Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution

Hardcover Cloth 321 pages. Condition Fine Dust Jacket Very Good. Presumed First edition 1994. Beautiful red boards and black embossing shows off this Clean, tight, square copy with no marks, highlights or bookplates. Book Well kept and carefully stored in unread condition. No shelf wear. An unclipped dust jacket smooth, clean and brilliant with slight shelf wear - a few wrinkles and chips. Not an ex-library, book club or remainder copy.

"Mexicans charged through the shattered openings to finish the work begun by the captured cannon. In the darkened rooms of the long barracks, the adversaries grappled with Bowie knife and bayonet. Having seen their men shot down after flags of truce had been raised, the soldados took no prisoners, slaughtering even the wounded. A few Texians sought to escape by bounding over the east wall and running for cover, but the lancers made short work of them. The butchering was repeated in the rooms along the south wall; even the delirious Bowie, too weak to rise from his sickbed, found no mercy. But then, neither would he have asked for it…"
- Stephen Hardin, describing the Battle of the Alamo, in Texian Iliad.

Hardly were the last shots fired at the Alamo before the Texas Revolution entered the realm of myth and controversy. French visitor Frederic Gaillardet called it a "Texian Iliad" in 1839, while American Theodore Sedgwick pronounced the war and its resulting legends "almost burlesque."

In this highly readable history, Stephen L. Hardin discovers more than a little truth in both of those views. Drawing on many original Texan and Mexican sources and on-site inspections of almost every battlefield, he offers the first complete military history of the Revolution. From the war's opening in the "Come and Take It" incident at Gonzales to the capture of General Santa Anna at San Jacinto, Hardin clearly describes the strategy and tactics of each side.

His research yields new knowledge of the actions of famous Texan and Mexican leaders, as well as fascinating descriptions of battle and camp life from the ordinary soldier's point of view. This award-winning book belongs on the bookshelf of everyone interested in Texas or military history.