38. [BORDERLANDS]. UNITED STATES. WAR DEPARTMENT.
SECRETARY OF WAR (William W. Belknap). Claims of the
State of Texas.... Washington: HRED277, 1872. 180 pp.
8vo, new brown cloth, dark brown gilt-lettered spine label.
Chipping to blank margins of a few leaves and many lower
blank corners (cheap government paper is culprit).
First
edition. Not in the standard bibliographies. Pingenot:
Although issued seven years after the Civil War, this
entire report deals with claims against the government
arising from Indian depredations in Texas, from claims of
Mexican citizens against the U.S. for depredations
committed by invading Texans, and from claims resulting
from excesses committed by volunteer Texas companies raised
to protect the frontier. Virtually all of the
correspondence, from General Persifer F. Smith, Captain
Sidney Burbank, Jefferson Davis, Texas governors E. M.
Pease and H. R. Runnels, Robt. S. Neighbours, J. R. Baylor,
Sam Houston, etc., relates to the period 1852-1860. Many of
the documents deal with the raid into Mexico in 1855 by J.
H. Callahan. Pp. 147-80 contain all of the depositions by
claimants arising from the burning of Piedras Negras by
Callahan’s men. An important report with excellent
content.
($100-200)