In Why Texans Fought in the Civil War, Charles David Grear provides insights into what motivated Texans to fight for the Confederacy. Mining important primary sources-including thousands of letters and unpublished journals-he affords readers the opportunity to hear, often in the combatants' own words, why it was so important to them to engage in tumultuous struggles occurring so far from home. As Grear notes, in the decade prior to the Civil War the population of Texas had tripled. The state was increasingly populated by immigrants from all parts of the South and foreign countries. When the war began, it was not just Texas that many of these soldiers enlisted to protect, but also their native states, where they had family ties. CHARLES DAVID GREAR, who received his PhD in history from Texas Christian University, is an assistant professor of history at Prairie View A&M University. He holds a PhD from Texas Christian University.

Introducing a new model for the transnational history of the United States, Raoel Ramos places Mexican Americans at the center of the Texas creation story. He focuses on Mexican-Texan, or Tejano, society in a period of political transition beginning with

As many as 9,500 men of Hispanic heritage fought in the United States' Civil War. In Texas, the bitter conflict deeply divided the Tejanos -- Texans of Mexican heritage. An estimated 2,500 fought in the ranks of the Confederacy while 950, including some Mexican nationals, fought for the Stars and Stripes. This is the story of these Tejanos who participated in the Civil War.