Winchester Warriors: Texas Rangers of Company D, 1874-1901

Chapter 12: “A deplorable mistake on both sides”

202 Chapter 12 “A deplorable mistake on both sides” After the Menard County sojourn at Camp Johnson, Captain Sieker moved the Company D base back to Camp Leona in Uvalde County— briefly. The company was ordered back to the border country—cow stealers and killers were running wild. Sheriff Oglesby was overwhelmed , bandits and bandidos shamelessly jumped back and forth across the Rio Grande with no fear of apprehension. In adjoining Dimmit County, the sheriff, Joe Tumlinson, had launched a search and destroy mission after Mexican horse thieves, chasing them across the river—only to be chased right back.1 Along the river sovereignty had meaning to diplomats and military attachés; but it was a meaningless notion to thugs lying low in the sweltering tangle of willows, canebrakes, and cattails. The governor directed Adjutant General King and Texas Rangers to tidy up the mess.2 The chicanery was so hot it had sparked a parley in the middle of the river on a neutral sandbar, Las Isles, between Texas Ranger bigwigs and Mexican jefes. Looking on from both banks of the Rio Grande as darkness lifted that February 9, 1885, stood the heavily armed partisans and protectors, some two hundred strong for each side. All those on the Texas side needed to unleash hellfire was a signal—the prearranged drop of a handkerchief.3 Company D’s Lam Sieker was one actually taking part in the talks. According to Sergeant James A. Brooks, Company F, Captain Sieker gave him the wink and nod, welcoming him to listen in on the powwow, which he did: an event becoming one of the “proudest moments” of his life.4 For the short term a truce—of sorts—held, though it was still called the “Bloody Border.” Company D was yet anchored on the line. After selling Company D’s pets, Jack and Molly, two aging mules, leaving them behind at Uvalde, Captain Sieker had repositioned Company D in Maverick County. The new camp, which the Texas Rangers christened Camp San Ambrosia for a like named creek, was four miles from the river and about one mile from a point where the boundaries of Maverick (Eagle Pass), Webb (Laredo), and ­ Dimmit “A deplorable mistake on both sides” 203 (Carrizo Springs) Counties barely touched. It was wild country, a scarcely inhabited swath of dangerous desolation opposite Piedras Negras on the north and Nuevo Laredo to the south.5 The site was strategically picked because of its “outlet in all directions is outside of all pastures and near the several prominent crossing where wet stock are supposed to be crossed back and forth.”6 New technology was at hand. Captain Sieker wanted to make the most of it, as highlighted in his 1885 letter (emphasis added) to Adjutant General King: “I wrote you some days back that I thought Eagle Pass would be the best P. O. for the following reasons. They have a daily mail, telegraph & telephone & my men going & coming for the mail would scout 45 miles of river and notice any trail making for or from the river.”7 Sheriff Oglesby had pledged that should he receive a letter, a telegraph message, or a transmission coming over that thingamajig telephone, a cry summoning “quick action” by the Texas Rangers, he would relay a note down river to Camp San Ambrosia by hard-riding deputies. Benjamin Dennis “Ben” Lindsey. Corporal Lindsey early on recognized the need for undercover operatives, wanting to employ some “detectives” to infiltrate a Llano County gang that were “suspected as being thieves, robbers and most anything else that is mean.” From Texas Ranger Sketches, courtesy the author Robert W. Stephens. 204  Chapter 12 Open communication lines are vital for any effectual law enforcement machine. Captain Sieker was well aware of their importance; those lines kept him tuned to what was going on in the field and at headquarters. Learning that Captain Johnson might be on the short list for the lucrative Austin postmaster’s job, Captain Sieker straightforwardly sought the anticipated quartermaster’s vacancy. Lam Sieker had ambition, but it was appropriately reined ambition. In a forthright and up front maneuver Captain Sieker asked Governor Ireland for the job, on the same day advising Captain Johnson and the adjutant general of his aspiration.8 Captain Sieker was not the type to dilly-dally. Bureaucratic wheels turn slow; he could but wait for an answer while carrying on with...