The Men Who War the Star: The Story of the Texas Rangers by Charles M. Robinson III

Author:Charles M. Robinson III [Robinson, Charles M. III]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780375505355
Publisher: Random House Inc
Published: 2000-12-08T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

The Rise of McNelly’s Rangers

The Mason County War was just one of the “difficulties” that caused the decade of the 1870s to be known in Texas as “the Terrible Seventies.” There were many others, such as the Jaybird-Woodpecker Feud in Fort Bend County just south of Houston, the Horrell-Higgins Feud in Lampasas County northwest of Austin, and the Shackelford County Feud northeast of Abilene. They left in their wake broken families and painful memories. Most terrible of all was DeWitt County’s notorious Taylor-Sutton Feud, which, over the course of thirty years, left scores of people dead and prompted the legislature to create a special unit of peace officers “to assist the civil officers of DeWitt county in enforcing quiet and obedience to the law in that desperado ridden section.”¹

Although the new unit ultimately was absorbed into the regular Ranger Service, initially it was designated Washington County Volunteer Militia Company A. Informally, it was known as the Special Force, Texas State Troops, and McNelly’s Rangers after its commanding officer, Capt. Leander H. McNelly. Whatever its name, the special unit functioned as a ranging company that answered to Adjutant General Steele, and the men of the Washington County Volunteer Militia considered themselves Rangers. Like those of the Frontier Battalion, they were professional, full-time lawmen, and Captain McNelly was an experienced peace officer.²

A Virginian, Leander McNelly was about sixteen years old when he came with his family to Texas in 1860. During the war he served with Confederate forces in New Mexico and Texas and as a captain of scouts in Louisiana, where he gained a reputation as a tenacious fighter. George Durham, who served under McNelly as a Ranger, and whose father had served under him as a Confederate, described the tactics that were his hallmark: “General [Robert E.] Lee made his plans first and then fought. . . . Captain McNelly made his plans like a chicken hawk—after he had located his target and was coming in for the kill.”³

When the war ended, McNelly married and farmed near Brenham in Washington County, about midway between Austin and Houston. On July 1, 1870, he became one of four captains in Davis’s Texas State Police, despite his hatred of the governor’s Reconstruction regime. His reasons were obscure, but it has been suggested he accepted the position at the urging of friends, who perhaps believed that the best way to protect themselves was to have one of their own in command of a force that might oppress them. Whatever the motive, he soon established a reputation for integrity, although his determination to enforce the law—including the Reconstruction edicts—cost him some public confidence. Nevertheless, when the time came to appoint an officer to handle the trouble in DeWitt County, McNelly’s experience and character made him the logical choice.4

Physically, McNelly was thin and frail, his naturally slight build wasted by tuberculosis. When he took command of the new unit he already was a dying man, which makes his career all the more remarkable. Soft-spoken and

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