My Eighty Years in Texas / / William Physick Zuber; ed. by Janis Boyle Mayfield.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: Zuber, William Physick,
• TeilnehmendeR: Friend, Llerena.
• HerausgeberIn: Mayfield, Janis Boyle,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©1971
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Personal Narratives of the West
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (304 p.)

Almost a century and a half went into the making of My Eighty Years in Texas. It began as a diary, kept by fifteen-year-old William Physick Zuber after he joined Sam Houston’s Texas army in 1836, hoping he could emulate the heroism of American Revolutionary patriots. Although his hopes were never realized, Zuber recorded the privations, victories, and defeats of armies on the move during the Texas Revolution, the Indian campaigns, and, as he styled it, the Confederate War. In 1910, at the age of ninety, Zuber began the enormous task of transcribing his diaries and his memories for publication. After his death in 1913, the handwritten manuscript, 1, was placed in the Texas State Archives, where it was used as a reference source by students and scholars of Texas history. Over a half century after Zuber’s death, Janis Boyle Mayfield finally brought his publication plans to fruition. Zuber details his early zest for learning and his laborious methods of self-education. He tells of the trials of organizing and teaching schools in the sparsely populated plains. He recalls the day-by-day happenings of a private soldier in the Texas army of 1836, the Texas Militia, and the Confederate army—including the mishaps of army life and the encounters with enemies from San Jacinto to Cape Girardeau. After the Civil War, his interest turns to the politics of Reconstruction, the veterans’ pension, and the founding of the Texas Veterans Association. This is the story of and by an outspoken Texian, complete with his attitudes, principles, and moralizings, and the nineteenth-century style and flavor of his writing. Included as an appendix is “An Escape from the Alamo,” the account of Moses Rose for which Zuber, who was a prolific writer, was best known. A historiography of the Rose story, a bibliography of Zuber’s published and unpublished writings, annotation, and an introduction are provided by Llerena Friend.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Editor's Foreword -- CONTENTS -- Introduction -- The End Came Too Soon -- Preface -- CHAPTER 1 Ancestry -- CHAPTER 2 Childhood and Youth -- CHAPTER 3 Fighting for Texas Independence -- CHAPTER 4 Defending the Republic -- CHAPTER 5 Politics, Religion, and Learning -- CHAPTER 6 Campaigning in Arkansas and Missouri -- CHAPTER 7 Campaigning in Louisiana -- CHAPTER 8 Back Home Again -- Appendix A An Escape from the Alamo -- Appendix B Historiography of the Account of Moses Rose and the Line that Travis Drew -- Bibliography -- Index