The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963 Page: 338
641 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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838 Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Immediately after the adjournment of the "Citizens Court,"
and after the return of the writer then on leave of absence from
the army, [he] was placed in possession of all the records of the
tribunal whose judgments and verdict had sent more souls to
eternity on a shorter period of time than ever before known to
modern civilization. Before the adjournment of the court, a com-
mittee was appointed by it to take charge of these records, for
the purpose of preserving them and so disposing of them that the
history of its transactions might be perpetuated and justice done
to those who participated in its deliberations.
The writer, at the urgent solicitations of this committee, com-
piled the following memoranda from those records; and in obedi-
ence to the request of the "Court," there expressed, they are now'
offered to the public as a just vindication of the conduct of those
whose acts have been the subject of unjust criticism from one end
of this broad land to the other.
After arranging those records in the form in which they are
here submitted, the committee assembled all the members of the
court, and after a careful reading and examination gave them their
unanimous and unqualified approval. It was left discretionary
with the writer as to the proper time for their publication.
During the war it was not regarded wise or proper to further
Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, on April 8-9, 1864, in which Confederate
forces turned back Major General Nathaniel P. Banks' Red River campaign, the
last Union attempt to invade Texas.
Returning to Henderson at the end of hostilities, George W. Diamond was
elected state representative from the district embracing Rusk County in the 11th
Texas Legislature. Because of the military reconstruction of Texas, this body was
not permitted to convene until 1870. Meanwhile, George W. Diamond moved with
his family to Whitesboro, Grayson County, where he continued to make his home
until his death on June 24, 1911. He practiced law in the county seat of Sherman
during Reconstruction, held several public offices in the county, and was a member
of the staff of the Whitesboro News.
2In spite of Diamond's expectation of early publication, his compilation of
"memoranda" was not committed to print during his lifetime, or later. It may be
presumed that the state of local public feeling in the decades immediately following
the end of the Civil War did not encourage it. The reception of another account,
published in 1885 by the Reverend Thomas Barrett, a member of the "Citizens
Court," may have been part of the deterrent. Thomas Barrett, The Great Hanging
at Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas A. D. 1862 (Gainesville, 1885; reprint, Austin,
1961).
Since the author's death more than half a century ago, his manuscript has been
preserved by members of his family, who feel that it should be made available at
last in print to "an unbiased, discriminating public."
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963, periodical, 1963; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101196/m1/362/?rotate=270: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.