Lone Star Navy: Texas, the Fight for the Gulf of Mexico, and the Shaping of the American West

Lone Star Navy analyzes the role played by the little fleet of wooden warships, bought on credit and sent to sea by an impoverished band of revolutionaries, in winning Texas's independence from Mexico. The upstart flotilla became a vital counterpart to Texan armies fighting for an independent republic. But the same fierce individuality that led Texans to shake off their Mexican rulers also stymied their efforts to govern themselves with a consensus. Lauded by its advocates as strategically vital and ridiculed by its detractors as a farcical waste of money, the navy became a flash point in a clash of visions.