A Terry Texas Ranger: The Life Record of H.W. Graber [Hardcover]

H. W. Graber (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 454 pages
• Publisher: State House Pr (June 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0938349082
• ISBN-13: 978-0938349082
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,752,682 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A memoir, May 19, 2004

By 

Jack Purcell (Placitas, NM USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Terry Texas Ranger: The Life Record of H.W. Graber (Hardcover)

Graber's memories of his times with the Terry Texas Rangers fighting throughout the Civil War are a bit disjointed, but awfully good reading and surprisingly detailed. The story actually begins with his childhood when his parents both died of typhoid near Houston during the Republic years. Graber carries the reader through his experiences as a muleteer, a surveyor, a shop clerk and a young entrepreneur before the outbreak of the war. He and his business partner argue over which has to stay and run the enterprise and which gets to ride off to war.

With the Terry Texas Rangers, Graber describes the countless skirmishes, raids, battles and retreats up and down the Shenendoah Valley, Shilo, Perryville and later in Georgia. His anecdotes are worth the price of admission. At one point he was riding beside Nathan Forrest during a charge when they both attempted to fire on an enemy position. Forrest's horse stumbled in front of Graber's and Graber narrowly missed shooting Forrest in the head. In the memoir Graber observes this would have been a considerable tragedy.

He also gives a good portrayal of life inside several Union prisons, where he waited to be hanged as a spy, before taking the identity of one of the countless dead and managing to get himself exchanged.

This isn't a scholarly work. It's the memories of a man who was there, participating in the fights scholars would write about for 150 years or more.

For a first hand look at a piece of the Civil War through the eyes of an enlisted man who fought in it to the end, refused to take the Oath of Allegiance, took the owlhoot trail home and operated under an alias until after reconstruction, I recommend it.