In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii 1. Attack and Counterattack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Battle on the Rio Blanco: April 1835 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Early Texas Rangers and Indian Battles: 1821-1834 . . . . . . . . . . 8 2. The Original Ranger Battalion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The Killing of Chief Canoma: May-June 1835 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Oldham/York Company Takes the Offensive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Coleman’s Rangers Attack Tawakonis: July 11, 1835 . . . . . . . . 19 Colonel Moore’s Ranger Expedition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Depredation on the San Gabriel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 3. Frontiersmen of the Texas Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 General Council Establishes “Corps of Texas Rangers” . . . . . . 33 Parker’s Rangers Take to the Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Friar’s Rangers and the Taylor Fight: November 1835 . . . . . . . 42 Concepción and an Indian Ambush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Council Adds Fourth Ranger District . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 “Ready, Armed, Equipped”: Williamson’s Ranger Battalion . . 52 Béxar Siege: December 5-9, 1835 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 4. “Loathsome Trophy” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Parker’s Rangers Form Second Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 New Companies Form Under Burton and Sadler . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Riley Massacre and Robertson’s Rangers: January 1836 . . . . . . 69 Tumlinson’s Rangers to the Rescue: January 20, 1836 . . . . . . . . 74 Other Ranger Companies Created . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Cherokee Nation Created: February 23, 1836 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 5. The Alamo’s “Immortal Thirty-Two” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 “Victory or Death” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Lockhart Forms Gonzales Mounted Rangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Williamson Calls in Tumlinson’s Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Barron’s Company and the Graves Fight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Contents Volume 1 iv SAV AGE FRONTIER Colonel Benton’s Ranger Regiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 The Fall of the Alamo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 6. The Road to San Jacinto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 The Great Runaway Scrape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Rangers Called to Join the Army . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Santa Anna Defeated: April 21, 1836 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 7. Parker’s Fort and Little River Depredations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Ranger Regiment Revamped: May 8, 1836 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Indians Attack Near Bastrop: May 14, 1836 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Rangers Massacred at Parker’s Fort: May 19, 1936 . . . . . . . . . . 130 Post San Jacinto Military Movements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Little River Settlers Attacked: June 4, 1836 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 8. Burleson’s Battalion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Coastal Defense: Captain Burton’s “Horse Marines” . . . . . . . . 148 Texas Army Restructuring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Robertson Recruits for the Ranger Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 The Rise in Frontier Violence: June - July 1836 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Colonel Burleson’s Ranger Battalion Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Captain Robbins’ Scrape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Cowboys and Cavalry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 9. A Chain of Frontier Forts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Captain Robertson’s Senate Race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Captain Hill’s Battle on the Yegua: August 1836 . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Colonel Coleman’s Ranger Battalion Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Major James Smith’s East Texas Rangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Erath’s Rangers Build Little River Fort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Controversial Death at Coleman’s Fort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 Burton and Burleson’s Battalions Disband . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 The New Mounted Rifleman Battalion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Downsizing of Major James Smith’s Battalion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Harvey Massacre and Karnes’ Cavalry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 10. Elm Creek and Trinity River Fights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Sergeant Erath’s Elm Creek Fight: January 7, 1837 . . . . . . . . . . 212 Colonel Coleman Relieved of Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 Anderson-Faulkenberry Slayings: January 28, 1837 . . . . . . . . . 221 Fort Fisher/Colorado Area Depredations: February 1837 . . . . 226 11. Spring Setbacks For Smith’s Battalion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Captain Lee Smith’s Rangers and Fort Henderson . . . . . . . . . . 230 Deaf Smith’s Laredo Campaign: March 1837 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 The Decline of the Texas Army . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Lieutenant Wren’s Ambush Near Fort Houston . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Contents  Seguin’s Cavalry Fights for its Horses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 Indians Rob the Rangers: April 1837 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 Post Oak Springs Ranger Massacre: May 6, 1837 . . . . . . . . . . . 245 McLean-Sheridan-Barnes Slayings: May 10, 1837 . . . . . . . . . . . 248 Slaying of Ranger James Coryell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 12. Stone Houses Fight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 New Mounted Rifleman Battalion: June 12, 1837 . . . . . . . . . . . 253 A Truce With the Comanches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 Second Congress Addresses Indian Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 The Eastland Campaign: October 1837 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 The Stone Houses Fight: November 10, 1837 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 Lynch’s Rangers and Karnes’ Treaty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 EPILOGUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Appendix: Roster of Texas Rangers: Coleman/Smith Battalion . . . . . . . . . 281 CHAPTER NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 ...

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