b'The Texas RangersPart Three: The Golden Years, 18361896 This is dedicated By Alan Rockman to the memory of Leonard J. Rockman, T he Rangers were all butRangers with a Texas State Police, it\'s rank and file mainlymy dad, who passed HARD TIMES, 1865-1873Texas Unionists, ex-slaves and Black former Union Armyaway shortly before disbanded in the immediatesoldiers, and a smattering of Rangers who would be aftermath of the Civil Warwilling to join the hated Reconstructionist State Police. Inthis article was by vengeful Unionists led by thethis atmosphere of intolerance, uncertainty, and rife withwritten. My father Reconstructionist Governor,young hotheads like John Wesley Hardin, Ben Thompsonwas always proud of Edmund Davis, a friend ofand Sam Bass emerged to challenge authority and try to Sam Houston\'s and a formerimpose their brand of justice, outlaw style. the things I wrote, so Union General during the Civil War. Davis and histhis is for you, Dad. God Bless.associates felt the Ranger leadership was too tied to theMost former Texan Confederates found the Texas State former Confederacy during the war and they favored thePolice and its abuse of powers hard to stomach and establishment of a Texas State Police which would includedeeply resented the Davis tenure. The decision by Davis Blacks within its ranks. Although the Texas State Policeto free Kiowa Chief Santana after his murderous attackSUPPRESSION OF THE OUTLAWS, SAM BASS, did perform credibly during the Reconstruction period,on the Warren wagon train (General William TecumsehJOHN WESLEY HARDIN, OTHER BANDITOS,combating banditry and the Comanche and generallySherman narrowly escaped death when Santana and hisAND DESPERADOESkeeping the peace, it was a controversial force quitewarriors waiting in ambush chose, on the advice of theirThe Ballad of Sam Bassresented by many if not most Texans already embittered medicine man to let Sherman\'s party go on unscathed,Sam Bass was born in Indiana, it was his native home,by the defeat of the Confederacy and its negative impactbut attack the wagon train instead)also didn\'t help himAnd at the age of seventeen young Sam began to roam.on Texas as the employment of former slaves and othernor his administration, for both of those chiefs had, inSam first came out to Texas a cowboy for to beBlacks (often ex-Union soldiers) inflamed disgruntledalliance with the Comanche and the Southern Cheyenne,A kinder-hearted fellow you seldom ever see.whites. The Texas State Police would stumble on for eightcommitted numerous depredations to the settlers and years of Reconstruction while the Rangers remainedranchers of the Texas plains. Thus at the end of 1873Sam used to deal in race-stock, one called the Denton mare;dormant. A fresh revival, spurred on by changing timesformer Confederate officer Richard Coke was electedHe matched her in scrub races and took her to the fair.in Texas and the eventual defeat of Davis by formerover Davis in a very controversial election, and when theSam used to coin the money, and spent it just as free;Confederate Captain Richard Coke became a reality inunabashed Confederate Coke took office in January 1874he always drank good whiskey wherever he might be.1873 when the Ranger brand was resurrected and theone of his very first acts was to disband the State Police Texas State Police disbanded. and bring back the popular Rangers. He appointed theSam left the Collins ranch in the merry month of May,seasoned and quite competent Major John B. Jones to theWith a herd of Texas cattle the Black Hills for to see;Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes the revived RangersRangers command. Sold out in Custer City, and then got on a spreewould now enter its glory - and not so glorified - periodA harder set of cowboys you seldom ever see.where they corralled Sam Bass, apprehended John WesleyThus, the stage was set for both the most glorious - and Hardin in a daring raid on a Florida train, "invaded" Mexico,perhaps darkest periods of Texas Ranger history. It wasOn their way back to Texas they robbed the U.P. train,when reputations were made most notably those of Leanderarguably both the best of times and the worst of times forAnd then split up in couples and started out again;McNally (himself a former Texas state policeman), Johnthis extraordinary law enforcement organization. Joe Collins and his partner were overtaken soon,Hughes, John Armstrong, and the dark side of the coin whenWith all their hard-earned money they had to meet their doom.an entire Ranger company surrendered to an aroused mob during the debacle known as the El Paso Salt War.It was aSam made it back to Texas, all right side up with care;dark time too when racist Rangers taunted and threatenedRode into town of Denton with all his friends to share."Buffalo Soldiers" protecting Texas towns from ComancheSam\'s life was short in Texas; three robberies did he do:and Apache raids. This period, from roughly 1874 to 1900he robbed all the passenger, mail, and express cars too.was one when both truth and legend collided, often with spectacular but also not so pleasant results. Sam had four companions-four bold and daring ladsThey were Richardson, Jackson, Joe Collins, and Old Dad;Texas was a mess at Civil War\'s end. True, no major battlesFour more bold and daring cowboys the Rangers never knew,had been fought on Texas soil. But forced isolation fromThey whipped the Texas Rangers and ran the boys in blue.the rest of the Confederacy due to Union control of the Mississippi River, with the majority of able-bodied TexanSam and another companion, called Arkansas for short,men off to battle, with cattle roaming the plains untended,Was shot by a Texas Ranger by the name of Thomas Floyd;and the resurgence of the Comanche and their raids onOh, Tom is a big six-footer and thinks he\'s mighty fly,isolated farms and ranches, and with the Texas economyBut I can tell you his racket-he\'s a deadbeat on the sly.in shambles, conditions were ripe for lawlessness. And coupled with one man\'s desire to disband the Texas Rangers,Jim Murphy was arrested, and then released on bail;lawlessness was not long in coming. He jumped his bond at Tyler and then took the train for Terrell;But Mayor Jones had posted Jim and that was all a stall,Edmund Davis was a man seeking vengeance. A Texas\'Twas only a plan to capture Sam before the coming fall.Unionist, Davis had narrowly escaped arrest and a horrific fate dangling from the gallows, the fate sufferedSam met his fate at Round Rock, July the twenty-first,by his close friend and fellow Texas Unionist WilliamThey pierced poor Sam with rifle balls and emptied out his purse.W. Montgomery. While Davis personally loved Texas,Poor Sam he is a corpse and six foot under clay,he had plenty of axes to grind with Texas Confederates.And Jackson\'s in the bushes trying to get away.Returning home as a brigadier general in the 1st Texas (Union) Cavalry, Davis set up shop in Austin, where heJim had borrowed Sam\'s good gold and didn\'t want to pay,became involved in Texas politics, and in 1869 was electedThe only shot he saw was to give poor Sam away.as the Reconstructionist (Unionist) governor of Texas.The Sam Bass Gang he sold out Sam and Barnes and left their friends to mournAlmost immediately Davis decided to replace the TexasOh, what a scorching Jim will get when Gabriel blows his horn!18 January 2022'