the Internet, a med-
ium for which their
activities laid consid-
erable groundwork.
—Jon GuttmanWar in East Texas:
Regulators vs.
Moderators, by
Bill O’Neal, University
of North Texas Press,
Denton, 2018, $18.95
Although Texas was
famous for its 19th-
century blood feuds,
official state historian
Bill O’Neal is some-
what puzzled that both
history and legend
have overlooked the
bloodiest of them all.
War in East Texas is
his modest but well-
researched effort to set
that situation to rights.
Hostilities between
so-called Regulators
and Moderators be-
gan in 1840 and racked
up an excessive body
count before coming
to a close in 1844, the
year before the Repub-
lic of Texas became a
state. In that era places
like Shelby and Harri-
son counties were
a dream world for
strong and indepen-
dent-minded folks,
what with government
jurisdiction all but
nonexistent, court
proceedings readily
terminated by well-
directed death threatsthe Trail of Tears) was
not simply a matter
of dispute between
the Cherokees and
those who wanted
Indian land. A simul-
taneous blood feud
erupted in the Chero-
kee Nation, pitting
John Ross (1790–1866)
and followers against
Major Ridge (1771–
1839) and faction.
“The Cherokee Na-
tion did not stand as
one against the threat
of removal,” Sedgwick
writes in his introduc-
tion. “It stood as two,
one side agreeing that,
given the relentless
white encroachment,
the Cherokee had to go,
and the other insisting
that they stay forever,
come what may.” In
his compelling narra-
tive the author relates
the behind-the scenes
drama of what has been
called the “Cherokee
Holocaust,” a tribal
clash that lasted far
too long, as neither
Ross nor Ridge was
willing to compromise.
Sedgwick concludes
that given the United
States’ might, that the
Cherokees inhabited
some 125,000 square
miles of prime real
estate, and that the
stronger power be-
lieved it was entitled
to that land as its
manifest destiny,
the unspeakable trag-
edy of removal was
probably inevitable.
But what of the
rivalry between Ridge,
who identified with
the prosperous mixed-
bloods and signed a
treaty to leave for the
West, and Ross, who
led the full bloods
determined to stand
their ground in the
East? The fracture
their heated rivalry
created in the Chero-
kee Nation prompted
a series of retaliatory
killings that made most
other historic feuds
in America look like
minor disagreements.
It didn’t have to hap-
pen that way, the au-
thor suggests in the
epilogue, “and that
was the tragedy.”
—EditorPioneers of Promo-
tion: How Press
Agents for Buffalo
Bill, P.T. Barnum,
and the World’s
Columbian Expedi-
tion Created Mod-
ern Marketing,
by Joe Dobrow, Univer-
sity of Oklahoma Press,
Norman, 2018, $32.95
When American set-
tlers began migrating
to the Western fron-
tier, some saw it as
an untapped cornu-
copia of resources
and possibilities,
while a few enterpris-
ing individuals saw
it as a blank slate
on which to create a
whole new mythology.
In Pioneers of Promo-
tion Joe Dobrow shiftsthe spotlight away
from the usual West-
ern legend makers,
such as William F.
Cody and Ned Bunt-
line, and sheds new
light on the geniuses
behind the stars. One
case in point was John
M. Burke, an Irishman
whose gift of gab—and
pen—brought Cody
to the stage in 1872
alongside fellow scout
Texas Jack Omohun-
dro and Buntline.
All three, for all their
other talents, displayed
none as actors, even
when portraying them-
selves onstage, though
the gunplay and their
hyped-up celebrity
made their abysmal
delivery irrelevant.
From there it was
Burke, forsaking his
own adventures to
promote Cody, who
masterminded what
became Buffalo Bill’s
Wild West, becom-
ing the international
ambassador sans
portfolio for the
frontier image.
Similarly, P.T.
Barnum, circus master
of the “Greatest Show
on Earth,” claimed
he owed more of his
success to Francis
“Tody” Hamilton than
any other man. As
Barnum’s advertis-
ing and press agent,
Hamilton thought of
his primary mission as
“to see what the bloom
of the show’s reputa-
tion was not disturbed
by the rude hand of
criticism.” While Bar-
num preferred sta-
tistics to words in
his self-promotion,Hamilton got farther
with words. “To state
a fact in ordinary lan-
guage,” he declared,
“is to permit a doubt
concerning the state-
ment.” His remedy,
much to Barnum’s
benefit, was to deluge
the reader with super-
latives, reputedly mem-
orizing more adjectives
than any man on earth
and inventing 10 per-
cent of them.
Another unsung
hero of promotion was
reporter and journalist
Moses P. Handy, whose
involvement in such
gatherings as the 1876
Centennial Exhibition
and the 1887 Consti-
tutional Centennial
climaxed with the 1893
World’s Columbian
Exposition in Chicago.
The latter was touted
as the greatest show
on earth of its day,
but with its celebra-
tion of the Gilded
Age’s latest inventions,
it coexisted with Buffa-
lo Bill’s Wild West,
playing nearby, and
Barnum and James
Bailey’s circus, though
Barnum died before
the spectacle had run
its course. In the pro-
cess the West’s image
had been established,
disseminated world-
wide and marketed
for all it was worth.
The author describes
in well-researched de-
tail lives as swashbuck-
ling in their own mil-
ieus as those of the
men they promoted.
Dubrow finds irony
in the scant treatment
his protagonists re-
ceive even today onREVIEWS8 6 WILD WEST JUNE 2019