The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso 1821-1900
by Mike Cox
Summary
In the first of two books, Texas journalist/historian Mike Cox explores the inception and rise of the famed Texas Rangers. Starting in 1821 with just a handful of men, the Rangers’ first purpose was to keep settlers safe from the feared and gruesome Karankawa Indians, a cannibalistic tribe that wandered the Texas territory. As the influx of settlers grew, the attacks increased and it became clear that a larger, better trained force was necessary.
From their tumultuous beginning to their decades of fighting outlaws, Comanche, Mexican soldados and banditos, as well as Union soldiers, the Texas Rangers became one of the fiercest law enforcement groups in America.
The story of the Texas Rangers is as controversial as it is heroic….But above all they were perhaps the defining force for the stabilization and the creation of Texas.
Excerpt
On the second day of his journey along the Colorado, he heard a loud Indian war whoop. Startled back to reality, Austin reined his horse. A tall Indian, followed by fourteen warriors, emerged from the high, thick Arundinaria (bamboo cane) along the river and walked slowly toward the American horsemen.
“These Indians were well formed and apparently very active and athletic men,” Austin later noted. Each warrior, his body smeared with alligator grease to ward off mosquitoes, carried a cedar bow nearly as long as he stood tall. Austin saw that the deerskin quivers hanging from the Indians’ muscled shoulders bristled with arrows. Signing friendship, the Indian in the lead moved toward Austin and his party.
Telling his men to get ready to fight, Austin nudged his horse with his boots and rode about twenty yards ahead to meet the Indians. He had never fought Indians hand to hand, but as an officer in the Missouri militia during the War of 1812, Austin had learned something of military strategy and tactics. A show of determination, he knew, could be as effective as resorting to arms. Talk would come before gunfire.
In Spanish, the chief asked Austin where he was from and where he was going. Austin explained that he was an American with permission from Spain to bring families to settle between the Colorado and Brazos rivers. Accepting that, the chief identified himself as a Coco, which Austin knew to be a branch of the feared Karankawas. Wary of the chief’s invitation to follow the Indians to their camp, Austin refused. Holding his flintlock rifle across his chest, the young American warned the Indians not to come closer.
Reviews
“[A] lively, enlightening history of one of the oldest, most esteemed law-enforcement agencies in America”—Booklist
“A whopper of a history giving equal credit to the Rangers’ legendary gallantry and the accompanying brutality”—Kirkus Reviews
“Readers of Westerns will enjoy The Texas Rangers as much as they do fiction”—Bookgasm
Author's Biography
Mike Cox is the author of 13 nonfiction books including a study of Texas disasters, three books on the Texas Rangers, one collection historical stories, one true crime story, a biography, a memoir and three local histories, as well as numerous magazine articles, essays and introductions for other books. He has been an elected member of the Texas Institute of Letters since 1993.
His byline regularly appears in a number of national and statewide magazines. He was an award-winning newspaper reporter for nearly 20 years, most of that time with the Austin American-Statesman.
Mike lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Linda, 14-year old daughter Hallie, one dog (Abby) and one cat (Amy).
He and Linda own Saddlebag Books and specialize in selling used and rare Texana and Western Americana.