| If
we can sort this out, it goes something like this: a feud that grew into a war
erupted in East Texas in 1839 and raged until 1844, with occasional flair ups
at various times for years afterwards.
It started in Harrison and Shelby counties but eventually involved San Augustine,
Nacogdoches, and other East Texas counties. One
side was called the Regulators, who, as their name implies, wanted to "regulate"
the activities of rivals. Naturally, the Moderators wanted to "moderate" being
"regulated." Now it gets confusing. Trouble
brewed between rival groups who had settled along the border between Louisiana
and Texas earlier in the century when neither the United States or Spain made
much effort to control the area. Many were rough and ready fellows accustomed
to settling disputes with firearms. In the beginning the cast of characters included
Regulator leaders Charles W. Jackson and Charles W. Moorman, Moderator leaders
Edward Merchant, John M. Bradley and Deputy Sheriff James J. Cravens, with President
Sam Houston in a minor role. Land
swindling, cattle rustling, and various other affronts provided the fuel and the
spark for the war. Jackson shot
a man named Joseph Goodbread in Shelbyville.
That led to the first of many armed confrontations between the sides at Jackson's
trial. Jackson was later killed from ambush and the war was on. Deaths on one
side or the other always required avenging and the fighting continued, sometimes
reaching the level of actual battles. President Houston, who was familiar with
the area and its residents, at first said that the only thing to do was let the
Regulators and Moderators fight it out. Obviously that policy was unacceptable.
In 1844 Houston sent Travis G. Brooks and Alexander Horton with militia to end
the fighting. They arrested ten men from both sides, but only a truce negotiated
by Judge William B. Ochiltree, Isaac Van Zandt, and David S. Kaufman convinced
the sides to quit fighting, at least temporarily. Ironically, within two years
some Regulators and Moderators fought side by side against Mexican troops in the
war against Mexico.
But did the Regulator-Moderator War really end? Bad blood between individuals
continued in subsequent generations. Even some twentieth-century disputes owed
their origin to animosities established long before the antagonists were born.
All
Things Historical >
January
7-13, 2001 Column
Published by permission.
(Archie P. McDonald is Director
of the East Texas Historical Association and author or editor of more than 20
books on Texas) | 
