The Settlers' War - The Struggle for the Texas Frontier in the 1860s (Paperback)

During the decades from 1820 to 1870 the American frontier line expanded 2,000 miles across the trans-Mississippi west. In Texas the frontier line only expanded about 200 miles. The supposedly irresistible European force met a nearly immovable Native American resistance and a contest for possession of Texas' hills and prairies ensued for decades. The struggle was brutal.

In Texas in the 1860s, there were no large scale battles between the army and the Indians. The targets of the Comanches, Kiowas and Apaches usually were the homesteaders on the Texas frontier. In Texas the non-combatants bore the brunt of the warfare, losing far more than the soldiers who were supposedly there to protect them.

The 1860s was the bloodiest decade in the western Indian wars. Most of the blood, however, came from those that should have been allowed to remain on the sidelines while the main adversaries battled to a conclusion. It wasn't meant to be. The war on the Texas frontier was fought by the settlers.