Texas Ranger John B. Jones and the Frontier Battalion, 1874-1881

5. A Heavy Task

64 A HEAVY TASK 5 AS JONES MADE HIS WAY BACK DOWN the line to his headquarters in Austin, the companies continued their hunt for raiding Indiansandwaywardoutlaws.OnAugust3,GeneralSteelecommissioned J. T. Nelson of Stephenville as a second lieutenant in Waller’s Company A, apparently without consulting Jones.1 Along the way, as he revisited each company, Jones stopped off at Fort Griffin where he discussed the Indian problem with Army General Don Carlos Buell, who promised his cooperation with the Battalion. Captains Stevens and Waller were instructed to keep the general apprised of Indian activity in their jurisdictions , and Buell made available to them two Tonkawa Indians as scouts and trailers.2 Although there is no record of it in Frontier Battalion files, Private Thurlow Weed wrote his brother that on August 3 a lieutenant in Maltby ’s Company E, leading ten men, came upon a party of thirty-seven Indians attacking a stagecoach that had an escort of twenty United States soldiers. While the soldiers apparently failed to help fend off the attack, the Rangers were reported to have routed the attackers, killing at least two with four others carried off by the Indians, and recovering some forty horses.3 A Heavy Task 65 Another personnel problem reared up in August when Captain Neal Coldwell in Frio County received written notice from his second lieutenant, F. H. Nelson, complaining that Private Jasper Corn willfully disobeyed his order to take water to other men of Company F who were tending a campfire. He said that Corn had refused to submit to arrest, and asked for his discharge. Vociferously complaining about “such damn officers, giving such damn shitten’ orders,” Corn had come to Nelson’s tent mounted and armed, daring the lieutenant to arrest him.4 Coldwell forwarded to Jones the letter from Nelson, regretting that the lieutenant “does not get along very well with the company,” and knew nothing of frontier service or “wood craft.” Corn had made a good Ranger, he said, and Coldwell regretted having to discharge him.5 Jones ultimately discharged Corn on September 8 for “mutinous conduct.”6 Patently aware of the animosity of the men of Company F toward him, Nelson applied to be transferred to Jones’ personal staff, “not wishing to remain longer in a company where we do not have strict military discipline as the law provides.” Nelson stayed away from the company, in Boerne in Kendall County, “as I do not think my life is safe with a portion of our company.”7 Jones’ response was that no such appointment could be made, and, since there was no other company to which he could be assigned, the only option was to either return to his company or resign.8 Jones had already reduced to the ranks a first sergeant assigned to Coldwell because of similar insubordinate conduct toward Nelson, even though Coldwell had reported that the sergeant was also a good man. The men in Coldwell’s company had even generated a petition calling for Nelson’s resignation. Jones concluded that Nelson was “not a suitable man for the position . . . It seems that he has never had command of any of the men but what he has had some personal difficulty with them.”9 Nelson finally got the hint and resigned from the Battalion on September 12, 1874.10 Arriving at Maltby’s camp on August 9, 1874, Jones was dismayed to find the men of Company E idle in camp, all of the officers being absent. Maltby had been gone for about ten days and it was anticipated he would not return for another two weeks, having left camp partly to visit his 66 TEXAS RANGER JOHN B. JONES AND THE FRONTIER BATTALION, 1874–1881 home and also to go to Austin for pistols that he had ordered. Lieutenant Connell was supposedly sick at home, and had been for a month. Jones was unaware of any of this. The other company lieutenant, B. F. Best, was in Brownwood to settle a problem with a contractor who had provided the company with bad flour. The company was spread out over some ten to twelve acres, and the horses were “scattered promiscuously in and around camp, foot loose with only one man guarding them during the day and only two on guard at night.” In addition, Maltby had left instructions giving furloughs for a number of men simultaneously to go home...