Texian Exodus

Stephen L. Hardin is recently retired after a thirty-five-year career in higher education. He is the author of Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution 1835-1836, The Alamo 1836: Santa Anna's Texas Campaign, Texian Macabre: The Melancholy Tale of a Hanging in Early Houston, and Lust for Glory: An Epic Saga of Early Texas and the Sacrifice That Defined a Nation. Gary S. Zaboly is a freelance historical illustrator and writer who has specialized in American frontier and military history, particularly colonial-era early Texas.

A Note on Etymology Witnesses Preface Introduction 1. "To Revel in an Unknown Joy": Planting Texas Roots 2. "No Quarter Will Be Given Them": Santa Anna Advances 3. "Hurry and Stir": Santa Anna Arrives 4. "The Confusion and Distress Will Be Indescribable": Politics and Pandemonium 5. "Heavy Rains and Dreadful Roads": Turbulent Weather 6. "Cramps, Colics, and Diarrhea": Death and Disease 7. "A Feeling of Wondrous Kindness": Assistance and Cooperation 8. "To Take Advantage of the Misfortunes of Others": Texians Plundering Texians 9. "Without Shelter and Almost Without Subsistence": Galveston Island 10. "Fight Then and Be Damned": A Runaway Army 11. "The Most Grateful News That Was Ever Told": Starting Over 12. "In This Great Time of Trouble": Ripples Epilogue. "Come What May, Texas Will Abide": Legacy Acknowledgments 1836 Chronology Notes Bibliography Index

The origin story of modern Texas is often thought to be the battle of the Alamo. Stephen Hardin makes a powerful case for the Runaway Scrape, the desperate flight of Texians ahead of the earth-scorching Mexican army of Santa Anna. Hardin deftly frames the politics and strategy of the affair, but he leaves the terrifying, heartbreaking, and uplifting details to the scores of men and women who recorded their experiences for posterity. A marvelous book. - H. W. Brands, University of Texas at Austin, author of America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War With no comprehensive book on the Runaway Scrape-and very little social history on any aspect of the Texas revolutionary period-Stephen Hardin's soundly researched, well-written Texian Exodus should find a home on the shelf of anyone interested in the history of the Texas Revolution. - Jesus "Frank" de la Teja, Professor Emeritus, Texas State University, author of A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguin Stephen Hardin proves once again that he is the indispensable scholar and chronicler of the Texas Revolution. In Texian Exodus, he shifts the narrative from the Alamo and San Jacinto-and men!-to the resolute women at the helm during one of the great refugee crises in American history. This deft, droll, jargon-free historian has produced another classic. - Stephen Harrigan, author of Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas Hardin is a master storyteller. (CHOICE)