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Texas Rangers (West)
built 655 days ago
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Texas Rangers (Movie) , and more.
Texas Rangers (Movie) , and more.
Despite the long history of the Texas Rangers, they were not createduntil 1874. Stephen F. Austin saw a real need to keep his new colony safe. On August 5th, 1823, Austin wrote that he would hire ten men to act as rangers for the common defense. These men were not soldiers, or military. They helped Austin protect his colony from Indians or people who weren't supposed to be there. By 1835, as Texas' independence came closer, a council created a group of Rangers to protect the frontier from Indians.
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Individually, the Texas Rangers were some of the most colorful heroes in America’s history. Together they brought peace to a region fraught with danger. As dispensers of frontier justice in a time and place when lawlessness ruled, Rangers were often the only protection for settlers facing hostile Indians, cattle rustlers, marauding bandits and murderous gunslingers. Their exploits made them one of the most famous and respected crime-fighting forces anywhere in the world. Time and again, Rangers proved that one person in the right could triumph over even the greatest odds.
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With origins dating to the earliest days of Anglo settlement in Texas, the Texas Rangers form the oldest law-enforcement agency in North America with statewide jurisdiction. They often have been compared to four other world-famous agencies: the FBI, Scotland Yard, Interpol and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Scores of books, from well-researched works of non-fiction to Wild West pulp novels, have been written about the Rangers. They are part of the history of the Old West, and part of its mythology. Over the years, a distinct Ranger tradition has evolved.
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Members of the Texas Rangers included Charles Goodnight, John Coffee Hays and William Wallace. In 1840 Hays was promoted to the rank of captain. He arranged for his men to be given colt revolvers. The Comanches were used to fighting against men armed with single-shot guns and suffered heavy casualties at Plum Creek (1840), Enchanted Rock (1841) and at Bandera Pass (1842).
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Lamartine Pemberton Sieker, Civil War veteran and quartermaster of the Texas Rangers, son of Dr. Edward A. Sieker, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 8, 1848. Lamartine Sieker had two interests in life: a liking to conduct his affairs in a military manner and a desire to work for the Texas Rangers. One ranger captain characterized Sieker as an "honest gentleman" and "fearless officer," who was a "disciplinarian" and a believer in "good order."
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The story goes that Captain Jack Hayes and his men, the fabled Texas Rangers, were surrounded and vastly outnumbered during one of the many skirmishes of the Mexican War. He made the following prayer, certainly one of the most colorful ever made before battle: “Oh Lord, we are about to join battle with vastly superior numbers of the enemy, and, Heavenly Father, we would like for you to be on our side and help us; but if you can’t do it, for Christ’s sake don’t go over to the enemy, but just lie low and keep dark, and you’ll see one of the damndest fights you ever saw in all your born days. Amen.”
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Texas Rangers (West)