Eighteen-year-old Napoleon Augustus Jennings came to Texas in 1874 and joined a special force of Texas Rangers charged with border patrol under the command of L. H. McNelly. At this time the South Texas region was home to hundreds of outlaws and riffraff, and some three thousand Mexican guerrillas under Juan Cortina and others were raiding settlers on both sides of the Rio Grande. McNelly's Rangers stormed into this lawless area for two reasons, according to Jennings: "To have fun, and to carry out a set policy of terrorizing the Mexicans at every opportunity", which would gain them the...

Robert Hall was a true Texian: a pioneer settler, Indian fighter, Texas Ranger, and veteran of three wars (the war for Texas Independence, the Mexican War, and the Civil War). He joined the Texas Army shortly after the Battle of San Jacinto, and married into the prominent King family of Gonzales County. Although less well known to history enthusiasts because of the rarity of this book, Robert Hall and his exploits were well known to other Texas heroes such as Sam Houston, Ed Burleson, Paint Caldwell, Ben and Henry McCulloch, "Big Foot" Wallace, and Jack Hays. His firsthand accounts of...

Mandred Wood may have caught a glint off the Bowie knife that sank into his belly-but probably not. On the afternoon of November 11, 1837, he had exchanged "harsh epithets" with David James Jones, a hero of the Texas Revolution. When words failed, Jones closed the argument with his blade. Such affrays were common in Houston, the fledgling capital of the Republic of Texas. This one, however, was singular. Wood was a gentleman and Jones a member of a disruptive gang of vagrants that the upper crust denounced as the "rowdy loafers." Jones went to jail; Wood went to his grave. In the weeks that...