The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 75, July 1971 - April, 1972 Page: 114

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

in describing the Brigade, both in the field and in garrison. Although
more critical analysis of Brigade tactical operations would be helpful,
the author can be lauded for his meticulous investigation and descrip-
tive narration. Photographs of the five different Brigade commanders
and twelve battle maps enhance the volume.
Lamar State College of Technology RALPH A. WOOSTER
Victorian Lady on the Texas Frontier: The Journal of Ann Raney
Coleman. Edited by C. Richard King. (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1971. Pp. xxi+2o6. Footnotes, bibliography,
index. $4.95-)
When Ann Raney arrived in Texas in 1832 she was twenty-two years
old, English-born and educated, and hardly prepared for frontier life.
Her life was one of constant misfortune. Her father and mother died
within a year of the family's arrival in Texas, leaving Ann almost
penniless. In 1833 Ann married John Thomas, a prosperous Brazoria
planter, but no sooner was she safely established in her own home
than the Texas Revolution began, and the Thomases fled to Louisiana
where John worked as an overseer for C. H. Dickinson before buying
land in Pointe Coupee Parish. Ann again suffered deep personal loss
when her two young sons and her husband died. The widow hastily
remarried, but her new husband, John Coleman, proved a poor pro-
vider. She returned to Texas, obtained a divorce, and spent the rest
of her life at various jobs, all the while attempting to collect a pension
from the state of Texas. Woven into this tale of woe are Ann's rem-
iniscences of such events as the Battle of Velasco, the Runaway Scrape,
and Civil War skirmishes.
Mrs. Coleman is a tragic but by no means a sympathetic person-
ality. She was a shallow, self-centered, ambitious woman. Quarrelsome
and caustic, she alienated most of her family and friends, and her
journal serves as a platform to air personal resentments and bitterness.
Although Richard King's annotations are helpful in identifying
people and places mentioned by Mrs. Coleman, his introduction to
the journal fails to meet the standards one would expect in a univer-
sity press publication. For example, he makes no attempt to place
Mrs. Coleman within the historic context of her times. Perhaps that
is an editor's prerogative. But, in addition, the introduction has nu-
merous unidentified quotations, and King fails to give an adequate
explanation of the provenience of the journal.

114