The thrilling adventures of traveler, rancher, and fighter “Big-Foot” Wallace in a bygone era of the American frontier. Amid the embroiling conflicts of frontiersmen, Mexicans, and war in Texas, 1837, William “Big-Foot” Wallace left his hometown of Virginia to avenge the deaths of his brother and cousin, soldiers executed by Mexicans. Upon joining the Texas Rangers, Wallace was swept into the clashes at Salado Creek, Hondo River, and the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican-American War. Measuring at 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighing 240 pounds, Big-Foot Wallace embodied the iron nerves and indomitable spirit of the Texan frontiersman. In one of his most famous and harrowing experiences during the Mier expedition, Wallace was captured by the Mexican army, blindfolded, and forced to draw from a pot of black and white beans to determine whether he would be imprisoned or executed. Wallace drew a white bean and lived. After the war, he returned from the wilderness to clean, civilized Virginia, and spent the rest of his days as a storytelling, yarn-spinning rancher. John Duval, fellow Texas Ranger and Wallace’s best friend, gives a thrilling but factual account of the man’s life in a simple but engaging narrative style, combining action, suspense, and dry Texan humor. Wallace’s hairbreadth escapes and larger-than-life story are the perfect representation of the Old West in all its perils, comedy, and romance. Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home. John C. Duval was born in 1816 to a distinguished family in Kentucky. Upon meeting fellow Texas Ranger Big-Foot Wallace, the two became fast friends. Duval went on to fight for the South in the Civil War, and retired to a backyard cabin in Texas to live out the remainder of his life as a surveyor and prospector, often visiting Wallace to talk about the old days. Duval wrote extensively about the nostalgia of the Old West, and was called the “first Texas man of letters.” Duval died in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1897, two years before Wallace. The Adventures of Big-Foot Wallace The Texas Ranger and Hunter By John C. Duval Skyhorse Publishing Copyright © 2015 Skyhorse Publishing All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-62914-734-5 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTORY. IN 1867, while temporarily sojourning in the city of San Antonio, I had a severe attack of fever, from the effects of which I recovered but slowly. Thinking that fresh air and exercise would aid me in regaining my health and strength, I mounted my horse one fine morning in the latter part of October, and set out for the "ranch" of my quondam messmate and compadre, "Big-Foot Wallace," who held an uncertain tenure upon a tract of pasture land, situated on the Chacon, one of the head-waters of the Altascoso. I say, uncertain, for his right to and possession of the same is constantly disputed and ignored by predatory bands of savages, and Mexicans, and horse-thieves of all colors, grades, and nations. Toward sundown, from the top of a considerable hill, I came in sight of Wallace's little ranch, snugly ensconced at the bottom of a valley, near the margin of a small lake, and protected from the northern blasts by a beautiful grove of spreading live-oaks. As I rode up I discovered Wallace under one of these trees, engaged in the characteristic occupation of skinning a deer, which was hanging head downward, suspended from one of its lower branches. Wallace did not recognize me at first, for it was many years since we had last met; but, as soon as I made myself known to him, he gave me a cordial shake of the hand, and invited me into his ranch, where, in a short time, he prepared a supper, to which I sat down, "nothing loath," for my appetite was sharpened by my long day's ride. I staid with Wallace two weeks, or thereabouts, hunting, fishing, and riding around during the day, and entertained each night with "yarns" of his numerous "'scapes and scrapes, by flood and field." Many years previously, when Wallace and I were messmates together, in the first Ranging Company, enlisted in the service of the "Old Republic," under Colonel Jack Hays, I asked his consent to write out a narrative of his "adventures," to be published for the benefit of the public generally. But he seemed so much opposed to my doing so