Description
In the decades preceding the Civil War, few figures in the United States were as influential or as controversial as Sam Houston. In Sam Houston, James L. Haley explores Houston's momentous career and the complex man behind it. Haley's fifteen years of research and writing have produced possibly the most complete, most personal, and most readable Sam Houston biography ever written. Sam Houston (1793-1863) lived life large. Congressman and then governor of Tennessee, he became commander-in-chief of the Texas revolutionary army and served two terms as president of the Republic of Texas. His wit was legendary, as were his appetites for liquor and women -- until he reformed for the wife he adored, Margaret Lea. He changed the United States forever when he successfully maneuvered Texas's entry into the Union, yet he failed as Texas senator and governor to keep the young state from joining the Confederacy in secession. Drawn from personal papers never before available and from the papers of those in Houston's circle, this biography will delight anyone intrigued by Sam Houston, Texas history, Civil War history, or America's tradition of rugged individualism.
