account allows readers to understand its triumphs and struggles over the course of a century or more, and places the story in a larger historical narrative of shifting alliances, cultural encounters and economic opportunity.

Tells the story of a proud, complicated, and interwoven family and the two great enterprises they wrangled. But it is also the story of a unique Texas city and the people it breeds. It's a business story, a family story, and a story of a thriving, modern city; it is also our story.

The Battle of the Alamo is one of the most compelling stories from American history. This text examines events that led to this epic struggle and concludes that in-fighting among the revolutionary leadership doomed the Alamo garrison.

This remarkable work of vintage historical fiction focuses on the life of one young man, Kuno Sartorius, who grows up and comes of age in a community of educated German immigrants during the waning months of the Civil War.

In Texas, the US Civil War deeply divided the Tejanos- Texans of Mexican heritage. An estimated 2,500 fought in the ranks of the Confederacy while 950, including some Mexican nationals, fought for the Stars and Stripes. Vaqueros in Blue & Gray, originally published in 1976, is the story of these Tejanos who participated in the Civil War.

Tells the tale of unique military units, untried but determined commanders, colourful volunteers, and professional soldiers. The first major campaign of the Civil War to take place west of the Mississippi River guaranteed that Missourians would be engaged in a long, cruel civil war within the larger, national struggle.

Ray Perry was a farm boy from rural West Texas when America entered World War II. He joined the US 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. This is the story of his World War II adventure, wrought with tragedy and excitement.

A concise, reader friendly depiction of the ""Heroic Age"" of Texas history. Employing short, episodic chapters, it explores the twenty-five years between 1821 and 1846. Skilfully conceived and masterfully written, Lust for Glory flows with a style as passionate and exuberant as the place and the people it describes.

The West Texas frontier has been a crossroads of humanity for thousands of years. This book tells the epic story of the region and its many transitions throughout the centuries. It traces the struggles and triumphs of many groups as they tried to tame the region for their own purposes.

The letters of William Burnham Chilvers and the editors' research tell stories of massacres, combat, and idealism in the face of the brutal realities of war. Will Chilvers and the 95th Illinois Infantry fought to victory, but his experience transcends mere combat and instead reveals the development of a remarkable man whose compassion and humanity rose above the ugliness of the Civil War.

Presents a concise and colourful portrait of Texas during World War II, illustrating how the arrival of thousands of strangers in military uniforms forever changed the faces of eight towns and cities across the Lone Star State. The book is based on extensive on-site research, and offers rich anecdotal material, and personal interviews.

During the Civil War era, American society faced a number of challenges. Issues of morality and gender roles emerged as areas of contention concerning prostitution. Because of the social constraints on women during the period, females found themselves with limited skills and economic opportunities to provide for themselves. Many sold sex as a means of survival.

Everyone knows the epic saga of the fall of the Alamo with none of the brave defenders left alive to tell the tale, but there were survivors -- more than a dozen women and children who did live through the ordeal to tell their tales.

James Madison Hall kept a journal from 1860 until just before his death in 1866, in which he recorded a daily log of events in his life and the lives of his family, slaves, and friends. It also served as a record of business dealings, money borrowed and repaid, and cost of items during the war. Hall lived in Houston County, Texas, where he was a farmer, and in Liberty County, Texas, where he was a merchant and mayor of Liberty. This book illustrates the home life of Texans during the Civil War and includes Hall's relationship with blacks, especially a man named Billl Hicks, who became Hall's miller when Hall was away. This book traces the changing relationships betweeen slaves and masters during the early post-war transition, before Congressional Reconstruction began. Hall's feast of reason was to refuse to go into the military, even though he favored seccession; to adapt to changing needs and circumstances; and to remain a voice of fairness and moderation during these trying times.

The longest field goal in the history of football was kicked in Texas. But did you know it was love that first led a Swedish soccer player to Texas, where he still lives more than thirty years after his record-setting 69-yard field goal? This is a collection of behind-the-scenes stories.

In December 1941, my family evacuated to Bataan (my mother'shome province) when Gen. MacArthur urged the Manila residents to leave the city because the Japanese would bombard it prior to invasion. Everything was fine till news arrived that the US Armed Forces were retreating to Bataan to make their last stand. Many people, and we were among them, sought safety in the forests.

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941,the citizens - both men and women - of the United States found their plans drastically altered. Many citizens responded by joining the armed forces, going to work to make munitions, or as in the case of fresh-faced high-school graduate and Texas A&M student and aspiring cartoonist, James W. Mims, being drafted into the Army.

Charles F. Gunther is a Yankee ice peddlar who is trapped in the South at the outbreak of the war. Presented here are two years of diaries of Gunther''s experiences working on the steamboat Rose Douglas, ferrying Confederate troops and supplies. After the war, Gunther makes a fortune in the candy business across the street from Marshal Field''s in Chicago, becomes a premier collector and preserver of Civil War artifacts and Lincoln memorabilia, endows the Chicago history Museum with its Civil War collection, and goes on to hold political office as an alderman and City Treasurer of Chicago. In Two Years Before the Paddlewheel, readers can follow the day-by-day survival of an ordinary ice merchant turned Confederate steamboat purser during the Civil War. Gunther''s day-by-day account as a civilian in military service illuminates the economic, military, social, and personal side of America''s Civil War.

Explores the heroic role played by the Texans at key battlefield sites and why the State of Texas has, over the years, seen fit to officially commemorate the valour of the men of Texas with monuments. Students of American history, as well as visitors and those planning to visit the eighteen battlefield monuments described in this book, will learn how Texas forces fared in the fighting.