against the local judge, and justice,
such as it was, truly emanating from
the barrel of a gun—or from the end
of a rope. Attempts to settle were
frequently jeopardized by men steal-
ing livestock, horses and slaves, as
well as “land pirates” who dealt in
fraudulent real estate.
Inevitably, in such an atmo-
sphere, settlers took the law into
their own hands, individually and,
later, as organized “Regulators.”
The people they targeted swiftly
recognized the value of numbers
and formed their own counter-
organizations, dubbing themselves
“Moderators.” Thus the scene was
set for ongoing conflict fueled by
vengeance, which sometimes erupted
into outright battles, as occurred in
Shelby County in August 1844. It
ultimately took men of the stature
of Sam Houston and intervention by
the militia to bring it to an end, by
which time 30 people had lost their
lives—a steep toll in an era when
most firearms were single-action.
It would take a scorecard to
keep track of east Texas feuds, and
the author provides one, listing the
Regulators and Moderators. The
last chapter puts the conflict in per-
spective with more widely remem-
bered feuds, such as the Hatfields
and McCoys, and “wars” fought
in Lincoln (New Mexico Territory)
and Johnson (Wyoming) counties,
Arizona Territory’s Pleasant Valley
and Tombstone—noting that none
of the above were as deadly as the
relatively forgotten east Texas affair.
The author finds this all the more
curious, given that it involved such
prominent historical figures as Rob-
ert Potter and William Pinckney
Rose, as well as such evocative local
names as Jim Strickland, “The Tiger
of the Tenehaw,” “Riproaring Jim”
Forsyth, “One-Eyed” Williams and
“Buckskin Bill” McFadden. Schol-
ars of the West’s wilder side should
learn something new in War in
East Texas and might come away
wondering why they hadn’t learned
about it sooner.
—Jon Guttman
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