The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 79, July 1975 - April, 1976 Page: 483
528 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
younger men had, at the state's bidding, gone off to war. The association
was likewise successful in producing a subscription which raised a monu-
ment in the city of Austin for the purpose of perpetuating its own memory.
Colonel Simpson has done a good job, and this volume will find itself
at home on the shelf of the Civil War enthusiast and collector of Texana
alike.
Southwest Texas State University JAMES W. PoHL
General Sidney Sherman: Texas Soldier, Statesman and Builder. By W. N.
Bate. (Waco: Texian Press, 1974. Pp. vii+304. Notes, illustrations,
index, bibliography. $ I o.)
Verbal vendettas betwixt old soldiers have been a commonplace in his-
tory, and early Texas had its full share. Among the more notorious was
that involving Sidney Sherman and General Sam Houston, which dragged
out for twenty-five years after San Jacinto. Colonel Sherman, a gallant
volunteer from Kentucky, who brought along the battle's only flag, com-
manded the Texan army's "left wing" during the hectic brief encounter.
Surely, it would seem, there was glory enough for all. And combat veterans
are legendarily close-knit brethren. But not here. Houston quite shortly
commenced a campaign of pointed, personal charges and affronts against
Sherman which continued to 1859, in which year Houston read into the
Congressional Record at Washington a scathing diatribe against Sherman's
conduct at San Jacinto. The injured colonel responded immediately with
a published catalog of defense, which testified lengthily in contradiction to
the Houston charges, and branded the attacker as a monumental egotist
and liar. The two went to their respective graves with their enmity undi-
minished.
The animosity probably had its beginning during the tense days just
before San Jacinto, while Houston continued to withdraw his army before
the Mexican invaders, in the face of the heated opposition of his subordi-
nates, including Sherman. When his maneuvre led to the successful battle,
Houston became a hero to his fellow Texans; but Sidney Sherman de-
served to receive much better treatment from Texan hands than Hous-
ton's attacks. To some extent he has: a county and a prospering city bear
his name, and after the Civil War the citizens of Galveston erected in his
honor a beautiful, heroic statue, in bronze and granite. Still, the figure of
Sidney Sherman has unaccountably lingered in the dimmer shadows of
Texas history.
W. N. Bate has made a genuine and solid contribution to scholarly litera-483
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 79, July 1975 - April, 1976, periodical, 1975/1976; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101203/m1/540/?rotate=90: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.