R.H. Williams - Civil War Battle near Fort Lancaster, Texas

[Texas Jay]

I read about this little-known battle in a book I'm currently reading titled With the Border Ruffians by R.H. Williams who began his service to the Confederacy as a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle. I first read about Williams in Donald S. Frazier's excellent book Blood & Treasure several years ago. This is why I prefer reading books that were written by people who lived during the time periods that I'm interested in rather than reading stuff that's been modified, rehashed, or altered over time. If I had not decided to research Mr. Williams more, I wouldn't have found or read his book and I would have been like 99+% of Americans in that I would have known nothing about this Civil War engagement in my own state. Attached is a photo of R.H. Williams.
~Texas Jay

https://sites.google.com/site/lones...exas/crockett-county/battle-of-fort-lancaster

 

[Texas Jay]

With the Border Ruffians: Memories of the Far West, 1852-1868 by R. H. Williams - a real-life Knight of the Golden Circle.

I just finished reading this excellent story of an Englishman who traveled to the United States in the late 1850s as a young man. It's 472 pages long and took me several weeks to read but there wasn't a dull page in the entire book. He wrote it from his diary as an old man after he'd returned home to England. It tells about his life in this country and it's full of adventure and history that had never been told before. Williams tells about his travels and business dealings as he moved from Virginia to Kansas and finally to Texas where he built a big cattle ranch on the frontier. He was constantly battling Indians, Yankees, killers, and thieves. I first heard of R. H. Williams when I read Donald S. Frazier's book Blood & Treasure about the Confederates' Western Expansion Movement. That author listed him as being a KGC member in San Antonio at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. I highly recommend this book to all students of history and of the KGC.
I bought my copy of the paperback on eBay because I much prefer reading real books rather than digital books but you can also read the online version here

https://archive.org/details/withborderruffi01willgoog

~Texas Jay