Ten Texans In Gray (review)

BOOK REVIEWS285 are enlightening, but most readers would be glad to have them summarized at the end. As Jenkins is able to write with clarity and directness , he might be well advised to paraphrase more quotations in the future, especially since he made a number of careless errors in those which he included. Indiana University David M. Pletcher Ten Texans In Gray. Edited by W. C. Nunn. (Hillsboro, Texas: Hill Junior College Press. 1968. Pp. xii, 229. $6.00.) This work by a group of senior graduate students at Texas Christian University is a commendable experiment in historical publication by the Hill Junior College Press. These ten edited seminar papers, prepared under the direction of Professor W. C. Nunn, focus on the Confederate careers of prominent Texans or leaders associated with Texas (neither Hood nor Magruder could be classified as Texans). As might be expected , the essays are somewhat uneven in quality and content, since many represent the first publishing ventures of the authors. The selections chosen are rather evenly balanced as to subjects; four are on military figures, three on state governors, and three on representatives of the state in the Richmond government. One of the more valuable military studies is the work of Arthur Gilligan on John Robert Baylor, a neglected and almost forgotten figure, and his frustrated effort at securing Western territory for the Confederacy. James Ward offers little that Harold B. Simpson and Andrew F. Muir have not already covered on "Dick" Dowling at Sabine Pass. In like manner, Thomas Settles offers nothing new in his paper on John B. Magruder, although he takes some liberties with the phraseology of Charles C. Cumberland's earlier article in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. Harold B. Simpson, who has previously published, provides a eulogistic selection on Hood, which neglects completely the tragic end of his military command experiences. Of the three papers on Texas war governors, those by Tinsie Larison (on Edward Clark) and Bennie Deuson (on Pendleton Murrah) are the best; both treat of men who have not received adequate attention from historians. Unfortunately, Le Anne Adams' paper on Governor Francis Richard Lubbock reveals a lack of careful examination on the part of the editor. Although the bibliography lists a number of manuscript collections from the University of Texas Archives, no citations to these sources are included in the footnotes. Indeed, much of the selection is based on the Lubbock memoirs and, all too frequently, the Lubbock phraseology. The last three selections by Laura Harper (on Williamson Simpson Oldham ), S. W. Schuster (on John H. Reagan), and George Wirsdorfer (on Louis Trezevant Wigfall) present brief summaries of the Confederate careers of three Texans serving in the Richmond government. In short, Professor Nunn's objectives are laudable, but the results are 286CIVIL WAR HISTORY not likely to exert much influence north of the Red River nor east of the Sabine. The brevity of the selections, including Professor Nunn's twopage summary of Texas in the Civil War, militates against the possibility of original disclosures. This reviewer is forced to the conclusion that the avowed purpose of the publisher in filling a long existing void in Texas history has not been accomplished. Jack B. Scroggs North Texas State University Fort Smith: Little Gibraltar on the Arkansas. By Ed Bearss and Arrell M. Gibson. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1969. Pp. 349. $6.95.) The subtitle of this book is an indulgence in hyperbole—Quartermaster Depot on the Arkansas would have been more accurate. But Fort Smith has been fortunate in its chroniclers. Bearss and Gibson have put together a well-researched and well-written account of a federal installation which existed in some form or other from 1817 to 1896. Drawing on the National Archives, the Territorial Papers, and files of Arkansas newspapers , they have given us more than this, however. The history of Fort Smith is clearly related to the development of the Southwest. From its origin in the trouble between the Osages and the Cherokee intruders, Fort Smith is seen in the broad context of the history of the area. We observe the application of our Indian policy, the development of a frontier community, and the role of...