b'The Texas RangersPart Two: The Golden Years, 18361896 By Alan RockmanI t would be Walker\'s face-to-face meeting with the burly gun manufacturer that would arguably be more fortuitous than Hays\' meeting with the country\'s chief executive as the new revolver Walker suggested to Colt would forever change the history of both Texas and the Old West; it would be a revolver feared and respected by both lawmen and outlaw, a revolver that greatly aided the Army efforts to subjugate the warring tribes. Designed by Walker and made by Colt with the assistance of Eli Whitney Junior, that revolver, with its distinctive cylinder could hold six cartridges and be able to hit a target 100 yards away, no need to reload your average one-shot while possibly being prey for some outlaw, Indian or Mexican soldier. Once the first revolvers were fine-tuned, free of growing pains and possible misfires, they were ordered and distributed, only 1,100 initially, 1,000 ordered by the US Army and the other 100 for the civilian market. The Rangers and the US Army, noting how effective the new sidearm was, almost immediately embraced the Colt Walker upon arrival, and the demand would soon witness the manufacturing and distribution of thousands - the Colt- Frontier Battalion, 1885Walker Six Shooter, the first of its kind, a gun that would eventually evolve into the Colt 1860 Army (and Navy) revolver and eventually the more famous 1872 Single The sobriquet stuck, and Ford would eventually becomeAn advocate for Tejano grievances, the Mexican-born, Action Colt 45. known as "RIP Ford" especially when Ford became bothBrownsville resident was 31 in the early summer of 1859 the hard-fighting commander of the Texas Rangers andwhen he witnessed the first act that would take him on It is perhaps more than a tad ironic that the six-shootinga colonel commanding Confederate troops in the Civilthe road to banditry - and eventually a controversial Colt firearm that the two Sams - Samuel Walker and SamuelWar. His command arriving in Mexico City in the wakeappointment as a general in the Mexican Army, thus Colt - developed, invented and produced would becomeof the American victory, John Coffee Hays and his meninfuriating many a Texan but giving him a certain degree favored as the weapon of choice by gunfighters and outlawswould track down the remnants of Santa Anna\'s army rightof legitimacy in the eyes of many a Mexican on both sides like Wild Bill Hickok, Jesse James, Doc Holliday, Sam Bass,up until just after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupeof the border. Filled with rage, Cortina watched as a ruddy, John Wesley Hardin, Ben Thompson, the Daltons as well asHidalgo. Hays would then return to Texas, briefly becomingred-faced Texas marshal pistol whipped a drunken Mexican noted lawman and the Texas Rangers themselves. Thus thisan Indian Agent before he decided to become a "Forty- on the streets of Brownsville. The battered Mexican had gun became a true "Peacemaker" - a "Peacemaker" of theNiner" moving his family to California. Hays would settlebeen a ranch hand on the Cortina family ranch, and so dead. This was one major legacy of the Walker-Colt. in Oakland, dabble in local and national politics, the formerJuan Cortina stepped in. Angry words were exchanged with distinguished Ranger dying with his boots off in 1883. the city marshal, the result being Cortina pulling out his Yet another major legacy of the Colt Walker or Walker Coltrevolver and shooting the offending lawman in the shoulder.is such that almost 175 years later, on May 23, 2021, TexasTROUBLES WITH CORTINA AND THE Governor Greg Abbott declared the 1847 Colt Walker theCOMANCHE, SECESSION AND CIVIL WAR Cortina then grabbed his ex-employee, hoisted him on official handgun of Texas. The ascension of RIP Ford and the brief rise of Sul Ross. his pony, and rode as fast as the wind to the other side of the Rio Grande. A marked man, Cortina tried to reason While Samuel Walker would witness the first distribution"Give Us Rangers in Texas"Senator Sam Houston,with Texas authorities and offered to pay the wounded of the fruits of his labor to the Rangers, he sadly wouldspeaking on the Senate floor, February 11, 1858 (Utley,marshal restitution, but this was turned down. Cortina not live long enough to rest on its laurels. Just three weeksRobert, Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texasresorted to banditry, returning to Brownsville two after the fall of Mexico City, Walker and his Rangers wereRangers,Berkley Books, New York, 2002, p. 87). months later on September 28, 1859 with a force of over involved in mopping up operations designed to protect theforty, shot and killed five Americans whom he accused American supply lines and to subdue Mexican resistanceWith Walker dead and Hays gone,the command of theof mistreating and murdering Mexicans, freed all of the in the battle of Huamantla (November 9, 1847) when heRangers delved upon men like "RIP Ford," promoted toprisoners in the Brownsville jail, then hours later he and was felled, supposedly by a Mexican lance. As the Rangerscaptain of the Rangers in the wake of Hays\' departure, andhis men splashed back across the Rio Grande. Aroused, secured Huamantla in one of the very last engagements ofhis trusted 20-year-old subordinate, Lawrence Sullivanthe populace of the border counties armed themselves, the Mexican War the mortally wounded Walker is alleged"Sul" Ross, the scion of a prominent Texas pioneer, Shapleyand after yet another Cortina raid across the Rio Grande, to have told his men, "Boys, forward, and don\'t flinch a foot.Ross. Like his predecessors Ford would have his handsthe then Texas governor, Runnels who was neither as wise I know I\'m dying, but don\'t give way" (Rasenberger, Jim,full, having to deal with Mexican unrest and the constant,nor as benevolent as Houston, finally appointed a young, Revolver, Scribner, New York, 2020, p.247)! continuous Comanche raids on the isolated settlementsambitious politician named William Tobin to recruit and of the Texas frontier. While the Comanche threat to thecommand a Ranger force that would move on Brownsville As for his former commander Jack Hays, it was uponnorthern frontier settlements had been an ongoing one,and secure the Rio Grande borderlands. Tobin who lacked resumption of hostilities that the fiery Tennessean andthe Cortina outbreak while sudden, had been festering forboth law experience and common sense, and whose his mounted Ranger command rode alongside Winfielda longtime due to Juan Cortina\'s lifelong resentment ofprevious dealings with Mexican citizens could only be Scott\'s little army as they moved on Mexico City. Hays\'American Texans and the unfortunate behavior of manydescribed as racist would recruit 100 volunteers whom medical officer, the grizzled John Salmon Ford, wasof these Americans towards the Tejano population, manyto call Rangers would be a dirty insult to the very name, scribbling his notes of condolences to the families ofif not most of whom had been loyal Americans, and somefor these men, many of whom were nothing more than deceased Rangers with the sobriquet, "Rest in Peace."dying alongside Crockett, Bowie and Travis at the Alamo. common thugs no different than Cortina\'s bandits were 18 December 2021'