The author of the volume which bears this title, when a roving young Englishman of twenty, settled in western Virginia in 1852; removed thence to Kansas in 1854, where he took part in the "Border War" on the pro-slavery side; and in 1860 made his way to western Texas, where as rancher in the Frio country, a partisan ranger in the Confederate service, and Indian fighter, he remained until after the close of the war. The remainder of his life he spent in England. These reminiscences were based largely upon notes and diaries; but they afford numerous examples of the historical inaccuracy concerning particular men and events that we have to look for even in the most interesting books when written largely from the memories of old men. These inaccuracies are especially noticeable in the accounts of his experiences in the Confederate service in which a number of names are so curiously transformed as wholly to mislead the reader. For instance, the author was in Duff's Partisan Rangers, but after the first mention of him that officer always appears as "Dunn." Col. Jno. S. Ford, "Old Rip," goes by the name of "Franks," and the old frontiersman is further disguised by the character attributed to him. The most ludicrous misappelation is that of General "Wasp" for General H. P. Bee! Nor is the author fair to this officer in other respects. Certainly there was much questionable dealing in government cotton exportations at Brownsville, but Bee's part in it is by no means conclusively proved. The assertion that he burned and fled from Brownsville in November, 1863, when no Federals were near, solely to cover up cotton frauds is easily disproved by the official dispatches of General Banks. 205 Captain Taylor appears under the name of "Turner," McCrea as "McCree," and Montgomery, captured with E. J. Davis and hanged, as "Monson." There are other errors of like character, but it would require too much space to point them out. However, these slips and the too evident personal antipathies of the author seem to be the chief faults of the book. It is entertaining reading all the way through, and there are especially interesting accounts of the work of the vigilance committee in San Antonio, of the battle and massacre of the German refugees on the Nueces River on August 10, 1862, of the cotton peculations on the Rio Grande, and of the capture while on Mexican soil of E. J. Davis, whose life Williams thinks he was able to save. The author, by the way, seemed wholly unaware of the part that Davis later played in the history of Texas. Perhaps the most generally satisfactory portion of the book is that describing the wild life and society on the frontier ranches in the Indian country. There is no blurring of the clear outlines of the picture by after memories of the country's development.
This book is handsomely gotten up, with clear print on excellent paper, has a few good illustrations, and is well bound.
C. W. R.How to cite:
"With the Border ruffians, or Memories of the Far West, 1852-1868", Volume 012, Number 3, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 240 - 241. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v012/n3/review_6.html
[Accessed Thu Dec 4 17:23:25 CST 2008]
