The Men Who War the Star: The Story of the Texas Rangers (4 page)

John B. Jones elevated Ranger command to strategic levels in policing the state, first as commander of the Frontier Battalion, then as adjutant general.

A portrait of Sgt. James B. Gillett shows him with field equipment, including Winchester rifle, Colt’s revolver, and two sheath knives.

Heavily armed Rangers of Capt. Dan Roberts’s company gather for a meal near Fort McKavett in west Texas in the 1880s.

THE WAR AGAINST BADMEN

The frail, tubercular Capt. Leander H. McNelly spent the last two years of his life trying to control blood feuds and border stock raids in south Texas.

John Wesley Hardin’s long string of killings made him the object of a manhunt that took Texas Rangers all the way to Florida.

Sgt. John Barkley Armstrong captured John Wesley Hardin and returned him to Texas.

At the height of their often ludicrous careers as badmen, Sam Bass (
standing, left
) and three members of his gang took time for this studio photograph. Others include (
seated, left to
right
) Joe and Joel Collins and (
standing, right
) J. E. Gardner.

Badman John King Fisher (
left
) poses with friend John H. Culp in a tintype made in 1873. Note the heavy Smith & Wesson No. 3 revolver across Culp’s leg. Introduced in 1870, the Smith & Wesson No. 3 was the first practical heavy-caliber cartridge revolver and as such was the weapon of choice until Colt’s responded with the Single Action Army, or “Peacemaker,” in 1873. Even after the advent of the Colt, the Smith & Wesson remained popular on the frontier.

DAN STUART’S FISTIC CARNIVAL

Fight promoter Dan Stuart planned to stage a world heavyweight championship bout in Texas, despite growing opposition to prizefighting.

The youthful governor, Charles Culberson, matched Stuart in determination and was intent on stopping the fight.

A New York cartoonist’s view of a Texas Ranger holding Fitzsimmons and Maher apart at gunpoint with revolvers that look suspiciously like the heavy Colt’s Walker model.

The state flexed its muscles by sending every available Ranger to El Paso to stop the fight. While there, they posed for this group photo, which included (
front, left to right
) Adjutant General W. H. Mabry and the four Ranger captains, John R. Hughes, J. A. Brooks, William J. McDonald, and J. M. Rogers.