The adventures of Big-Foot Wallace : the Texas ranger and hunter

**The thrilling adventures of traveler, rancher, and fighter “Big-Foot” Wallace in a bygone era of the American frontier.**Amid the embroiling conflicts of frontiersmen, Mexicans, and war in Texas, 1837, William “Big-Foot” Wallace left his hometown of Virginia to avenge the deaths of his brother and cousin, soldiers executed by Mexicans. Upon joining the Texas Rangers, Wallace was swept into the clashes at Salado Creek, Hondo River, and the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican-American War.Measuring at 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighing 240 pounds, Big-Foot Wallace embodied the iron nerves and indomitable spirit of the Texan frontiersman. In one of his most famous and harrowing experiences during the Mier expedition, Wallace was captured by the Mexican army, blindfolded, and forced to draw from a pot of black and white beans to determine whether he would be imprisoned or executed. Wallace drew a white bean and lived. After the war, he returned from the wilderness to clean, civilized Virginia, and spent the rest of his days as a storytelling, yarn-spinning rancher.John Duval, fellow Texas Ranger and Wallace’s best friend, gives a thrilling but factual account of the man’s life in a simple but engaging narrative style, combining action, suspense, and dry Texan humor. Wallace’s hairbreadth escapes and larger-than-life story are the perfect representation of the Old West in all its perils, comedy, and romance.Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a__New York Times__bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home. The thrilling adventures of traveler, rancher, and fighter “Big-Foot" Wallace in a bygone era of the American frontier. Amid the embroiling conflicts of frontiersmen, Mexicans, and war in Texas, 1837, William “Big-Foot" Wallace left his hometown of Virginia to avenge the deaths of his brother and cousin, soldiers executed by Mexicans. Upon joining the Texas Rangers, Wallace was swept into the clashes at Salado Creek, Hondo River, and the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican-American War. Measuring at 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighing 240 pounds, Big-Foot Wallace embodied the iron nerves and indomitable spirit of the Texan frontiersman. In one of his most famous and harrowing experiences during the Mier expedition, Wallace was captured by the Mexican army, blindfolded, and forced to draw from a pot of black and white beans to determine whether he would be imprisoned or executed. Wallace drew a white bean and lived. After the war, he returned from the wilderness to clean, civilized Virginia, and spent the rest of his days as a storytelling, yarn-spinning rancher. John Duval, fellow Texas Ranger and Wallace's best friend, gives a thrilling but factual account of the man's life in a simple but engaging narrative style, combining action, suspense, and dry Texan humor. Wallace's hairbreadth escapes and larger-than-life story are the perfect representation of the Old West in all its perils, comedy, and romance. Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home. William A. Wallace (1816-1899) went from his native Virginia to Texas in 1836, shortly after the battle of San Jacinto, "for the purpose . . . of taking pay out of the Mexicans for the murder of his brother and cousin." His experiences as a hunter, Indian fighter, member of the Mier Expedition (1842-1844), defender of the "old Republic" in the Mexican War, and Texas Ranger were chronicled by his comrade John C. Duval in this free-hand biography, first published in 1870. Because Duval, as the editors note, felt free to adapt his materials in order to make the book more interesting and used many novelistic devices, "in his own way he achieves something of the effect of the twentieth-century school of biographers. He makes his characters live." Although Part I, dealing with Big-Foot's adventures as a hunter and Indian fighter, is a mixture of fact and fiction, Part II, the account of his role in the Mier Expedition, is unretouched, told from the point of view of an actual participant, and "stands as the most realistic straight narrative of this dramatic chapter in Texas history. [It] is the heart of the biography. The Indian adventures are a prologue for it; and Part III, the final comedy of Big-Foot in the settlements, makes an epilogue." In this classic of early Texas, the reader will recognize three literary traditions of the nineteenth century: the journals and memoirs of the pioneers; the romantic adventure story; and the broadly humorous yarn of the American frontier.--Amazon.com The thrilling adventures of traveler, rancher, and fighter "Big-Foot" Wallace in a bygone era of the American frontier. Amid the embroiling conflicts of frontiersmen, Mexicans, and war in Texas, 1837, William "Big-Foot" Wallace left his hometown of Virginia to avenge the deaths of his brother and cousin, soldiers executed by Mexicans. Upon joining the Texas Rangers, Wallace was swept into the clashes at Salado Creek, Hondo River, and the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican-American War. Measuring at 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighing 240 pounds, Big-Foot Wallace embodied the iron nerves and indomitable spirit of the Texan frontiersman. In one of his most famous and harrowing experiences during the Mier expedition, Wallace was captured by the Mexican army, blindfolded, and forced to draw from a pot of black and white beans to determine whether he would be imprisoned or executed. Wallace drew a white bean and lived. After the war, he returned from the wilderness to clean, civilized Virginia, and spent the rest of his days as a storytelling, yarn-spinning rancher. John Duval, fellow Texas Ranger and Wallace's best friend, gives a thrilling but factual account of the man's life in a simple but engaging narrative style, combining action, suspense, and dry Texan humor. Wallace's hairbreadth escapes and larger-than-life story are the perfect representation of the Old West in all its perils, comedy, and romance.--Amazon.com The thrilling adventures of traveler, rancher, and fighter 3Big-Foot" Wallace in a bygone era of the American frontier. Amid the embroiling conflicts of frontiersmen, Mexicans, and war in Texas, 1837, William 3Big-Foot" Wallace left his hometown of Virginia to avenge the deaths of his brother and cousin, soldiers executed by Mexicans. Upon joining the Texas Rangers, Wallace was swept into the clashes at Salado Creek, Hondo River, and the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican-American War. Measuring at 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighing 240 pounds, Big-Foot Wallace embodied the iron nerves and in Front Cover; Title Page; Copyright Page; Preface; Contents; CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY; CHAPTER II. Wallace's Initiation into the Mysteries of Woodcraft; CHAPTER III. On the Route-The Old Lady and the Truck-Patch; CHAPTER IV. A Rattlesnake Bite-Singular Spring-Wild Artichokes-Indian Art Gallery-Wallace's First Bear; CHAPTER V. Buffalo-Fine Grove of Pecan-Trees-The First Buffalo-Bit by a Rattlesnake-The Tarantula-Travelling under Difficulties-A Free Serenade