The effects of the Civil War on civilian life in Texas are 
powerfully conveyed in the correspondence of Dr. Gideon Lincecum 
(1793 - 1874), a natural scientist and philosopher who moved to 
Texas in 1848 with his family of ten children and settled in 
Washington County. Having retired from an extensive and lucrative
 botanical medical practice in Mississippi, Gideon devoted much 
of his time in Texas before the war to studying the natural 
sciences and carrying on an extensive correspondence that 
included Northern scientists and even Charles Darwin. He used a 
letterpress to make copies of almost all of his letters, and 
these letterpress volumes, totaling more than a thousand pages, 
were preserved by one of his daughters. Gideon's letters provide 
a rich and detailed account of how one individual and his large 
extended family, all of whom were strongly committed to the 
Confederacy, kept up with the progress of the conflict and coped 
with the multitude of problems it created.
   

Lincecum's resourcefulness in the face of shortages included 
weaving spanish moss into blankets and investigating the 
papermaking potential of milkweed. He was always optimistic about 
the prospects of the Confederacy and always willing to further the 
cause however he could. His dedication to the South often led him 
into astonishing diatribes, as when he wrote his son Lysander: "It 
would be a gratifying thing to my feelings, to be certified that 
every man, woman and child in the bounds of the confederacy had 
taken a solemn oath that to die fighting is far preferable to 
submission, and so long as they have life and strength to damage a 
yankee in any manner or form that they will continue to do so."


"The Gideon Lincecum of this book is, almost literally, a blast 
from the past. His voice is so powerfully direct, so angry and 
immediate, it seems to blow down the barricades of time itself. 
Lincecum reveals himself to be a deliciously complex personality: 
a tender-hearted pater familias, loyal friend, and courageous man 
of science who is also a hectoring, fulminating blowhard whose 
brilliant mind is clouded with bigotry. This book is so strikingly 
immediate and so disturbingly authentic that it should be read by 
anyone seriously trying to understand the tone and texture of 
mid-nineteenth century Texas." - Stephen Harrigan, author of Gates 
of the Alamo


"This is going to be a very important book for homefront views in 
Texas, and at the same time a really useful insight into the 
ingenuity exercised by many Confederates in dealing with shortage 
and scarcity. Certainly Gideon was well ahead of many Southerners 
in calling for regional self- sufficiency." - William C. Davis, 
author, Jefferson Davis and "A Government of Our Own": 
The Making of the Confederacy


"Pioneer Texas scientist, natural healer and philosopher Gideon 
Lincecum continues to be a fascinating character full of extreme 
contradictions in this collection of his Civil War letters from the 
home front. On the one hand he was a true Renaissance man for his 
time, his inquiring mind never at rest. On the other he was a strong 
believer in the righteousness of slavery. He was virulent in his 
hatred of the Yankee aggressors, yet when the war was over he 
resumed correspondence with his Northern scientist friends almost 
as if nothing had happened." - Elmer Kelton, author of The Good 
Old Boys and The Time It Never Rained



_________________________________________________________

JERRY B. LINCECUM is the Shoap Professor of English at Austin 
College. Edward Hake Phillips is Professor of History, Emeritus, 
at Austin College. Peggy Redshaw teaches biology, also at Austin 
College. The three previously coedited Science on the Texas 
Frontier: Observations of Dr. Gideon Lincecum.