The Texan Scouts: A Story of the Alamo and Goliad

Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander), 1862-1919Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3
Word count
569K words
Chapters
57

Tags

English Originals War and Military FictionChildren's Literature Texas RevolutionMilitary StrategyBattle of the AlamoBoy HeroFrontier Adventure

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Texan Scouts: A Story of the Alamo and Goliad by Joseph A. AltshelerAuthor: Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander), 1862-1919,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: May 4, 2005

Editor's review

This historical adventure novel for young readers is set during the Texas Revolution, centering on the events at the Alamo and Goliad and belonging to the kind of historical story Altsheler excelled at. It embeds the experiences of a young scout within real historical turning points, balancing adventure with historical context and serving as an accessible narrative introduction to the nineteenth-century Texas conflict. The Project Gutenberg edition offers the full text free, making it convenient for classroom or self-study use. A caveat: the author wrote in the early twentieth century, and the narrative perspective carries the limitations of its time, presenting the Mexican side in a rather one-sided way; readers should consult multiple sources to understand the history. Overall, it is a highly readable historical story that can spark young readers' interest in frontier history and the fate of its characters.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Familiarize yourself with the timeline of the Alamo and Goliad events before reading to get into the plot more quickly.
  2. When reading descriptions of the opposing sides, compare other historical sources and note the era's limitations in the author's perspective.
  3. Sketching a simple map of the young scout's movements helps clarify the story's geography and historical progression.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
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FAQ

What period of history does this book mainly cover? The story is set against the nineteenth-century Texas Revolution and touches on events such as the defense of the Alamo and Goliad, linking frontier conflict through the experiences of a young scout. It is a historical adventure novel, not a strict work of history: the historical framework is real, while characters and details are literary inventions.
Is the book's historical stance objective? The author wrote in the early twentieth century, and the narrative clearly favors the Texas side, portraying the Mexican side in a rather one-sided way. Readers seeking a full understanding of this history should supplement the book with modern historical works or multiple sources, treating it as an introductory story rather than the sole authority.
How difficult is the English, and is it suitable for self-study? The original was written for young readers and the plot moves quickly, but it was published long ago, so some sentence patterns and vocabulary are dated. Middle and high school students with intermediate English reading ability can study it on their own with a dictionary; those with weaker skills might start with a simplified edition or an audiobook.

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About the author

Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander), 1862-1919 Author

Joseph A. Altsheler (1862–1919) was an American author known for historical adventure novels, with 33 of his works held in this collection. Because public information is limited, details of his life are difficult to set out, yet his works show that he drew on American history, especially the frontier and the Civil War era. Representative titles include The Riflemen of the Ohio, The Guns of Bull Run, The Forest Runners, The Hunters of the Hills, The Rulers of the Lakes and The Shades of the Wilderness, most set in early Kentucky, the Great Lakes region or the Civil War. His novels are tightly plotted, stress historical atmosphere and youthful adventure, and often appear in series; they had a certain influence on early twentieth-century American historical reading for young people.