Riding for the Lone Star: Frontier Cavalry and the Texas Way of War, 1822–1865. American Military Studies Series. By Nathan A. Jennings

Abstract

Riding for the Lone Star: Frontier Cavalry and the Texas Way of War, 1822–1865 . American Military Studies Series. By Nathan A. Jennings. (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2016. vi + 402 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $32.95, cloth; $26.36, e-book.) The martial history of Texas is not a new topic for historians to explore, especially Texans’ predilection for cavalry service. Despite the numerous books examining Texas, Nathan A. Jennings finally and definitely answers some of our basic understandings of early Texas military history. He is the first to take what historians already suspected about the uniquely cavalry military tradition of Texas and researched it to definitively explain for the first time why Texans typically fought from horseback. Jennings starts his book with Moses and Stephen F. Austin and the settlers they eventually brought onto the Mexican frontier. The geography, great distances between settlements, … charles.grear{at}ctcd.edu