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My copy of _Texas Civil War Artifacts: A Photographic Guide to the Physical Culture of Texas Civil War Soldiers_, by Richard Mather Ahlstrom, University of North Texas Press, 2008, has just been shipped. All Texans, or sometimes Texans, should probably have a copy. It's a tad expensive--$60.00, but that's hardbound, 560 pages, 610 black and white photos. Hardcover ISBN-13: 9781574412512. I'm looking forward to the Tyler Rifles. Put it on your Christmas list--university presses don't keep titles in print as long as they once did, and when this goes o/p, I anticipate the price will jump.
From the UNT Press website (note Danny Sessums' comment at the end, for those who have been around for quite a while):
One of the most popular literary subjects worldwide is the American Civil War. In addition to an enormous number of history buffs, there are tens of thousands of collectors of Civil War artifacts. In the last fifty years, several books have been written concerning the equipment associated with soldiers of specific Confederate states, but no book until now has ever chronicled the military equipment used by Texas soldiers. Texas Civil War Artifacts is the first comprehensive guide to the physical culture of Texas Civil War soldiers.
Texas military equipment differs in a number of ways from the equipment produced for the eastern Confederate states. Most of the Texas-produced equipment was blacksmithed, or local-artisan made, and in many cases featured the Lone Star as a symbol of Texas. Contemporary Civil War literature frequently mentions that most soldiers of Texas displayed the Lone Star somewhere on their uniform or equipment.
In this groundbreaking volume, Richard Mather Ahlstrom has photographed and described more than five hundred Texas-related artifacts. He shows the diverse use of the Lone Star on hat pins, waist-belt plates, buckles, horse equipment, side knives, buttons, and canteens. In addition, the weapons that Texans used in the Civil War are featured in chapters on the Tucker Sherrard and Colt pistols; shotguns, rifles, and muskets; and swords. Rounding out the volume are chapters on leather accouterments, uniforms and headgear, and a gallery of Texas soldiers in photographs.
This book will prove to be a valuable reference guide for Civil War collectors, historians, museum curators, re-enactors, and federal and state agencies.
“While there are similar volumes that have examined ‘dug’ artifacts on the national level, so little has been done on Texas that Ahlstrom’s volume constitutes a groundbreaking product. The book offers the viewer an opportunity to see many objects that are so ‘locked-away’ in private hands as to not be available outside the close community of collectors. The chapter on pistols is worth the price of the book by itself!”–Danny Sessums, Director of the University Museums, Houston Baptist University.
Vicki Betts
Texas
From the UNT Press website (note Danny Sessums' comment at the end, for those who have been around for quite a while):
One of the most popular literary subjects worldwide is the American Civil War. In addition to an enormous number of history buffs, there are tens of thousands of collectors of Civil War artifacts. In the last fifty years, several books have been written concerning the equipment associated with soldiers of specific Confederate states, but no book until now has ever chronicled the military equipment used by Texas soldiers. Texas Civil War Artifacts is the first comprehensive guide to the physical culture of Texas Civil War soldiers.
Texas military equipment differs in a number of ways from the equipment produced for the eastern Confederate states. Most of the Texas-produced equipment was blacksmithed, or local-artisan made, and in many cases featured the Lone Star as a symbol of Texas. Contemporary Civil War literature frequently mentions that most soldiers of Texas displayed the Lone Star somewhere on their uniform or equipment.
In this groundbreaking volume, Richard Mather Ahlstrom has photographed and described more than five hundred Texas-related artifacts. He shows the diverse use of the Lone Star on hat pins, waist-belt plates, buckles, horse equipment, side knives, buttons, and canteens. In addition, the weapons that Texans used in the Civil War are featured in chapters on the Tucker Sherrard and Colt pistols; shotguns, rifles, and muskets; and swords. Rounding out the volume are chapters on leather accouterments, uniforms and headgear, and a gallery of Texas soldiers in photographs.
This book will prove to be a valuable reference guide for Civil War collectors, historians, museum curators, re-enactors, and federal and state agencies.
“While there are similar volumes that have examined ‘dug’ artifacts on the national level, so little has been done on Texas that Ahlstrom’s volume constitutes a groundbreaking product. The book offers the viewer an opportunity to see many objects that are so ‘locked-away’ in private hands as to not be available outside the close community of collectors. The chapter on pistols is worth the price of the book by itself!”–Danny Sessums, Director of the University Museums, Houston Baptist University.
Vicki Betts
Texas
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