The Alamo's Forgotten Defenders : The Remarkable Story of the Irish During the Texas Revolution

"A thoughtful military history of the Texas Revolution from the perspective of Irish-Americans who were in the thick of it. Highly recommended." — Midwest Book Review Breaking new ground with original insights, Phillip Thomas Tucker's The Forgotten Defenders of the Alamo: The Irish of the Texas Revolution, 1835-1836, sets forth one of the best remaining untold stories of the Alamo and Texas Revolution by exploring a largely forgotten and long ignored history: the dramatic saga of the Irish in Texas. Relying upon a wealth of previously unexplored primary sources, The Forgotten Defenders of the Alamo is the first book devoted to the dramatic story of Irish achievements, contributions, and sacrifices in winning independence for Texas. In doing so, Tucker's study bestows much-needed recognition upon the Irish and shatters a host of long-existing myths about the Texas Revolution. The Irish were the largest immigrant group in Texas at the time and among the most vocal and passionate of liberty-loving revolutionaries in all Texas. Presented not only as a military history of the Irish in the Texas Revolution, but also as a social, economic, and cultural history of the Irish in Texas, The Forgotten Defenders of the Alamo will stand as a long-overdue corrective to the outdated views of the story of the Alamo and the Texas Revolution. "Ground-breaking." —Carl Shanahan, President of the Irish American Museum of Washington, D.C. "As important a contribution to Alamo history as it is to genealogy." —Gary Zaboly, author of An Altar for Their Sons: The Alamo and the Texas Revolution in Contemporary Newspaper Accounts "[A] valuable contribution to Texas history." —Anthony Zavaleta, University of Texas