The Texian Prisoners - A Biographical Novel of Old New Mexico - E-book - ePub

They called themselves "Texians." In 1841, a band of roughly 300 men straggled out of the Staked Plains into New Mexico. Their goal had been to claim everything east of the Rio Grande for Texas. Instead, they were captured and sent south to Mexico City via El Paso. The escort for the final group of prisoners, which included journalist George Wilkins Kendall, was led by Captain Damasio Salazar. Five prisoners died on that trek.
Kendall would later write a book describing the experience, a book which accused Salazar of food deprivation, mutilation, and murder, and fed the discontent that would become the Mexican-American War. But what really happened on the trek to El Paso? The Texian Prisoners tells the story through the eyes of Kendall's friend George Van Ness, a lawyer burdened with the ability to see his enemy's point of view, and asks us to consider the possibility that Kendall's report was not unbiased. A historically accurate retelling of Larry McMurtry's Dead Man's Walk, this fictional memoir will make you question everything you thought you knew about Texas, New Mexico, and the boundary between them.