April 2, 2025 • 22 mins
The series begins with the formation of the Texas Rangers in 1823, when Stephen F. Austin recruited ten men to protect settlements in what was then northern Mexico. The episode traces how this small frontier militia evolved into a formidable fighting force that developed revolutionary tactics to combat Comanche raiders, notably their early adoption of Colt revolvers that changed the dynamics of mounted warfare. The narrative follows the Rangers through Texas independence, the Mexican-American War, and their transformation from irregular fighters to the more formalized Frontier Battalion in the late 19th century. Throughout, the episode connects historical developments to the physical landscapes where they occurred, bringing to life the harsh terrain and dangerous conditions that shaped Ranger methods and mentality.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The first time I laid eyes on the old Ranger badge,
a simple silver star inside a circle. It was pinned
to the shirt of a gray haired man who'd spent
forty years in the service. His hands were gnarled like
mesquite roots, face lined like a topo map of the
Chisos Mountains. This ain't just metal, son, he told me,
(00:21):
tapping the badge. It's two hundred years of blood and dust.
He wasn't exaggerating, not by much anyway. I'm Jack Maddox,
and you're listening to true tales of the Texas Rangers.
You know, most law enforcement agencies have a straightforward origin story.
Some governor signs a bill, a bunch of officials shake hands,
(00:41):
uniforms get ordered. Not the Rangers. Hell No, the Texas
Rangers were born out of desperation, violence, and the kind
of frontier necessity that's hard to imagine in our air
conditioned modern world. To understand the Rangers, you have to
understand Texas in the eighteen twenties. Picture this a vast,
(01:04):
wild territory on the northern frontier of Mexico, sparsely populated
and desperately short on law enforcement. The Mexican government had
a solution, invite American settlers to move in, create communities,
help secure the border. In eighteen twenty one, they granted
(01:24):
Stephen F. Austin permission to bring three hundred American families
into what's now Texas. These pioneer families found themselves in
a beautiful but brutal land. Comanche raids were a constant threat.
Bandits operated freely. Mexican military garrisons were few and far between,
and the settlers quickly realized a hard truth about frontier life.
(01:47):
When danger rides in, help is usually days away, if
it comes at all. Austin wasn't naive. He knew his
colonies needed protection. In twenty three, and this is where
most historians mark the true birth of the Rangers. He
raised a small company of men, just ten at first,
(02:07):
who would quite literally range across the territory. Their job
simple in theory, damn near impossible in practice, protect settlers
from hostile native tribes, hunt down outlaws, and basically create
order from chaos. Here's what Austin wrote in his diary.
I will employ ten men in addition to those employed
(02:29):
by the government, to act as rangers for the common defense.
Ten men to patrol a territory roughly the size of France.
I've traveled some of the lands those first ten Rangers patrolled.
Even to day, with highways and GPS, it feels endless,
limestone hills rolling away to hazy horizons, vast stretches of
(02:50):
mesquite and scrub oak rivers, cutting through rocky terrain. Back then,
on horseback, it must have seemed like trying to police
an ocean with a row boat. The original Rangers weren't professionals.
They were farmers, merchants, and frontiersmen who could ride hard,
shoot straight, and survive in unforgiving country. They provided their
(03:10):
own horses, weapons, and equipment. Pay was irregular at best.
Their authority came not from badges or formal commissions, but
from their willingness to stand between settlers and danger. Those
first Rangers didn't wear uniforms, didn't carry standard weapons. They
dressed practically for hard country, broad brimmed hats against the
(03:34):
Texas sun, sturdy clothes that could take punishment, boots that
could stay in stirrups through a day long ride. Their
weapons were whatever worked, usually a rifle, pistols if they
could afford them, and always a knife. The men Austin
selected were chosen for their frontier skills and decision making,
not their ability to follow regulations. This wasn't police work
(03:57):
as we understand it to day. These men were part soldier,
part scout, part lawman, part diplomat. They were expected to
track hostels across territory where a mistake meant death, negotiate
when possible, fight when necessary, and somehow maintain peace in
places where the nearest backup might be one hundred miles away.
(04:21):
In eighteen thirty five, as tensions increase between American settlers
and the Mexican government, Texas created a formal government sanctioned
ranger force. The Texas Provisional Government authorized three companies of
fifty six rangers each. Their primary mission remained defense against
Native raids, but they would soon find themselves caught up
(04:44):
in the Texas Revolution. Here's where I should clear something up.
Despite what you might have seen in old westerns, the
early rangers weren't primarily concerned with outlaws and gunfighters. Their
main job was dealing with com mansche and Kiowa raids
on settlements. And let me tell you, the Comanche were
no joke. They were perhaps the finest light cavalry in
(05:08):
the world at that time, masters of mounted warfare who
controlled an empire across the Southern Plains. Rangers learned Comanche
tactics through brutal experience. They discovered that traditional military units
marching in formation, relying on supply lines were nearly useless
(05:28):
against warriors who could ride one hundred miles in a day,
strike without warning, and disappear into vast landscapes they knew. Intimately,
to fight the Comanche, Rangers had to adopt some of
their methods. They became expert horsemen and trackers. They learned
to travel light and live off the land. They mastered
(05:49):
the art of small unit tactics, and critically, they embraced
new technology that could give them an edge. This brings
me to the eighteen thirty six Rangers Company under Captain
John J. Tumlinson. These Rangers might have faded into historical
footnotes except for one thing. They were the first lawman
(06:10):
to use Samuel Colt's new five shot revolver in combat.
Before the Colt, a man on horseback got one shot
from a single shot pistol or rifle before needing to reload,
a process that could take thirty seconds or more against
multiple mounted opponents. Those were fatal odds. I've held original
(06:31):
cult pattersons from this era, elegant weapons with octagonal barrels
and engraved cylinders, primitive by today's standards, but revolutionary in
eighteen thirty six. These weren't just tools. They were technological
marvels that changed the balance of power on the frontier.
(06:52):
There's an old Rangers journal I read in the State
archives in Austin where he described the first time he
used a Colt in combat. The look on their faces
when I kept firing without reloading, he wrote, was worth
a year's wages. That moment, that singular shift in the
dynamics of frontier conflict echoes through ranger history like a
(07:15):
pistol shot through a canyon. The Colt changed everything. Five
shots without reloading meant a ranger could hold his own
against multiple warriors. It was such a game changer that
years later, when Samuel Colt's firearms business was struggling, it
was a Texas Ranger order that helped save his company.
(07:38):
One ranger who understood the value of firepower was John
Coffee Jack Hayes, who became a captain in the Rangers
around eighteen forty Standing just five feet eight inches and
weighing maybe one hundred sixty pounds, Hayes didn't look like
the frontier legend he'd become, but he transformed the Rangers
(07:58):
into a disciplined fighting force that could take on the
Comanche on their own terms. In June of eighteen forty four,
Hayes and fourteen Rangers were trailing a Comanche raiding party
when they were suddenly ambushed by a much larger force,
at least eighty warriors. Surrounded on an open plain, the
Rangers were in a desperate situation. Rather than form a
(08:21):
defensive circle, as conventional wisdom dictated, Hayes did something unexpected.
He ordered his men to charge directly at the Comanche.
Armed with Colt revolvers and displaying the cold nerve that
would become a Ranger trademark, Hayes and his men broke
through the Comanche lines, then wheeled around to attack again.
(08:42):
The battle lasted three hours. When it was over, the
Comanche retreated, leaving many dead behind. Only one Ranger was lost.
The Battle of Walker Creek became legendary, not just for
the Ranger's victory against overwhelming odds, but for what it represented,
a fundamental shift in the balance of power on the frontier.
(09:05):
For the first time, a small unit of men had
the mobility to pursue Comanche raiders and the fire power
to defeat them. After Texas joined the United States in
eighteen forty five, the Rangers might have been absorbed into
the U. S. Army or disbanded entirely. Instead, they found
a new purpose during the Mexican American War of eighteen
(09:28):
forty six to eighteen forty eight. General Zachary Taylor, commanding U.
S forces, needed scouts who understood the terrain and could
gather intelligence deep in enemy territory. The Rangers were perfect
for the job, but the ranger's roll quickly expanded beyond scouting.
They fought in every major battle of the war's Northern Campaign.
(09:51):
They developed a reputation for effective, but sometimes brutal combat tactics.
Mexican civilians called them Los Diavos to Heinos, the Texas devils.
Even their American allies found them troubling at times. They
are the most lawless, cutthroat set of men I ever saw,
(10:11):
wrote one U. S. Officer. That officer wasn't entirely wrong.
The Rangers of this period included some genuine heroes, but
also men who carried personal vendettas against Mexicans from earlier conflicts.
Some rangers committed atrocities against Mexican civilians, Others fought with
discipline and honour. Like any group of men in war,
(10:32):
they contained the full spectrum of human behaviour, from the
admirable to the shameful. After the Mexican American War, Texas
entered another border crisis. The U. S Army had withdrawn
many of its troops, leaving the frontier vulnerable again. In
eighteen fifty eight, in response to increased raids, the state
(10:54):
legislature authorized a new ranger force specifically to protect the frontier,
the Texas Mounted Volunteers, soon known as the Frontier Battalion.
Here's where we see the Rangers begin to evolve from
their irregular military origins towards something more recognizable as law enforcement.
(11:16):
They established a system of camps and regular patrols. They
developed clear chains of command, they started keeping better records,
and increasingly they turned their attention to outlaws as well
as external threats. This evolution accelerated after the Civil War
and reconstruction by the eighteen seventies, the frontier threats were changing.
(11:40):
Large scale Comanche raids had mostly ended following the Red
River War of eighteen seventy four to eighteen seventy five,
but Texas now faced organized criminal gangs, cattle thieves, and
the violence that came with rapid economic development. In eighteen
seventy four, the legislature reorganized the Rangers into the Frontier
(12:03):
Battalion under Major John B. Jones. The battalion consisted of
six companies of seventy five men each, all under the
authority of the state's Adjutant General. For the first time,
rangers had a formal structure, regular pay, and standardized regulations.
Jones was a stickler for discipline who insisted his rangers
(12:26):
behave as professionals, not vigilantes. He selected his company commanders carefully,
choosing men who could enforce order without excessive violence. His
Rangers still operated in small, mobile units, but now they
coordinated their efforts across the state. Let me give you
a sense of what rangers faced during this period by
(12:46):
telling you about Company d's work in just one year,
eighteen seventy seven. That January, they pursued a gang of
stage robbers from Fort Concho to the Pacas River. In March,
they were in Kimball County tracking cattle thieves. By summer
they'd moved to Minard County to investigate murders. In the fall,
(13:06):
they headed west to deal with troubles in El Paso,
and in December they were back in Central Texas hunting
a fugitive who'd escaped from the Travis County jail. All
that ground covered by one company on horseback in a
single year. These weren't men who spent much time sleeping
in comfortable beds. While I'm talking about the Frontier Battalion period,
(13:28):
I need to mention something that can make modern listeners uncomfortable,
the ranger's role in displacing Native peoples. The hard historical
truth is that the rangers were instruments of a state
policy aimed at removing Indigenous people from lands the state
wanted for settlement. Some ranger actions protected innocent settlers from
(13:52):
genuinely violent raids. Others amounted to driving people from their
ancestral lands to make way for white settlement. Stood in
some of the places where these conflicts played out, peaceful
looking hills and valleys where men fought and died over
irreconcilable visions of what Texas should be. History isn't always heroic,
(14:14):
and the story of the Rangers includes chapters that reflect
the darker aspects of American expansion. By the eighteen eighties,
the ranger's focus had shifted decisively towards civil law enforcement.
They spent more time pursuing train robbers, fence cutters, and
murderers than fighting border raids. But one aspect of the
(14:36):
ranger approach remained unchanged their mobility and independence. A Texas
ranger wasn't tied to a specific jurisdiction like a sheriff
or city marshal. He could pursue criminals anywhere in the state.
He typically worked alone or with one partner, making decisions
in the field without waiting for orders. This flexibility made
(14:57):
rangers particularly effective against criminals who tried to escape justice
by crossing county lines. Take the case of John Wesley Harden,
one of the deadliest gun fighters in Texas history. By
eighteen seventy seven, Harden had killed at least twenty men
and fled to Florida under a false name. Many lawmen
(15:18):
knew who he was, but hesitated to confront such a
dangerous man, Ranger John Armstrong took the assignment to bring
him in. Armstrong tracked Harden to Pensacola, where he found
him on a train. When Armstrong moved to make the arrest,
Harden went for his gun. Armstrong grappled with him, using
(15:39):
his pistol as a club to knock Harden unconscious. He
then handcuffed the semi conscious gunfighter, placed him on another train,
and brought him all the way back to Texas to
stand trial. That's nearly one thousand, two hundred miles with
one of the deadliest killers in America as a prisoner.
(15:59):
The Armstrong the Wrong Hardened incident highlights something important about
the ranger's reputation in this period. Individual rangers might not
have been exceptionally skilled compared to other frontier lawmen. What
set them apart was their willingness to take on the
most dangerous assignments with minimal support. They cultivated an aura
(16:22):
of absolute determination that made even hardened criminals think twice
about resisting. I once asked an old ranger captain what
made the force special in those days? He leaned back
in his chair. We were sitting on the porch of
his hill Country ranch House squinted at the horizon and said,
reputation is a force multiplier. Son. He took a sip
(16:45):
of coffee before continuing, When a man believes you'll ride
a thousand miles to catch him, when he believes you'll
never give up, he's already half caught. The Texas Rangers
understood that better than anybody that insight stuck with me.
The Rangers weren't just lawmen. They were psychological warriors who
used their reputation as effectively as their weapons. When a
(17:10):
ranger rode into town, people noticed not because he wore
a flashy uniform or carried special weapons he didn't, but
because of what he represented, the implacable justice of the state,
backed by men willing to die to uphold it. This
reputation gave rise to one of the most famous ranger sayings,
One riot, one Ranger. The story goes that a town
(17:33):
facing civil unrest called for rangers, and just one man
stepped off the train. When asked where the others were,
he supposedly replied, you only have one riot. Don't you
like many good stories? This one's probably embellished, but it
captures something true about ranger psychology. These men genuinely believed,
(17:56):
or at least wanted others to believe, that a single
Ranger was sufficient to handle almost any situation. That confidence,
backed by the state's authority, and a willingness to use
decisive force, made the Rangers remarkably effective despite their small numbers.
As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the Rangers
(18:20):
faced an existential question. Was there still a place for
them in an increasingly settled and civilized Texas The frontier
wars were over. Most counties had professional sheriff's departments, cities
had police forces. The Rangers might have faded away like
other frontier institutions. Instead, they reinvented themselves. Under the leadership
(18:43):
of men like Captain Bill MacDonald, the Rangers transformed into
an elite state police force that handled cases too complex
or politically sensitive for local authorities. They investigated murders, broke
up gambling rings, prevented lynching, and mediated labor disputes. This
transition wasn't always smooth. The Rangers of this era sometimes
(19:07):
found themselves caught between powerful economic interests and workers demanding
better conditions. During strikes, rangers often protected company property and
maintained order in ways that benefited owners over laborers. They
were men of their time, generally conservative in outlook and
(19:29):
suspicious of radical movements. At the same time, rangers occasionally
stood against powerful interests to protect the vulnerable. During the
Brownsville political crisis of nineteen o five, Captain Bill McDonald
positioned himself between an angry mob and a group of
Mexican Americans they intended to lynch. I'll kill the first
(19:52):
man who takes another step, McDonald reportedly said, and the mob,
knowing his reputation dispersed by the early By twentieth century,
the horse riding frontier ranger was giving way to a
new model, the investigative detective. Using modern forensic techniques, Rangers
began keeping fingerprint records. They used automobiles instead of horses.
(20:15):
They carried telephones and cameras, as well as pistols. The
ranger of nineteen hundred would hardly have recognized his successor
of nineteen twenty. This modernization took a significant step forward
in nineteen thirty five, when the Texas legislature created the
Department of Public Safety, placing the Rangers under its authority
(20:39):
as one division of a larger law enforcement agency. For
the first time, rangers had standardized training requirements, clear procedures,
and direct oversight. Today's Rangers, fewer than two hundred men
and women for the entire state, are elite criminal investigators
handling the most complex cases. In Texas. There are long
(21:00):
away from Stephen F. Austin's irregular Frontier Company, but when
a modern Ranger pins on the iconic Silver Star, they
become part of an unbroken tradition stretching back nearly two centuries.
I started this story with an old ranger showing me
his badge. After our conversation. As I was leaving, he
(21:21):
said something that stuck with me. People think the Rangers
survived because we were tougher or meaner than everybody else.
That's not it. We survived because Texas kept needing something
The Rangers could provide men and women willing to go anywhere,
face any danger, and do whatever the law required. Far
(21:42):
as I can tell, they still need that. Standing in
the Texas sunlight, looking at the weathered face of a
man who devoted his life to a tradition older than
the state itself, I couldn't disagree. I'm Jack Maddox, and
in the next day episode of true tales of the
Texas Rangers. Will meet some of the most legendary Rangers
(22:05):
in the force's history, from the iron willed Jack Hayes
to the deadly accurate Leander McNelly to the legendary Manuel
Lone Wolf Gonzalez. Their stories aren't always pretty, but they're
always fascinating. Until then, remember what those early Rangers understood
on the frontier, whether it's the physical frontier of the
eighteen thirties or the frontiers we face today. The most
(22:28):
valuable weapon isn't your gun, it's your grit. This has
been a quiet please production. Head over to Quiet Please
dot ai to hear what matters.
The first time I laid eyes on the old Ranger badge,
a simple silver star inside a circle. It was pinned
to the shirt of a gray haired man who'd spent
forty years in the service. His hands were gnarled like
mesquite roots, face lined like a topo map of the
Chisos Mountains. This ain't just metal, son, he told me,
(00:21):
tapping the badge. It's two hundred years of blood and dust.
He wasn't exaggerating, not by much anyway. I'm Jack Maddox,
and you're listening to true tales of the Texas Rangers.
You know, most law enforcement agencies have a straightforward origin story.
Some governor signs a bill, a bunch of officials shake hands,
(00:41):
uniforms get ordered. Not the Rangers. Hell No, the Texas
Rangers were born out of desperation, violence, and the kind
of frontier necessity that's hard to imagine in our air
conditioned modern world. To understand the Rangers, you have to
understand Texas in the eighteen twenties. Picture this a vast,
(01:04):
wild territory on the northern frontier of Mexico, sparsely populated
and desperately short on law enforcement. The Mexican government had
a solution, invite American settlers to move in, create communities,
help secure the border. In eighteen twenty one, they granted
(01:24):
Stephen F. Austin permission to bring three hundred American families
into what's now Texas. These pioneer families found themselves in
a beautiful but brutal land. Comanche raids were a constant threat.
Bandits operated freely. Mexican military garrisons were few and far between,
and the settlers quickly realized a hard truth about frontier life.
(01:47):
When danger rides in, help is usually days away, if
it comes at all. Austin wasn't naive. He knew his
colonies needed protection. In twenty three, and this is where
most historians mark the true birth of the Rangers. He
raised a small company of men, just ten at first,
(02:07):
who would quite literally range across the territory. Their job
simple in theory, damn near impossible in practice, protect settlers
from hostile native tribes, hunt down outlaws, and basically create
order from chaos. Here's what Austin wrote in his diary.
I will employ ten men in addition to those employed
(02:29):
by the government, to act as rangers for the common defense.
Ten men to patrol a territory roughly the size of France.
I've traveled some of the lands those first ten Rangers patrolled.
Even to day, with highways and GPS, it feels endless,
limestone hills rolling away to hazy horizons, vast stretches of
(02:50):
mesquite and scrub oak rivers, cutting through rocky terrain. Back then,
on horseback, it must have seemed like trying to police
an ocean with a row boat. The original Rangers weren't professionals.
They were farmers, merchants, and frontiersmen who could ride hard,
shoot straight, and survive in unforgiving country. They provided their
(03:10):
own horses, weapons, and equipment. Pay was irregular at best.
Their authority came not from badges or formal commissions, but
from their willingness to stand between settlers and danger. Those
first Rangers didn't wear uniforms, didn't carry standard weapons. They
dressed practically for hard country, broad brimmed hats against the
(03:34):
Texas sun, sturdy clothes that could take punishment, boots that
could stay in stirrups through a day long ride. Their
weapons were whatever worked, usually a rifle, pistols if they
could afford them, and always a knife. The men Austin
selected were chosen for their frontier skills and decision making,
not their ability to follow regulations. This wasn't police work
(03:57):
as we understand it to day. These men were part soldier,
part scout, part lawman, part diplomat. They were expected to
track hostels across territory where a mistake meant death, negotiate
when possible, fight when necessary, and somehow maintain peace in
places where the nearest backup might be one hundred miles away.
(04:21):
In eighteen thirty five, as tensions increase between American settlers
and the Mexican government, Texas created a formal government sanctioned
ranger force. The Texas Provisional Government authorized three companies of
fifty six rangers each. Their primary mission remained defense against
Native raids, but they would soon find themselves caught up
(04:44):
in the Texas Revolution. Here's where I should clear something up.
Despite what you might have seen in old westerns, the
early rangers weren't primarily concerned with outlaws and gunfighters. Their
main job was dealing with com mansche and Kiowa raids
on settlements. And let me tell you, the Comanche were
no joke. They were perhaps the finest light cavalry in
(05:08):
the world at that time, masters of mounted warfare who
controlled an empire across the Southern Plains. Rangers learned Comanche
tactics through brutal experience. They discovered that traditional military units
marching in formation, relying on supply lines were nearly useless
(05:28):
against warriors who could ride one hundred miles in a day,
strike without warning, and disappear into vast landscapes they knew. Intimately,
to fight the Comanche, Rangers had to adopt some of
their methods. They became expert horsemen and trackers. They learned
to travel light and live off the land. They mastered
(05:49):
the art of small unit tactics, and critically, they embraced
new technology that could give them an edge. This brings
me to the eighteen thirty six Rangers Company under Captain
John J. Tumlinson. These Rangers might have faded into historical
footnotes except for one thing. They were the first lawman
(06:10):
to use Samuel Colt's new five shot revolver in combat.
Before the Colt, a man on horseback got one shot
from a single shot pistol or rifle before needing to reload,
a process that could take thirty seconds or more against
multiple mounted opponents. Those were fatal odds. I've held original
(06:31):
cult pattersons from this era, elegant weapons with octagonal barrels
and engraved cylinders, primitive by today's standards, but revolutionary in
eighteen thirty six. These weren't just tools. They were technological
marvels that changed the balance of power on the frontier.
(06:52):
There's an old Rangers journal I read in the State
archives in Austin where he described the first time he
used a Colt in combat. The look on their faces
when I kept firing without reloading, he wrote, was worth
a year's wages. That moment, that singular shift in the
dynamics of frontier conflict echoes through ranger history like a
(07:15):
pistol shot through a canyon. The Colt changed everything. Five
shots without reloading meant a ranger could hold his own
against multiple warriors. It was such a game changer that
years later, when Samuel Colt's firearms business was struggling, it
was a Texas Ranger order that helped save his company.
(07:38):
One ranger who understood the value of firepower was John
Coffee Jack Hayes, who became a captain in the Rangers
around eighteen forty Standing just five feet eight inches and
weighing maybe one hundred sixty pounds, Hayes didn't look like
the frontier legend he'd become, but he transformed the Rangers
(07:58):
into a disciplined fighting force that could take on the
Comanche on their own terms. In June of eighteen forty four,
Hayes and fourteen Rangers were trailing a Comanche raiding party
when they were suddenly ambushed by a much larger force,
at least eighty warriors. Surrounded on an open plain, the
Rangers were in a desperate situation. Rather than form a
(08:21):
defensive circle, as conventional wisdom dictated, Hayes did something unexpected.
He ordered his men to charge directly at the Comanche.
Armed with Colt revolvers and displaying the cold nerve that
would become a Ranger trademark, Hayes and his men broke
through the Comanche lines, then wheeled around to attack again.
(08:42):
The battle lasted three hours. When it was over, the
Comanche retreated, leaving many dead behind. Only one Ranger was lost.
The Battle of Walker Creek became legendary, not just for
the Ranger's victory against overwhelming odds, but for what it represented,
a fundamental shift in the balance of power on the frontier.
(09:05):
For the first time, a small unit of men had
the mobility to pursue Comanche raiders and the fire power
to defeat them. After Texas joined the United States in
eighteen forty five, the Rangers might have been absorbed into
the U. S. Army or disbanded entirely. Instead, they found
a new purpose during the Mexican American War of eighteen
(09:28):
forty six to eighteen forty eight. General Zachary Taylor, commanding U.
S forces, needed scouts who understood the terrain and could
gather intelligence deep in enemy territory. The Rangers were perfect
for the job, but the ranger's roll quickly expanded beyond scouting.
They fought in every major battle of the war's Northern Campaign.
(09:51):
They developed a reputation for effective, but sometimes brutal combat tactics.
Mexican civilians called them Los Diavos to Heinos, the Texas devils.
Even their American allies found them troubling at times. They
are the most lawless, cutthroat set of men I ever saw,
(10:11):
wrote one U. S. Officer. That officer wasn't entirely wrong.
The Rangers of this period included some genuine heroes, but
also men who carried personal vendettas against Mexicans from earlier conflicts.
Some rangers committed atrocities against Mexican civilians, Others fought with
discipline and honour. Like any group of men in war,
(10:32):
they contained the full spectrum of human behaviour, from the
admirable to the shameful. After the Mexican American War, Texas
entered another border crisis. The U. S Army had withdrawn
many of its troops, leaving the frontier vulnerable again. In
eighteen fifty eight, in response to increased raids, the state
(10:54):
legislature authorized a new ranger force specifically to protect the frontier,
the Texas Mounted Volunteers, soon known as the Frontier Battalion.
Here's where we see the Rangers begin to evolve from
their irregular military origins towards something more recognizable as law enforcement.
(11:16):
They established a system of camps and regular patrols. They
developed clear chains of command, they started keeping better records,
and increasingly they turned their attention to outlaws as well
as external threats. This evolution accelerated after the Civil War
and reconstruction by the eighteen seventies, the frontier threats were changing.
(11:40):
Large scale Comanche raids had mostly ended following the Red
River War of eighteen seventy four to eighteen seventy five,
but Texas now faced organized criminal gangs, cattle thieves, and
the violence that came with rapid economic development. In eighteen
seventy four, the legislature reorganized the Rangers into the Frontier
(12:03):
Battalion under Major John B. Jones. The battalion consisted of
six companies of seventy five men each, all under the
authority of the state's Adjutant General. For the first time,
rangers had a formal structure, regular pay, and standardized regulations.
Jones was a stickler for discipline who insisted his rangers
(12:26):
behave as professionals, not vigilantes. He selected his company commanders carefully,
choosing men who could enforce order without excessive violence. His
Rangers still operated in small, mobile units, but now they
coordinated their efforts across the state. Let me give you
a sense of what rangers faced during this period by
(12:46):
telling you about Company d's work in just one year,
eighteen seventy seven. That January, they pursued a gang of
stage robbers from Fort Concho to the Pacas River. In March,
they were in Kimball County tracking cattle thieves. By summer
they'd moved to Minard County to investigate murders. In the fall,
(13:06):
they headed west to deal with troubles in El Paso,
and in December they were back in Central Texas hunting
a fugitive who'd escaped from the Travis County jail. All
that ground covered by one company on horseback in a
single year. These weren't men who spent much time sleeping
in comfortable beds. While I'm talking about the Frontier Battalion period,
(13:28):
I need to mention something that can make modern listeners uncomfortable,
the ranger's role in displacing Native peoples. The hard historical
truth is that the rangers were instruments of a state
policy aimed at removing Indigenous people from lands the state
wanted for settlement. Some ranger actions protected innocent settlers from
(13:52):
genuinely violent raids. Others amounted to driving people from their
ancestral lands to make way for white settlement. Stood in
some of the places where these conflicts played out, peaceful
looking hills and valleys where men fought and died over
irreconcilable visions of what Texas should be. History isn't always heroic,
(14:14):
and the story of the Rangers includes chapters that reflect
the darker aspects of American expansion. By the eighteen eighties,
the ranger's focus had shifted decisively towards civil law enforcement.
They spent more time pursuing train robbers, fence cutters, and
murderers than fighting border raids. But one aspect of the
(14:36):
ranger approach remained unchanged their mobility and independence. A Texas
ranger wasn't tied to a specific jurisdiction like a sheriff
or city marshal. He could pursue criminals anywhere in the state.
He typically worked alone or with one partner, making decisions
in the field without waiting for orders. This flexibility made
(14:57):
rangers particularly effective against criminals who tried to escape justice
by crossing county lines. Take the case of John Wesley Harden,
one of the deadliest gun fighters in Texas history. By
eighteen seventy seven, Harden had killed at least twenty men
and fled to Florida under a false name. Many lawmen
(15:18):
knew who he was, but hesitated to confront such a
dangerous man, Ranger John Armstrong took the assignment to bring
him in. Armstrong tracked Harden to Pensacola, where he found
him on a train. When Armstrong moved to make the arrest,
Harden went for his gun. Armstrong grappled with him, using
(15:39):
his pistol as a club to knock Harden unconscious. He
then handcuffed the semi conscious gunfighter, placed him on another train,
and brought him all the way back to Texas to
stand trial. That's nearly one thousand, two hundred miles with
one of the deadliest killers in America as a prisoner.
(15:59):
The Armstrong the Wrong Hardened incident highlights something important about
the ranger's reputation in this period. Individual rangers might not
have been exceptionally skilled compared to other frontier lawmen. What
set them apart was their willingness to take on the
most dangerous assignments with minimal support. They cultivated an aura
(16:22):
of absolute determination that made even hardened criminals think twice
about resisting. I once asked an old ranger captain what
made the force special in those days? He leaned back
in his chair. We were sitting on the porch of
his hill Country ranch House squinted at the horizon and said,
reputation is a force multiplier. Son. He took a sip
(16:45):
of coffee before continuing, When a man believes you'll ride
a thousand miles to catch him, when he believes you'll
never give up, he's already half caught. The Texas Rangers
understood that better than anybody that insight stuck with me.
The Rangers weren't just lawmen. They were psychological warriors who
used their reputation as effectively as their weapons. When a
(17:10):
ranger rode into town, people noticed not because he wore
a flashy uniform or carried special weapons he didn't, but
because of what he represented, the implacable justice of the state,
backed by men willing to die to uphold it. This
reputation gave rise to one of the most famous ranger sayings,
One riot, one Ranger. The story goes that a town
(17:33):
facing civil unrest called for rangers, and just one man
stepped off the train. When asked where the others were,
he supposedly replied, you only have one riot. Don't you
like many good stories? This one's probably embellished, but it
captures something true about ranger psychology. These men genuinely believed,
(17:56):
or at least wanted others to believe, that a single
Ranger was sufficient to handle almost any situation. That confidence,
backed by the state's authority, and a willingness to use
decisive force, made the Rangers remarkably effective despite their small numbers.
As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the Rangers
(18:20):
faced an existential question. Was there still a place for
them in an increasingly settled and civilized Texas The frontier
wars were over. Most counties had professional sheriff's departments, cities
had police forces. The Rangers might have faded away like
other frontier institutions. Instead, they reinvented themselves. Under the leadership
(18:43):
of men like Captain Bill MacDonald, the Rangers transformed into
an elite state police force that handled cases too complex
or politically sensitive for local authorities. They investigated murders, broke
up gambling rings, prevented lynching, and mediated labor disputes. This
transition wasn't always smooth. The Rangers of this era sometimes
(19:07):
found themselves caught between powerful economic interests and workers demanding
better conditions. During strikes, rangers often protected company property and
maintained order in ways that benefited owners over laborers. They
were men of their time, generally conservative in outlook and
(19:29):
suspicious of radical movements. At the same time, rangers occasionally
stood against powerful interests to protect the vulnerable. During the
Brownsville political crisis of nineteen o five, Captain Bill McDonald
positioned himself between an angry mob and a group of
Mexican Americans they intended to lynch. I'll kill the first
(19:52):
man who takes another step, McDonald reportedly said, and the mob,
knowing his reputation dispersed by the early By twentieth century,
the horse riding frontier ranger was giving way to a
new model, the investigative detective. Using modern forensic techniques, Rangers
began keeping fingerprint records. They used automobiles instead of horses.
(20:15):
They carried telephones and cameras, as well as pistols. The
ranger of nineteen hundred would hardly have recognized his successor
of nineteen twenty. This modernization took a significant step forward
in nineteen thirty five, when the Texas legislature created the
Department of Public Safety, placing the Rangers under its authority
(20:39):
as one division of a larger law enforcement agency. For
the first time, rangers had standardized training requirements, clear procedures,
and direct oversight. Today's Rangers, fewer than two hundred men
and women for the entire state, are elite criminal investigators
handling the most complex cases. In Texas. There are long
(21:00):
away from Stephen F. Austin's irregular Frontier Company, but when
a modern Ranger pins on the iconic Silver Star, they
become part of an unbroken tradition stretching back nearly two centuries.
I started this story with an old ranger showing me
his badge. After our conversation. As I was leaving, he
(21:21):
said something that stuck with me. People think the Rangers
survived because we were tougher or meaner than everybody else.
That's not it. We survived because Texas kept needing something
The Rangers could provide men and women willing to go anywhere,
face any danger, and do whatever the law required. Far
(21:42):
as I can tell, they still need that. Standing in
the Texas sunlight, looking at the weathered face of a
man who devoted his life to a tradition older than
the state itself, I couldn't disagree. I'm Jack Maddox, and
in the next day episode of true tales of the
Texas Rangers. Will meet some of the most legendary Rangers
(22:05):
in the force's history, from the iron willed Jack Hayes
to the deadly accurate Leander McNelly to the legendary Manuel
Lone Wolf Gonzalez. Their stories aren't always pretty, but they're
always fascinating. Until then, remember what those early Rangers understood
on the frontier, whether it's the physical frontier of the
eighteen thirties or the frontiers we face today. The most
(22:28):
valuable weapon isn't your gun, it's your grit. This has
been a quiet please production. Head over to Quiet Please
dot ai to hear what matters.
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