|
If we can sort
this out, it goes something like this: a feud that grew into a war
erupted in East Texas
in 1839 and raged until 1844, with occasional flair ups at various
times for years afterwards.
It started
in Harrison and Shelby counties but eventually involved San Augustine,
Nacogdoches, and other East Texas counties.
One side was
called the Regulators, who, as their name implies, wanted to "regulate"
the activities of rivals. Naturally, the Moderators wanted to "moderate"
being "regulated." Now it gets confusing.
Trouble brewed
between rival groups who had settled along the border between Louisiana
and Texas earlier in the century
when neither the United States or Spain made much effort to control
the area. Many were rough and ready fellows accustomed to settling
disputes with firearms. In the beginning the cast of characters
included Regulator leaders Charles W. Jackson and Charles W. Moorman,
Moderator leaders Edward Merchant, John M. Bradley and Deputy Sheriff
James J. Cravens, with President Sam Houston in a minor role.
Land swindling,
cattle rustling, and various other affronts provided the fuel and
the spark for the war. Jackson shot a man named Joseph Goodbread
in Shelbyville.
That led to the first of many armed confrontations between the sides
at Jackson's trial. Jackson was later killed from ambush and the
war was on. Deaths on one side or the other always required avenging
and the fighting continued, sometimes reaching the level of actual
battles. President Houston, who was familiar with the area and its
residents, at first said that the only thing to do was let the Regulators
and Moderators fight it out. Obviously that policy was unacceptable.
In 1844 Houston
sent Travis G. Brooks and Alexander Horton with militia to end the
fighting. They arrested ten men from both sides, but only a truce
negotiated by Judge William B. Ochiltree, Isaac Van Zandt, and David
S. Kaufman convinced the sides to quit fighting, at least temporarily.
Ironically, within two years some Regulators and Moderators fought
side by side against Mexican troops in the war against Mexico.
But did the
Regulator-Moderator War really end? Bad blood between individuals
continued in subsequent generations. Even some twentieth-century
disputes owed their origin to animosities established long before
the antagonists were born.
All
Things Historical >
January
7-13, 2001 Column
Published by permission.
(Archie P. McDonald is Director of the East Texas Historical Association
and author or editor of more than 20 books on Texas)
|
