BLOOD MOON

THE TEXIANS
Book 4 of 5
BLOOD MOON
By Zach Wyatt
Cover art by Bruce Minney
Pinnacle Books, April 1985

While Josh Sands has been eating dust on a wild horse round-up, Comanche raiders have cut a bloody trail as far south as San Antonio. With the Texas Rangers depleted, the Indians are growing in boldness and power. Now it’s up to Sands and his rag-tag bunch to come to the aid of the republic. Along with the undermanned Rangers, they’re going to make a daring foray into the heart of Comanche territory – to stem the tide of terror and destruction – and give the Texians back their future.

Whilst the previous three Texians books have revolved around documented missions that really happened, this story is much more loosely based on historical events. With no funding to support them, the Texas Rangers have virtually disbanded, with many of the men let go. Josh Sands is one of those men. The Comanche take advantage of this situation and pretty much raid and pillage unchecked. Blood Moon tells of the struggle of the small band of Texas Rangers and volunteers to stop the raids whilst facing much larger odds. 

A lot of the early part of the book follows Sands and his friends during their attempt to set up a horse ranch and round up wild horses, including a stallion, to start this project. Whilst doing this Sands has to deal with a couple of Comanche raids and his frustration at being let go from the Rangers. His heart isn’t in the ranch, or horses, but belongs to the Rangers. During this part of the story, we meet some characters that first appeared in the previous book, War Devils. 

As you’d imagine, stories that are based on real events include real people too. Sands is fictional, but he’s friends with Captain John Coffee Hays and will eventually team up with Hays and his remaining rangers to track down and stop a much larger band of Comanches. They are joined by another real person in the Lipan Apache chief Flacco and a small number of his braves. The final battle features a charge into the enemy lines by Hays and Flacco that becomes legendary and the author explains why this happened in a humorous way. This final battle makes for an exciting conclusion to this fast-moving tale.

Blood Moon isn’t quite as good as the previous three books but it is still a very entertaining read and left me looking forward to reading the next book very soon. 

Zach Wyatt is a pseudonym used by George W. Proctor. 

WAR DEVILS

THE TEXIANS

Book 3 of 5

WAR DEVILS

By Zach Wyatt

Cover art by Bruce Minney

Pinnacle Books, December 1984

For the proud young Texan, Josh Sands, there was no life outside the Rangers. And very likely no republic either, without the fierce and fearless band of Texians who put their lives on the line every day, in service for their beloved country.

But when the cigar-chomping politicos back in Austin cut the Rangers’ funds, the battle-weary Ranger made the most of the enforced peace – and the generous charms of the beautiful Elena.

But peace and pleasure were not to last. For meanwhile, at the border, a precisely trained and inexorable machine of death gathered – mustering the might of the Mexican Army to test the strength of the embattled Rangers, and the whole fledging republic.

Like the previous two books, this story uses real events for the backbone of its plot. Sands will find himself riding alongside a small, and hopelessly outnumbered, group of Rangers and volunteers lead by Captain Matthew Caldwell and Captain John Coffee Hays to stop General Adrian Woll and his sixteen hundred soldiers, supported by artillery, who had managed to cut off and capture San Antonio before marching on Salado. Sands will also find himself involved in the massacre of Captain Nicolas Dawson’s men when they tried to surrender to the Mexican Army. 

The author, George W. Proctor writing as Zach Wyatt, plays with historical facts a little so that the fictional Josh Sands can take a lead role in the battles to stop Woll’s invasion of Texas. Sands private life is also explored when he is cut lose from the Rangers due to financial cuts. This part of the story fleshes his character out as we discover how he hopes to make money, how his relationship with Elena is developing, and his views on how Texas can or cannot defend itself without the Rangers.

The story contains plenty of action, from the opening scenes of Sands rescuing a young girl from her Comanche captors and their subsequent attempts to get her back. There are also exciting tactics to discover that show how the Rangers take on groups of Mexican troopers and the larger scale battles when facing Woll’s army. 

Any story using real historical events for its plot means that some readers will know how certain parts of the tale will unfold and come to a close. Proctor, though, keeps things moving forward at pace, and adds a fresh take on the real events by including his fictional lead that should keep any reader turning the pages to find out what happens next.

I didn’t think this story was as strong as the previous two books, but I still found it to be an engaging read, one that both entertained and taught me more about the history of the Rangers and I was left looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

THE HORSE MARINES

THE TEXIANS

Book 2 of 5

By Zach Wyatt

Cover art by Bruce Minney

Pinnacle Books, August 1984

Josh Sands was far from his San Antonio station, but the fierce young Texas Ranger had sworn to protect the entire Territory from her enemies – including the Mexican warships unloading arms in the deadly swamplands along the Gulf of Mexico.

The last thing the hard-riding Ranger expected was to be corralled into Captain Isaac Burton’s mad scheme for capturing the warships himself – with a handful of men who had never so much as seen a rowboat.

But Josh had to pursue a private vengeance as well: to hunt down a death-dealing devil known as Cotton Blue; a vicious gunrunner who had killed Josh’s partner in cold blood; killed for the same pleasure other men found in a woman’s arms… 

Like the first book in this series, Zach Wyatt uses a real event for the main part of the plot, the attempt to capture warships that took place in June 1836. Of course, Josh Sands involvement is entirely fictional as is his pursuit of Cotton Blue. Zach Wyatt blends truth and fiction seamlessly, resulting in an exciting read that contains many cliff-hanging moments.

We also learn more about our fictional hero as we witness Sands freeze when looking into the eyes of death. He experiences guilt and struggles to deal with it as he recovers from a life-threatening bullet wound. His fevered belief of being rescued by an angel floating through the swamp made for some very visual and surreal reading which was beautifully told by the author.

Sand’s loss of his fellow Texas Ranger and his final showdown with Cotton Blue sandwich the main part of the story; Captain Burton’s spur-of-the-moment attempt to capture three warships. I don’t want to say anymore about this for fear of ruining this part of the tale for anyone planning to read this book, but I will add that it makes for some gripping reading.

If you like fiction based around real historical events or books about the Texas Rangers then this has to be a must read and I’d also recommend it to all western fans. Zach Wyatt is a pseudonym used by George W. Proctor and this book reinforces my belief that he is an author worth reading. 

I always found The Texians books hard to track down, but it’s much easier now, if you don’t mind reading ebooks, as Piccadilly Publishing has made the whole series available in this form.

The Texians #1

as by Zach Wyatt
Pinnacle, May 1984

They were young, proud – and they were all that stood between defenceless settlers and the warring Comanche. They were the Texas Rangers, struggling to bring law and order to the infant Republic of Texas.

Josh Sands is only twenty-two years old but has been with the Rangers for ten years. Ever since he was orphaned. Ever since he saw his family slaughtered by a Comanche raiding party. He has committed himself to ride with the Rangers until he can no longer sit astride a horse … or until a Comanche arrow stops him.

Captain Jack Hays is a veteran, the greatest Indian fighter in the West. He knows that the only way to fight the Comanche is with their own brutal means, with Indian cunning.

Zach Wyatt is a pseudonym used by George W. Proctor and this first book in the Texicans series is based around many events that really happened, so features many people from the history of the West, the main real person being Captain John “Jack” Coffee Hays.

To include these historical events the book reads as a number of different incidents linked by the Texas Rangers and Proctor’s fictional character Josh Sands. After saving an escaped woman Sands begins to fall in love with her – being an orphan has left a yearning of wanting to be close to someone, a feeling he didn’t know was there until he saves Marion Hammer. Even so he has to fight feelings of revulsion towards her as she has been taken by the Comanche and, like many others, he sees her as unclean. So it’s this emotional struggle that ties the other events together.

Proctor bases the rest of the story around three true incidents in the history of the Texas Rangers and San Antonio. The first being the introduction to the Rangers of a multi-shot pistol – the Colt .36 calibre “Texas” Patterson revolver – in which Sands and his fellow Rangers have no interest, until it’s worth is proved in battle.

The second major event of the story is the killing of many of the peace delegation of Comanches on March 19th, 1840. This took place under a truce in San Antonio, which is now known as the Council House Fight. Proctor finishes the book with the Plum Creek confrontations during the beginning of August, 1840.

Proctor does a great job in combining real events with a fictional storyline, which has me eager to read the second book in the series to see if he continues to mix historical facts in as major parts of the coming stories.