The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 302

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

In order to achieve further economic stability, parcels of land
were progressively sold or leased to outside interests, and, for a
time, the great land holdings appeared doomed to dissolution.
The discovery of oil and gas temporarily provided a more secure
basis for continued operation of remaining properties. The era
of giant cattle corporations was waning, however, and by 1957,
after a quarter of a century of existence, the company was
liquidated.
The Francklyn Land & Cattle Company is a narrative of men
of heroic stature representing British and American interests,
wresting a mighty empire from a land permeated with seem-
ingly overwhelming difficulties. Lester Fields Sheffy with almost
flawless execution has produced a magnificent chronicle of fron-
tier America, and the M. K. Brown Range Life Series has
added another ranching masterpiece to its young but rich col-
lection. WILLIAM T. FIELD
Gaines' Mill to Appomattox. By Colonel Harold B. Simpson.
Waco (Texian Press), 1963. Pp. xii+294. Illustrations, maps,
footnotes, appendices, bibliography, index. $7.50.
Gaines' Mill to Appomattox could be classified as local history
because the volume begins with the settlement of the Waco
area and in the two following chapters traces the development
of the region calling attention to the factors that led to over-
whelming support of the secession movement. In this portion
it is pure Texana. The next eleven chapters recite the for-
tunes and misfortunes of the Lone Star Guards, later designated
Company E, 4th Texas Infantry Regiment, Hood's Brigade,
C.S.A. An Epilogue, which briefly spins out the life stories of
the pitifully few survivors of this company of gallant men who
returned to Waco, concludes the narrative.
Company E received its baptism of fire at Gaines' Mill and
was engaged in the struggles at Second Manassas, Antietam,
Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and the Wilderness, and at Appomat-
tox only twenty men commanded by a sergeant remained to
lay down their arms after four years of action in a war reputed
to have been the bloodiest in history. This portion of the volume

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