The Texas Rangers since 1845

Introduction

The Texas Ranger Division, routinely called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction founded in Austin, the capital of Texas, in the United States. Over the years, the Texas Rangers have enquired misdeeds extending from killing to political corruption, acted on as riot policeman and as detectives, defended the Governor of Texas, followed down fugitives, and functioned as a paramilitary force at the service of both the Republic (1836-45) and the state of Texas. (Leo, pp. 147-158)

The Texas Rangers were unofficially conceived by Stephen F. Austin in a call-to-arms in writing in 1823 and were formally constituted in 1845. The unit was disintegrated by the government administration throughout the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, but was rapidly restructured upon the reinstitution of dwelling government. Since 1935, the association has been a partition of the Texas Department of Public Safety; it fulfills the function of Texas's State Bureau of Investigation. As of 2009, there are 144 requested constituents of the Ranger force. (Bill, pp. 15-18)

The unit is the oldest state-level regulation enforcement bureau in the United States. The Rangers have taken part in numerous of the most significant happenings of Texas annals and were engaged in some of the best-known criminal cases in the annals of the Old West, for example those of gunfighter John Wesley Hardin, bank thief Sam Bass, and outlaws Bonnie and Clyde. Scores of publications have been in writing about the Rangers, from well studied works of nonfiction to pulp books, producing them important participants in the mythology of the Wild West (Captain, pp. 120-121). During their long annals, a distinct Ranger custom has evolved; their heritage implication to Texians and subsequent Texans is such that they are lawfully defended contrary to disbandment. There is a repository dedicated to the Texas Rangers in Waco, Texas. (Charles, pp. 50-52)

Texas Ranger lore designated days the first rangers to 1823, when Stephen F. Austin engaged 10 men to proceed as rangers to defend 600 to 700 freshly resolved families who reached in Texas next the Mexican War of Independence. While there is some consideration as to when Austin really engaged men as "rangers", Texas Ranger lore designated days the celebration year of their association to this event.[4] The Texas Rangers were formally constituted in 1835, and in November Robert McLain Williamson was selected to be the first Major of the Texas Rangers (Bill, pp. 15-18). Within two years the Rangers comprised more than 300 men. Following the Texas Revolution and the creation of the Republic of Texas, freshly voted into agency president Mirabeau B. Lamar increased a force of 56 Rangers to battle the Cherokee and the Comanche, partially in retaliation for the support they had granted the Mexicans at the Cordova Rebellion contrary to the Republic. The dimensions of the Rangers were expanded to 150 by Sam Houston, President of the Republic, in 1841. (Robert, pp. 144-145)

The Rangers proceeded to take part in skirmishes with Indians through 1846, when the annexation of Texas ...