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Chapter 5: “As yet they’ve harmed no good men”
- University of North Texas Press
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74 Chapter 5 “As yet they’ve harmed no good man” The boys of Company D were simply attending the schoolroom of hard knocks. Continually they were being pitched into the churning waters of manmade turmoil and indifferently told to either sink or swim. Most of these young Texas Rangers, and it speaks rather well of Company D, were little by little shaking off inexperience, emerging individually as fighting men; together as a cohesive fighting unit. They could not efficiently fight their biggest and most powerful enemy, however: the parsimonious cigar-chomping politicians comfortably shuffling papers behind little maple desks at the other end of Austin’s Congress Avenue. The Legislature’s originally authorized budget for funding the Frontier Battalion and the subject-to-call-out county militia units, $300,000, was woefully inadequate. The Texas Rangers, not six months into the job, were running out of money. Furnishing the necessary commissary and supplies coupled with meeting demands of a recurring quarterly payroll were undoable if operating in the black was the goal. The first baby-step solution was simplistically clear—a RIF—a reduction in force. Pronto! Texas Adjutant General William Steele ordered the Frontier Battalion’s Major Jones “without delay” to reorganize the force, paring down manpower to one lieutenant, two sergeants, three corporals, and twenty-five privates per company .1 Major Jones interpretation of the adjutant general’s compulsory instructions seem rather curious when compared to how the directive would be implemented today—protecting those fellows at the top. Major Jones did not reduce the captains to lieutenants, and then let the dominos of rank start falling, pegging everyone down a notch. He fired the company commanders. Captains George W. Stevens , E. F. Ikard, W. J. “Jeff” Maltby and, particularly relevant to this text,CompanyD’sRufePerry,wereforthrightlyandunceremoniously discharged.2 By the ninth day of December the good major could and did report to his Austin-based boss that the decree had been adhered to: “Sir, I have the honor to inform you that I have this day reduced “As yet they’ve harmed no good man” 75 the force of Company ‘D’ as directed by your General Order No. 8.”3 On that same day, Company D’s rank-and-file entered the gateway for a trimming of their numbers to the requisite level. That mark on the 1874 calendar heralded at least two personnel adjustments that would not bode well for the overall reputation of Company D in the near-term: Texas Ranger William Scott Cooley was sacked, and Lieutenant Daniel Webster Roberts was handed operational command of the company.4 Often it is at this point that suppositions are fused into folklore. In generalized histories of the Texas Rangers, as an institution, it is par business to suggest that during the mandatory process of culling the force to its newly authorized strength some magical methodology was applied, implying that only the cream of the crop were retained.5 Blindly believing that everyone in Company D at the time of reduction wanted to stay is splendidly awe-inspiring, but really not too pragmatic. Offering a contrasting supposition that some of the Company D boys were more than a little relieved to be relieved is reasonable. There should not be too much argument that, for a few, the new had worn off and the reality had set in. Cursory review of the Frontier Battalion’s, Major Jones’, and Company D Lieutenant Roberts’ reports confirm that not all of the boys were jumping up and down to hold on to their supposed coveted slots as Texas Rangers . Addressing a subsequent RIF in May 1875, with the emphasis added, Major Jones plainly drummed on-the-ground truths: He [Lt. Roberts] will re-inlist [sic] as many of his men as are willing to continue in the Service, probably half, on the 25th of May, and recruit the number to forty men.6 And: You [Lt. Roberts] will then, at once, re-inlist [sic] as many of the men as will agree to serve until the first of September next and wait for their pay until the meeting of the next Legislature….7 Adding his echoing comment to the sometimes nagging manpower headache, Lieutenant Roberts was optimistic about recruiting Texas Rangers that would continue to serve, but only with the prayer and promise of pay. It is not at all necessary to read between the [54.162.130.75] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 11:31 GMT) 76 Chapter 5...