Book Description

Three days after his victory over Santa Anna's army, Sam Houston still lay in his tent on the battlefield at San Jacinto. His left leg throbbed with the pain of a compound fracture inflicted by an enemy bullet. He was angry. His ragtag, outnumbered volunteer army contained Texans, Tennesseans, and Louisianans, but almost none of the nearby landowners, despite his plea for help two days before the battle. Perhaps driven by that fevered anger, Houston struck back at them. The instrument of his retaliation was another local landowner. David Kokernot knew his neighbors and the neighborhood and took the assignment with apparent relish. He would regret it forever.This meticulously researched biography details Kokernot's life from his birth in Amsterdam to his time with the alcoholic pilots at the mouth of the Mississippi River, to his actions in the Texas Revolution which earned him the scorn of his superiors and neighbors. It follows him afterwards as he retreats to more remote counties of Texas, living as a dry-goods merchant and modest cattle rancher, one who watched his sons succeed among the largest ranchers in the state.Students of Texas history will be pleased with the many historic sketches, photographs, and newly created maps which illustrate this life of an unpopular and misunderstood Texian.