Saltgrass Prairie Saga:
A German American Family in Texas
By Jim Burnett
Published by Texas A&M University Press
About the Book
The Civil War and life on the frontier are justly popular topics with historians and readers alike, and Texas during the War is often viewed through the lenses of military strategy and the state’s role in the Confederacy. Saltgrass Prairie Saga thoroughly explores those subjects, but what sets this non-fiction narrative apart is its attention to other aspects of those watershed years in the story of Texas.
What was life like for families when husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers were called away by the army? How did women, children, and aging parents ensure stability at home when the future of their hard-earned land, crops, and livestock was left in their hands? How did they provide essential support such as medications and clothing for their men in the army while coping at home with wartime shortages? How did they deal with the risks raised by decisive battles that were fought at nearby Galveston and Sabine Pass? How did soldiers and families stay in touch when separated during the war?
Saltgrass Prairie Saga offers some answers to those questions through the lives of a family from a small German village who journeyed to Texas in 1845. They soon became pioneers on a vast coastal prairie some fifty miles east of Houston, a place they later described as “full of all manner of game and wild beasts, where people lived far apart.” By 1861 they had mastered the frontier skills required to become well-established in rural Texas—only to find themselves caught up in the Civil War.
The world they experienced is described by excerpts from a large collection of family letters, several diaries, military reports, period newspaper articles, and local and state records. The author carefully ensures that the voices of women in those sources are preserved.
Those accounts are skillfully woven into a narrative that blends life and settlement on the frontier with the early years of Texas cattle ranching, German immigration during the mid-nineteenth century, and the Civil War in the state. Saltgrass Prairie Saga offers a fresh view of a pivotal period in Texas history.
ISBN 978-1-64843-273-6
6 x 9 in / 320 pages 22 b&w photos
4 maps, bibliography, index
Available in both hardcover and e-book formats
Images, top to bottom: Second Battle of Sabine Pass, September 8, 1863, adapted from a sketch in Harper’s Weekly Magazine. Image courtesy U. S. Naval History and Heritage Command; This sketch, “Our Camp at Spindle Top,” was drawn in 1864 by Pvt. H. Rosenbaum, Co. F, Spaight’s Battalion, CSA. That unit is mentioned frequently in this book. Courtesy of Julia Duncan Welder Collection, Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, Texas State Library and Archives Commission; This sketch of a Texas cattle drive appeared in Harper’s Weekly, October 19, 1867. Courtesy of Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, Texas A&M University.
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