Regulator-Moderator War
| Regulator-Moderator War | ||||||||
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| Belligerents | ||||||||
| Regulators | Moderators |
 Republic of Texas
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| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
| Charles W. Jackson Charles W. Moorman |
Edward Merchant John M. Bradley James J. Cravens |
Sam Houston John J. Kennedy
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| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
| 40 killed | ||||||||
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The 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 40 men.
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.
The Regulator–Moderator War was a land feud in Harrison and Shelby counties in East Texas from 1839 to 1844. The feud eventually involved Nacogdoches, San Augustine, and other East Texas counties.
The main leaders were Charles W. Jackson and Charles W. Moorman for the Regulators and Edward Merchant, John M. Bradley, and James J. Cravens for the Moderators. Their differences date back to land frauds, cattle rustling, barn burners, and revenge killings. Dozens had been killed over the years.
The conflict began over fraud, cattle rustling, and land swindling in the Neutral Ground, the lawless area between the American border and Mexican Texas. This conflict reached a boiling point after Charles W. Jackson, a former Mississippi riverboat captain and a fugitive from Louisiana justice, shot Joseph Goodbread at Shelbyville in 1840. Jackson soon organized a militia he named the Regulators to prevent "cattle rustling." In turn, the Moderators were organized by Edward Merchant to moderate the Regulators. When Charles Jackson went on trial on July 12, 1841, before Judge John M. Hansford, a friend of the Moderators and Goodbread, the Regulators intimidated the court so much that the trial could not proceed.
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