Regulator–Moderator War
The 1839–1844 Regulator–Moderator War, or the Shelby County War, was a nineteenth-century feud in East Texas during the Republic of Texas years between rival factions. The war started out as a dispute of land ownership before becoming a violent conflict for control of the local economy. Soon raids, livestock thievery and murders erupted in the region and took the lives of over forty men. Background The United States and Spain ignored a strip of land between Spanish Texas and the Louisiana Territory (in what is now the U.S. state of Louisiana), because they were unable to agree on the boundary and did not want to go to war over it. The area, known as the Sabine Free State or the Neutral Ground, developed into a lawless patch that neither country controlled. The lawlessness spilled over into the adjacent portion of East Texas, still under Spanish control. Even after Spain and the United States signed the Adams–Onís Treaty (1819) and Mexico gained its independence (1821), little changed in regards to the region. After Texas won its independence from Mexico, the land remained wild and lawless. War The Regulator–Moderator War was a land feud in Harrison and Shelby counties in East Texas