| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.3

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Alexander Watkins Terrell: Civil War Soldier, Texas Lawmaker, American Diplomat. By Lewis L. Gould. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004. xvi, 223 pp. $29.95, ISBN 0-292-70297-3.)
Lewis L. Gould's purpose in this concise biography was to explain Alexander W. Terrell's "part in the affairs of his time and why his life repays closer study" (p. xiii). The author argues that Terrell reflected the strengths and weaknesses of Texas as a whole and that the most interesting question about him was "why, despite all of his abilities, he never rose to high state or national office" (p. xi).	1
Until near the close of the Civil War, Terrell seemed destined for political preeminence. He was born in Virginia in 1827; his family soon moved to Missouri, where he grew to manhood and married. In 1852 the young Terrell and his family moved to Austin, Texas, where he set up a thriving legal practice and rose in the ranks of the Democratic party. An advocate of secession, he joined the Confederate army, and he commanded a regiment in the battle of Pleasant Hill in April 1864. He became separated from his men; this led to charges of cowardice, charges that help explain his failure to win high office.	. . .

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