A Texas Cow Boy

Chas. A. Siringo turns his own hard-riding past into a rowdy, fast-moving memoir of the Texas cattle frontier, where humor, danger, and swagger ride side by side. From his boyhood on the Matagorda Peninsula through the Civil War, ranch work, buffalo hunts, trail drives, and outlaw country, he presents "fifteen years on the hurricane deck of a Spanish pony" as both adventure and survival. He is born into hardship, learns to rope and roam in a wild coastal childhood, and grows up amid war, poverty, and family upheaval before finally entering the cattle trade he has always dreamed of. As he ranges across Texas, Indian Territory, the South Plains, Dodge City, and beyond, Siringo meets buffalo hunters, cattle thieves, Indians, Mexican rustlers, and men like Billy the Kid. He endures typhoid, hunger, winter storms, violence, and the temptations of drink and town life, while also finding moments of frontier kindness, faith, and resilience. Comic, irreverent, and vividly detailed, this memoir captures the rough work and restless spirit of the American West. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.