Winning the Southwest: A Story of Conquest . By Glenn D. Bradley . (McClurg. Chicago, 1912. 12mo; Pp. 225; ill.)

Under the above title the author groups sketches of Kit Carson, Robert F. Stockton, “Uncle Dick” Wootton, Sam Houston, Stephen W. Kearny, George A. Custer and John C. Fremont with a view of weaving “about their lives in a somewhat coherent manner some of the conspicuous facts of the struggle in which the Southwest was won for the Union” (preface). The fragmentary character of the treatment of the subject is further emphasized by the absence of any grouping of the sketches. The treatment is popular in style, and the principal service the book can render will be to introduce the heroes to readers who have not yet made their acquaintance from larger works.

In the sketch of Sam Houston the author has committed a number of regrettable errors. Passing by misspellings and minor inaccuracies in the statement of historical facts, one cannot overlook the wholesale condemnation of Mexican government in Texas (113, 116); nor the statement that the convention which assembled at San Felipe on April 1, 1833, was “the first deliberative body of Anglo-Saxons that ever assembled within the limits of the ancient Spanish-American empire” (114); nor that Stephen F. Austin suffered “several months of loathsome imprisonment” only (116); nor that Houston had anything to do with restraining the anger of the colonists because of Austin's imprisonment (116); nor that “Houston alone appears to have been able to foresee [December, 1835] that the fight for independence had only begun” (120); nor that Houston's statesmanship saved the honor of his government (141). Travis's famous letter is emasculated by omitting, without any indication of the fact, the sentence which Travis underscored, namely, “I shall never surrender or retreat” (123). And the following inscription from the Alamo monument, “Thermopylæ had her messenger of defeat, but the Alamo had none,” is marred by the omission of the words “of defeat” (124). The account of the battle of San Jacinto is embellished with a number of ominous sayings attributed to General Houston (133, 134, 135); and the apochryphal story of the destruction of Vince's bridge is made the key to the strategy of the fight (135, 136). Finally, the author's imagination supplied the Texan soldiers with revolvers (137).

E. W. Winkler .

How to cite:
Winkler, E. W., "Winning the Southwest: A Story of Conquest", Volume 016, Number 3, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 333 - 334. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v016/n3/review_49.html
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