The Raiders: Sons of Texas - by Elmer Kelton (Paperback)

About the Book

Kelton continues the story of the Lewis family and the formative years of the Lone Star state in this second installment of the saga of early Texas.

Book Synopsis

In 1816, Mordecai Lewis, a veteran of Andrew Jackson's Indian campaigns and battles against the British, moves his family into the western Tennessee canebrakes. But Mordecai, a born wanderer, is not satisfied with farming, and with his sons Michael and Andrew and some other backwoodsmen, he leads a foray into Spanish-held Texas to hunt wild horses and return the mustang herd to sell in Tennessee.
Crossing the Sabine River, Mordecai's party encounters a Spanish patrol determined to repel all American invaders. After a bloody skirmish leaves their father dead, Michael and Andrew find their way back to their Tennessee farm.
Five years later, after the Spanish government in Mexico City has agreed to permit 300 American families to settle in Texas, the Lewis brothers have their opportunity to re-enter Texas. They ride to the frontier town of Natchitoches, Louisiana, where Michael falls in love with Marie Villaret, daughter of a wealthy French landowner, then cross the Sabine to find Stephen F. Austin, a Missouri entrepreneur in charge of the new American colony.
But the Lewises are considered interlopers and horse thieves and are dogged by a patrol led by the same ruthless Spanish offer who killed their father five years before.
Sons of Texas is the first volume in a trilogy that follows the lives and adventures of the Lewis family through the era of the Alamo and Texas Independence under Sam Houston.

Review Quotes

"The "Sons of Texas" Trilogy brings to mind the ever-popular Louis L'Amour's multigenerational Sackett family saga. Written with the same skill and attention to historical detail as L'Amour's works, it gives additional pleasure in imagining the dangers and adventure shared by the pioneers who settled the great state of Texas." --"El Paso"" Times" on "The Raiders: Sons of Texas"

" The " Sons of Texas" Trilogy brings to mind the ever-popular Louis L' Amour's multigenerational Sackett family saga. Written with the same skill and attention to historical detail as L' Amour's works, it gives additional pleasure in imagining the dangers and adventure shared by the pioneers who settled the great state of Texas." --"El Paso"" Times" on "The Raiders: Sons of Texas"

About the Author

Elmer Kelton is a native Texan, author of forty novels. He has earned countless honors including a record seven Spur Awards from Western Writers of America, Inc., an organization that has voted Kelton the greatest Western Writer of all time. He lives in San Angelo, Texas.