b'only in it for the vigilantism against Mexicans and for Now, Ross, his mixed force of 20 Rangers and 21 U.S. Army the bounty. Regulars, with the rancher Charles Goodnight acting as a scout, located the Comanche at their winter encampment Arguably the most incompetent man (until the adventalong the Pease River in Northwestern Texas, and as dawn of Jack Tays in the El Paso Salt War) to ever command abroke on the morning of December 18, 1860 Ross and his force of Rangers, Tobin not only foolishly "broadcasted"Rangers, under cover of a dust storm descended down his whereabouts and what he would do to Cortina, heupon the unsuspecting warriors. In the confusion that and his men watched with approval when the citizens offollowed, Ross shot and killed a man whom he suspected to Brownsville lynched an aged lieutenant of Cortina\'s whobe Peta Nocona while his men were about to shoot a young had been captured by a posse in an earlier reprisal raid.woman wandering through the carnage dressed in Indian In response, Cortina\'s bandits ambushed a company of 30rags when she suddenly exclaimed - "Me, Cynthia Ann." Rangers sent out to find Cortina and cut them to pieces,Ross\' command DID rescue Cynthia Ann Parker and for sending the survivors in full retreat back to Brownsville. many years he was thought to have been the Ranger who had slain her husband but Quanah Parker, who had been Finally realizing that he may have bit off more than he couldout hunting when the Rangers came-a-calling, would later chew, Governor Runnels frantically called on Washingtoninsist Peta Nocona was not present, and that he lived three to help him suppress the border revolt. In what wouldor four years later when he died of natural causes. At any become a series of interventions that due to diplomaticrate, Quanah Parker would soon rise to lead the Comanche niceties would become non-interventions once US forcesnation and Lawrence Sul Ross would have more pressing approached the Rio Grande, Major Samuel Heintzelmanissues to contend with, cutting his Ranger career short, for a was sent with a couple hundred U.S. Army regulars to helpCivil War was about to begin that would engulf Texas.secure the border regions and support the Rangers - up to the point of reaching the Rio Grande where they could goTHE RANGERS CIVIL WAR - BEN MCno further, and neither could the Rangers. Runnels, fullyCULLOCH, LAWRENCE SUL ROSS AND realizing the limits of US Army involvement, also soughtTERRY\'S TEXAS 9TH CAVALRY, AND RIP out RIP Ford, promoted him to major and ordered himFORD\'S BRILLIANT VICTORY IN THE LAST to take 55 fully trained Rangers to the border regions,BATTLE OF THE CIVIL WARostensibly to support the hapless Tobin but in reality toUnlike Santa Anna and his invading army who marched pursue a policy of aggressive responses to Cortina. Seizingnorth across the Rio Grande almost 24 years to the date, the the initiative in the battle of Rio Grande City, fought two1,000 Texas Rangers and militia rode south, across the plains days after Christmas 1859, Ford\'s men, despite moving inof Southern Texas towards San Antonio and the Alamo. At a heavy marsh fog in the face of considerable artillery fire ,their head was a grizzled, balding man of almost 50. He had decisively trounced Cortina\'s bandits, causing them to fleebeen one of Davy Crockett\'s closest friends and had often in considerable disarray back to the sanctuary of Mexico.bitterly regretted that he never got to the Alamo in time to Cortina would try again several days later in a second battle,share the fate of his Tennessee partner. He had distinguished his bandito force shattered by the combined firepower ofhimself in the Mexican War as a Ranger captain of great Ford\'s Rangers backed by Heintzelman\'s regulars on the John RIP Ford Salmon Ford ability. He went panning for gold in California with Jack American side of the river. Although Juan Cortina wouldHays, his former commanding officer. Upon returning become a general in the Mexican Army before he fell intoto Texas, he was considered for the prestigious plum of discover with Dictator Porfirio Diaz, he would never againthose Comanche who refused to cross the Red River on thecommanding the US 2nd Cavalry but was denied the seriously threaten the Texas border regions. Diaz, oncewarpath, Houston chose the military option. position due to his lack of a West Point education.his friend and benefactor took a dim view of Cortina\'s incursions into the Texas Borderlands, and fearing a ruptureThe Rangers were led by a RIP Ford protg, the 22 yearNow here he was he and his dusty, begrimed, grim-faced in U.S.-Mexico relations, confined Cortina to house arrestold Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" Ross, who, though he wasmen, riding into San Antonio on the morning of February for the rest of his life (Ibid., pp. 109-118). barely old enough to be a Ranger, had as a teen done16, 1861, riding straight to the very Alamo where his good some scouting for his father Shapley Ross, a Texas pioneerfriend had died almost a quarter century earlier. Perhaps (It was about this time, less than a year before Lincoln\'sand Indian agent. Furthermore, the young Ross provedhe considered the irony, more likely he did not. Two weeks election, when newly-elected Texas Governor Samhis courage when at the age of six he and his family wereearlier the Texas legislature had approved secession, and Houston, (Houston had defeated Runnels in the 1859surprised and held hostage at their ranch by a band ahere he was, Ben McCulloch, leading a thousand men of Texas Gubernatorial election), was approached by Majormurderous Comanche. Ross managed to spirit some of histhe Texas state forces into San Antonio and right up to Heintzelman\'s commanding office, a certain colonel fromfamily to safety but the Comanche then seized him and hethe Alamo gates in demanding the very surrender of the Virginia by the name of Lee with the idea of launchingwas forced to provide the Comanche with the family\'s cornUnited States Army garrison and armory. The aged, pro-a full-scale invasion of Mexico. Robert E. Lee not onlycrop. The child Ross was then tortured and threatened withsecessionist, US Army commander in Texas, the Georgia-strongly urged Houston to launch a full-scale invasiondeath, but he faced them down (having been educated byborn Major General David Twiggs promptly surrendered of Mexico but was also said to have promised Houstonhis father to never show fear when confronted by Indians)the US Army garrison to McCulloch, but there was one the full support of US Army Regulars, including a directand they soon rode away. Ross would return to the ranch,small - but significant drama later that afternoon.involvement in such an invasion. It is tantalizing toblood streaming down his legs, but he never flinched speculate if the Civil War would have been prevented or(Crabb, Martha L., All Afire to Fight, Avon Books, NewA certain Virginia-born US Army colonel had just arrived even delayed if Houston\'s Texas Rangers, with the fullYork, 2000, p. 63).in San Antonio from his post further west. He had been interventionist support of Robert E. Lee and the Unitedordered to Washington, and he had arrived in town just after States Army had they invaded Mexico in 1860 to suppressTough as a hickory nut, the young Ross would, in earlyTwiggs\' inglorious surrender. Seeing the scores of Rangers the Cortina troubles). manhood, be permitted to be a Ranger at age 19 evenand militia moving about in the streets of San Antone - a though he was not of the required age of 21. Even prior togood comparison would be the Taliban moving about in With Cortina\'s threat removed, Governor Houstonhis raid on the Comanche camps along the Red River, Rossthe streets of Kabul today - he asked a Unionist friend what could now turn his attention to the ongoing Comanchehad distinguished himself in an earlier raid in conjunctionwas going on, and when she informed this colonel that depredations on the Staked Plains and in the Red Riverwith Major Earl Van Dorn of the 2nd US Cavalry on therevolution had taken place and that his commanding officer region. A diplomatic solution had been tried by one of thecamp of the feared Comanche chieftain Buffalo Hump. Thehad surrendered, he burst into tears and said simply, "has it most courageous, and sadly, unsung true heroes of Texas,combined force surprised the Indians, stampeded theircome to this?" Knowing he would be subject to arrest, the the Indian agent and close friend of RIP Ford, (and alsohorses, and then scattered them. In doing so, Ross hadcolonel went to the former headquarters of the US garrison, allegedly a former Ranger too) Major Robert Neighbors.sustained grievous wounds, first being hit in the shoulderlocated right near the Alamo to inform the commander of Neighbors, who, by creating the "Field System" of personallyby a Comanche arrow and then shot in the chest by onethe secessionists he was a US Army officer on his way to visiting the tribes, treating the Indians as human beings,of the warriors who had been a childhood friend of his.Washington and was NOT subject to the surrender terms. and learning their ways and customs had earned their trustBuffalo Hump managed to escape, but the warrior whoThe incredulous Rangers would take none of this, and they (his benevolent methods predated those of Tom Jeffordsshot Ross was killed as were almost all of the tribesmen.threatened this colonel with arrest - until Ben McCulloch and John Clum here in Arizona by almost two decades).At first it seemed that Ross\'s wounds were mortal, he hadstood up, at least it may have been McCulloch for the tall By doing so, he had earned the enmity of many of hisbegged his men to kill him, but somehow he had managedofficer was lanky, balding, and did have an air of authority fellow Texans, and after escorting a group of endangeredto pull through, and after a year\'s recuperation was back in- and while it has never been said, the officer may have Comanche out beyond the Red River north to the Indianthe field, now leading the effort to track down the tribe ledknown Lee. Speaking sternly to his men, McCulloch (or Territories, he was treacherously shot in the back. It is saidby Peta Nocona, the same Peta Nocona who had kidnappedwhoever it was) said that this US Army colonel had not been that a group of incensed Rangers tracked down Neighbors\'and subsequently married Cynthia Ann Parker almost apart of the garrison and was NOT subject to the terms of killer and dispensed swift justice. With Neighbors dead, andquarter century earlier. surrender. Furthermore, he was on his way to Washington, continued on page 20ArizonaRealCountry.com December 2021 19'