Dac Crossley's Western Blog: Bigfoot Wallace, Texas Ranger

I’ve used the old Texas Ranger and frontier scout in a previous story, Escape from the Alamo. Bigfoot Wallace was larger than life – literally – and is the hero of a number of Texas legends. He came from Virginia to Texas after the Goliad Massacre, in which Mexican soldiers murdered their prisoners. One of Wallace’s brothers and a cousin were among those killed, and Wallace vowed revenge. Later in life he claimed “the account was squared.”

A large and lusty man, 6’2” tall, Wallace cut timber for buildings in the new Texas capital at Austin. He moved on to San Antonio and ranched on the Frio River, but he preferred the life of a Texas Ranger. During the Civil War, Wallace fought Comanches on the frontier, and wrote of his many adventures.

One adventure turned sour. Bigfoot Wallace was one of 300 Texicans who disobeyed an order to retreat and instead attacked the Mexican village of Mier. Outnumbered ten to one, the Texans were marched toward Mexico City. Mexican President Santa Anna decreed that one of every ten Texans should be shot.

The lottery became known as the Black Bean episode. Each Texan drew one bean from a pot. A black bean meant death; a white bean imprisonment. Bigfoot Wallace later reported that he noticed that the white beans were smaller, and so managed to reach into the pot and find a small bean. He joined the survivors at Peyote Prison in Veracruz.

Bigfoot Wallace was a warm, genial soul who loved to turn a phrase and was known to embroider his adventures.

I’m working on another Texas novel, set in San Antonio immediately after the Civil War. That was a time of chaos in South Texas, when Federal Agents ruled Texas ineffectively, Texas Rangers were replaced by State Police, and lawlessness became the rule. Bigfoot will fit right in. I’m still search for a title….

Dac Crossley
April 24, 2018

“Ugliness is in a way superior to beauty because it lasts.” – Serge Gainsbourg.