Civil War Texas Ranger & Cavalry Series

"Diary of Ephraim Shelby Dodd; 1862-1864: Terry's Rangers; Company D; The 8th Texas Cavalry Regiment" by Ephraim Shelby Dodd is the diary of a member of Company D of the storied 8th Texas cavalry regiment also known as Terry's Rangers. Ephraim Dodd was a member of Company D of this famous cavalry unit so this diary records his day-to-day experiences during the Civil War from his frontline prospective in that company. Dodd was captured and hung as a spy by Union forces in early January 1864, ostensibly because he was wearing blue uniform pants and had this diary in his possession. That was the good reason for hanging him as a spy. The real reason was apparently because Generals Sherman and Grant had issued orders that captured confederates wearing Union uniforms and/or carrying papers with Union troop movements were to be dealt with severely. Can't get much "severer" than hanging, can you? At any rate, even Union army officers and at least one Northern newspaper, at that time, condemned Dodd's execution, on such flimsy grounds. Terry's Texas Rangers were one of the most famous Texas cavalry units in the Civil war. From a full strength of 1,200 at the start of the war, they could muster only about 200 in their last charge at the battle of Bentonville, North Carolina in 1865. In the original, this short book of approximately 11,000+ words is very costly since it was printed in small numbers in Austin, Texas in 1914, by the Texas State Library as a contribution to the history of Texas units during the Civil War. Meant only for interested students of the war and for research by historians it was not widely circulated. A companion volume, also very rare in its original form, to this book is "Terry's Texas Rangers" by Leonidas B. Giles, also available in e-book format. Giles' book in fact mentions the incident of Dodd's hanging as "one of the saddest events in all our career." A great bit of the storied Civil war cavalry history of Texas military by an eyewitness of that tremendous struggle . There are approximately 11,000+ words and approximately 37 pages at 300 words per page in this e-book. NOTE: This book has been scanned then OCR (Optical Character Recognition) has been applied to turn the scanned page images back into editable text. Then every effort has been made to correct typos, spelling, and to eliminate stray marks picked up by the OCR program. The original and/or extra period images, if any, were then placed in the appropriate place and, finally, the file was formatted for the e-book criteria of the site. This means that the text CAN be re-sized, searches performed, & bookmarks added, unlike some other e-books that are only scanned---errors, stray marks, and all. We have added an Interactive Table of Contents & an Interactive List of Illustrations if any were present in the original. This means that the reader can click on the links in the Table of Contents or the List of Illustrations & be instantly transported to that chapter or illustration. Our aim is to provide the reader AND the collector with long out-of-print (OOP) classic books at realistic prices. If you load your mobile device(s) with our books, not only will you have fingertip access to a large library of antiquarian and out-of-print material at reasonable prices, but you can mark them up electronically & always have them for immediate reference without worrying about damage or loss to expensive bound copies. We will be adding to our titles regularly, look for our offerings on your favorite e-book site.

"8th Texas Rangers Cavalry: Reminisces Of The Terry Rangers" by James Knox Polk Blackburn is a short history of this Texas cavalry regiment during the Civil War. J. K. P. Blackburn was a member of Company F, rising from volunteer private to captain of this famous cavalry unit so the history is told from his frontline prospective in that company. Terry's Texas Rangers was one of the most famous Texas cavalry units in the Civil war. From a full strength of 1,200 at the start of the war, they could muster only about 200 in their last charge at the battle of Bentonville, North Carolina in 1865. In the original, this short history of approximately 33,000 plus words is very rare and costly since it was printed in small numbers, in Volume 22, numbers 2 (July, 1918) and 3 (October, 1918) of The Southwestern Historical Quarterly. A great bit of the storied Civil war cavalry history of the Texas military by a surviving eyewitness of that tremendous struggle. There are approximately 33,000+ words and approximately 111+ pages at 300 words per page in this e-book. NOTE: This book has been scanned then OCR (Optical Character Recognition) has been applied to turn the scanned page images back into editable text. Then every effort has been made to correct typos, spelling, and to eliminate stray marks picked up by the OCR program. The original and/or extra period images, if any, were then placed in the appropriate place and, finally, the file was formatted for the e-book criteria of the site. This means that the text CAN be re-sized, searches performed, & bookmarks added, unlike some other e-books that are only scanned---errors, stray marks, and all. We have added an Interactive Table of Contents & an Interactive List of Illustrations if any were present in the original. This means that the reader can click on the links in the Table of Contents or the List of Illustrations & be instantly transported to that chapter or illustration. Our aim is to provide the reader AND the collector with long out-of-print (OOP) classic books at realistic prices. If you load your mobile device(s) with our books, not only will you have fingertip access to a large library of antiquarian and out-of-print material at reasonable prices, but you can mark them up electronically & always have them for immediate reference without worrying about damage or loss to expensive bound copies. We will be adding to our titles regularly, look for our offerings on your favorite e-book site.

"The 3rd & 9th Texas Cavalry: The War Between The States As I Saw It." by Allison W. Sparks is a first hand memoir of the American Civil experience of a private Confederate soldier. Sparks 1841-1912  who was nicknamed "Tuck" was raised in Cypress, Texas & is buried in Cypress Cemetery in Franklin County. He and his brother, Butch Sparks joined the “Titus Greys” as soon as the war broke out, serving in Company I, 9th Texas Cavalry Regiment. He is self-described as, "a mere boy in his sunny teens", who is a common farmer boy with only enough education to read and write. After the war, “Tuck,” returned to Cypress, Texas where he worked as a farmer, schoolteacher and stock raiser. He married Fanny Turner in 1869 and died in 1912 leaving his wife and three children. Despite his formal educational shortcomings, which show up in long run-on sentences & spotty grammar, he wrote a 398-page book including reports on the battles and skirmishes, which was also a very personal view of the very bloody Civil War. He wrote of the personalities of the men he encountered, military and otherwise. The book gives a complete picture of the day-to-day activities, hardships and struggles of the common Confederate soldier. Sparks’ purpose in his own words, "To disabuse the minds of our children, who have been taught that we, in the Great War, were rebels and engaged in rebellion against the United States. And her laws, for it is not uncommon, even among collegiate, for such erroneous belief to exist." He continues: "...not children of rebels…but children of patriots, law loving, law abiding and law defending patriots…fought for the constitution, for liberty, and for the right and who are proud of their record.” Very scarce in its original binding. A must read for both the student of the life & experiences of the common Confederate soldier as well as the student of military history. There are approximately 120,875+ words and approximately 402+ pages at 300 words per page in this e-book. NOTE: This book has been scanned then OCR (Optical Character Recognition) has been applied to turn the scanned page images back into editable text. Then every effort has been made to correct typos, spelling, and to eliminate stray marks picked up by the OCR program. The original and/or extra period images, if any, were then placed in the appropriate place and, finally, the file was formatted for the e-book criteria of the site. This means that the text CAN be re-sized, searches performed, & bookmarks added, unlike some other e-books that are only scanned---errors, stray marks, and all. We have added an Interactive Table of Contents & an Interactive List of Illustrations if any were present in the original. This means that the reader can click on the links in the Table of Contents or the List of Illustrations & be instantly transported to that chapter or illustration. Our aim is to provide the reader AND the collector with long out-of-print (OOP) classic books at realistic prices. If you load your mobile device(s) with our books, not only will you have fingertip access to a large library of antiquarian and out-of-print material at reasonable prices, but you can mark them up electronically & always have them for immediate reference without worrying about damage or loss to expensive bound copies. We will be adding to our titles regularly, look for our offerings on your favorite e-book site.