| A Texas Ranger Contributor(s): Jennings, N. A. (Author), Dobie, J. Frank (Foreword by), Hardin, Stephen L. (Introduction by) |
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ISBN: 0806129034 ISBN-13: 9780806129037 Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press OUR PRICE: $21.73 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 1997 Annotation: 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 reputation as "fire-eating, quarrelsome daredevils" and make their job of subduing the guerrillas an easier prospect. Within a short time the Rangers had arrested more than eleven hundred men and reputedly killed many more. Jennings records many a fight with the Mexican guerrillas, including the time when McNelly defied the United States government, crossed the Rio Grande, and fought Cortina and his raiders at Las Cuevas. Jennings also gives accounts of scrapes with King Fisher's outlaw band, John Wesley Hardin, and the families involved in the Taylor-Sutton feud. Originally published in 1899, A Texas Ranger was reprinted in 1930 with a foreword by J. Frank Dobie, who defends the veracity of the account despite the fact that Jennings was not, as his story claims, a member of the company in its earliest years. In a new introduction to this edition, Stephen L. Hardin explores the authenticity of Jennings's account and imparts the story of the feud that erupted between Dobie and Walter Prescott Webb over the publication of A Texas Ranger. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - 19th Century - Biography & Autobiography |
| Dewey: B |
| LCCN: 96044442 |
| Physical Information: 0.58" H x 5.42" W x 8.54" (0.50 lbs) 158 pages |
| Themes: - Geographic Orientation - Texas - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Eighteen-year-old Napoleon Augustus Jennings came to Rexas in 1874 and joined a special force of Texas ranger 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: Two have fun, and to carry out a set policy of terrorizing the Mexicans at every opportunity, which would gain them the reputation as fire-eating, quarrelsome daredevils and make their job of subduing the guerrillas an easier prospect. Within a short time the Rangers had arrested more than eleven hundred men and reputedly killed many more. Jennings records many a fight with the Mexican guerrillas, including the time when McNelly defied the United States government, crossed the Rio Grande, and fought Cortina and his raiders at Las Cuevas. Jennings also gives accounts of scrapes with King Fisher's outlaw band, John Wesley Hardin, and the families involved in the Taylor-Sutton feud. Originally published in 1899, A Texas Ranger was reprinted in 1930 with a foreword by J. Frank Dobie, who defends the veracity of the account despite the fact that Jennings was not, as his story claims, a member of the company in its earliest years. In a new introduction of this edition, Stephen L. Hardin explores the authenticity of Jennings account and imparts the story of the feud that erupted between Dobie and Walter Prescott Webb over the publication of A Texas ranger. |
Contributor Bio(s): Jennings, N. A.: - N.A. Jennings (1856-1919) was serving as a journalist in Philadelphia when he recorded and published this first personal account of his experiences with the Texas Rangers. Dobie, J. Frank: -J. Frank Dobie, who wrote the foreword, is a well-known storyteller of Western and Texas history. Hardin, Stephen L.: -Stephen L. Hardin teaches history at The Victoria College in Texas and is the author of The Texas Rangers and Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution. |