Margins
Myth, Memory, and Massacre book cover
Myth, Memory, and Massacre
The Pease River Capture of Cynthia Ann Parker
2010
First Published
3.88
Average Rating
216
Number of Pages
In December 1860, along a creek in northwest Texas, a group of U.S. Cavalry under Sgt. John Spangler and Texas Rangers led by Sul Ross raided a Comanche hunting camp, killed several Indians, and took three prisoners. One was the woman they would identify as Cynthia Ann Parker, taken captive from her white family as a child a quarter century before. The reports of these events had implications far and near. For Ross, they helped make a political career. For Parker, they separated her permanently and fatally from her Comanche husband and two of her children. For Texas, they became the stuff of history and legend. In reexamining the historical accounts of the “Battle of Pease River,€ especially those claimed to be eyewitness reports, Paul H. Carlson and Tom Crum expose errors, falsifications, and mysteries that have contributed to a skewed understanding of the facts. For political and racist reasons, they argue, the massacre was labeled a battle. Firsthand testimony was fab
Avg Rating
3.88
Number of Ratings
26
5 STARS
35%
4 STARS
38%
3 STARS
12%
2 STARS
12%
1 STARS
4%
goodreads

Author

Paul H. Carlson
Paul H. Carlson
Author · 6 books
Dr. Paul Howard Carlson is a historian, former professor, and former assistant chairman of the Department of History at Texas Tech University. He was also editor of the West Texas Historical Association Year Book (now West Texas Historical Review) for a number of years.
548 Market St PMB 65688, San Francisco California 94104-5401 USA
© 2025 Paratext Inc. All rights reserved