Texas Civil War Artifacts: A Photographic Guide to the Physical Culture of Texas Civil War Soldiers
By Richard Mather Ahlstrom
(April 2009 Civil War News)

Illustrated, appendix, bibliography, index, 545 pp., 2008. University of North Texas Press, P.O. Box 311336, Denton, TX 76203-1336, $60 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Dale E. Biever
Dale E. Biever received his M.Ed. in American history from Kutztown University. He is past vice president for administration and former member of the Board of Governors of the Company of Military Historians. A retired educa­tor, he was registrar at the Civil War Library and Museum in Philadelphia.

Review:
Texas entered the Civil War with limited resources and little in the way of arms and equipment to outfit its troops. The Lone Star State sent its men off to war with personal weapons, captured materiel from federal properties and in many cases the civilian clothes which were worn when they enlisted.

Throughout the war Texas had to play “catch-up” with the supply issue and was never able to fully resolve the problem. As a result many Texans carried a wide variety of hand- and home-made weapons and wore stock militia pieces of insignia and belt plates. Some materiel even went back to the days of the Texas Republic.

Author Ahlstrom has assembled a unique selection of known Texas Civil War and Lone Star artifacts which are detailed in 14 chapters. They include Lone Star insignia, Texas-made firearms and edged weapons, uniforms and headgear, buttons, and a nice section of photos of Texas soldiers.

The reader must keep in mind that many of the “star” objects can be prewar and were available to militia elsewhere in America, thus the need for the provenance that the author provides.

The book has more than 300 photos. Almost every figure includes a provenance, type, dimensions, construction and remarks. There also may be references to that particular item as found in relic/artifact publications.

Ahlstrom is careful to choose only objects that have been dug or found on known Civil War sites in Texas or non-Texas camps or battlefield positions. Non-excavated material is duly noted. Many items are from private collections and are featured here for the first time.

Several chapters are of major interest. Over 50 pages are devoted to the Lone Star insignia. These appear in numerous styles and from a variety of sites. Buyer beware that this is probably among the easiest of Civil War insignia to copy and was also the insignia of the Federal Twelfth Corps.

More than 40 pages of commercial and local belt plates feature the star or some other device. The dug plates are of particular interest. Buttons are well-covered with many previously noted by Tice and Albert, but a few unusual ones are in this section.

Numerous handmade swords and knives can be seen in the chapters on edged weapons. These include some D-guard and Bowie styles. Along with Texas firearms are several pages of excavated gun parts and related material from Tucker, Sherrard and Company.

There are 16 pages of “Texas Soldiers in Pictures,” many are shown with arms and equipment. All but one of the men is identified.

The appendix is quite useful for historians since it lists battles and campaigns in which Texas units fought. It records the state or territory and the Texas units that participated as well as the dates of the battle or campaign.

The book is well-written and illustrated. Photography is of good quality with nice close-up shots. A few minor errors appear, such as a Colt Navy identified as an Army model and buff leather coming from the buffalo.

Ahlstrom is to be commended for assembling this vast amount of Texas-related materiel and sharing it with the Civil War reader, historian, collector and museum personnel. As a part of the overall story of the Confederate forces and their efforts at state identification and equipping and maintaining the forces in the field with the materiel at hand, this book should be a part of your library.