This eBook has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. "In offering this book to the public, I have not undertaken to present a history of my life. I do not consider my life of enough importance to warrant making a book about it. What I have undertaken to do is to tell some of the exciting experiences that have fallen to the lot of that noble band, the Texas Ranger force, of which I had the honor to be a member for twelve years." Contents: A Runaway Better Days An Indian Raid A Thief Ben Hughes A Buffalo Hunt A Stolen Herd The Hanging of Bill Longly The Capture of Henry Carothers An Exciting Fisticuff Waterspout at Quanah Five People Beg for Food The Murder of Hartman The Chase After Del Dean, When I Break My Arm and Ankle The Capture and Escape of Morris, the Noted Murderer The Arrest of Hollingsworth The Capture of Mayes, The Noted Horse Thief Exciting Experiences While Pursuing Bill James Indians on The Warpath The Opening of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Strip A Cup and Saucer Event A Prisoner Escapes The Capture of Rip Pearce A Practical Joker Gets Into Trouble Race Thomas is Guarded A Sad Farewell A Clever Thief is Caught The Gordon Train Robbery The Surrender of Four Train Robbers The Pursuit of Bill Cook and Jim Turner A Miserable Night My Experiences With a Bearskin Overcoat A Lively Chase Battle in the Dugout An Exciting Experience With Indians The Arrest of Jerome Loftos The Capture and Trial of Swin The Capture of Ihart and Sprey A Prize Fight Prevented A Bank Robbery A Call to Hartley On the Trail of Train Robbers The San Saba Mob A Bad Dog A Good Time Lost Fording the River Girls Try to Kiss Neal The Capture of Wax Lee The Cowboys' Reunion Hidden Witnesses The Hanging of Morrison A Prayer I Shoot Myself A Call for Protection Unknown Victim Falls in a Gun Fight at Dalhart

"In offering this book to the public, I have not undertaken to present a history of my life. I do not consider my life of enough importance to warrant making a book about it. What I have undertaken to do is to tell some of the exciting experiences that have fallen to the lot of that noble band, the Texas Ranger force, of which I had the honor to be a member for twelve years." Contents: A Runaway Better Days An Indian Raid A Thief Ben Hughes A Buffalo Hunt A Stolen Herd The Hanging of Bill Longly The Capture of Henry Carothers An Exciting Fisticuff Waterspout at Quanah Five People Beg for Food The Murder of Hartman The Chase After Del Dean, When I Break My Arm and Ankle The Capture and Escape of Morris, the Noted Murderer The Arrest of Hollingsworth The Capture of Mayes, The Noted Horse Thief Exciting Experiences While Pursuing Bill James Indians on The Warpath The Opening of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Strip A Cup and Saucer Event A Prisoner Escapes The Capture of Rip Pearce A Practical Joker Gets Into Trouble Race Thomas is Guarded A Sad Farewell A Clever Thief is Caught The Gordon Train Robbery The Surrender of Four Train Robbers The Pursuit of Bill Cook and Jim Turner A Miserable Night My Experiences With a Bearskin Overcoat A Lively Chase Battle in the Dugout An Exciting Experience With Indians The Arrest of Jerome Loftos The Capture and Trial of Swin The Capture of Ihart and Sprey A Prize Fight Prevented A Bank Robbery A Call to Hartley On the Trail of Train Robbers The San Saba Mob A Bad Dog A Good Time Lost Fording the River Girls Try to Kiss Neal The Capture of Wax Lee The Cowboys' Reunion Hidden Witnesses The Hanging of Morrison A Prayer I Shoot Myself A Call for Protection Unknown Victim Falls in a Gun Fight at Dalhart

Nelson Lee's '3 Years Among the Comanches' is a riveting memoir that provides a firsthand account of the author's harrowing experiences living among the Comanche tribe. Through vivid descriptions and detailed storytelling, Lee captures the reader's attention, immersing them in the cultural nuances and lifestyle of the indigenous people. The book is written in a straightforward, yet engaging style, making it accessible to a wide range of readers interested in the history of Native American tribes in the American West during the 19th century. Lee's narrative also offers valuable insights into the complexities of intercultural interactions and the challenges faced by both settlers and indigenous communities during that time period. It serves as a valuable historical document and a testament to the resilience and adaptability of the human spirit in the face of adversity. Nelson Lee's background as a frontiersman and his first-hand encounters with various tribes in the West provide a unique perspective that enriches the narrative of '3 Years Among the Comanches'. His experiences living among the Comanches give him a deep understanding of their customs, beliefs, and way of life, which is reflected in the authenticity of his storytelling. Readers who are interested in narratives of survival, cultural exchange, and the complexities of the American frontier will find '3 Years Among the Comanches' to be a rewarding and enlightening read.

The first systematic inquiry into the Texas Rangers did not begin until 1935 with Walter Prescott Webb’s publication The Texas Rangers. Since then numerous works have appeared on the Rangers, but no volume has been published before that covers the various historians of the Rangers and their approaches to the topic. Editors Bruce A. Glasrud and Harold J. Weiss Jr. gather essays that profile individual historians of the Texas Rangers, explore themes and issues in Ranger history, and comprise archival research, biographies, and autobiographies. Several approaches in Texas historiography have influenced the writings on the Texas Rangers and serve to organize the chapters in the volume. Traditionalists (Chuck Parsons, Stephen L. Moore, and Bob Alexander) stress the revered happenings in the nineteenth century that brought about the Lone Star state and its empire-building Ranger force. To these historical writers the Texas Rangers were part of a golden age. Revisionists (Robert M. Utley, Louis R. Sadler, and Charles H. Harris) pull back from this adulation, emphasize the importance of overlooked ethnic and racial groups, and point out misbehavior on the part of Rangers. They also want to separate fact from fiction. Some Ranger historians (Frederick Wilkins and Mike Cox) straddle both traditional and revisionist approaches in their works. The final group, Cultural Constructionalists (Gary Clayton Anderson, Américo Paredes, and Monica Muñoz Martinez), continue the work of Revisionists and focus on an interconnected past that includes theoretical approaches and the study of memory and regional identities. Several themes emerge throughout the book. One is how the Rangers changed from unorganized mounted militia, dragoons in the modern sense, to organized cavalry forces with six-shooter firepower who served as a military arm of the state and nation. A second is how the dichotomous views of the Rangers—as either patriot warriors or bloody avengers—left their imprint on Anglo and Hispanic society. This divergent examination especially derived from incidents in the US-Mexican War, the period from 1910 to 1920, and the lower Rio Grande valley in the 1960s. And yet another theme is how the Rangers first resisted and fought against, yet ultimately absorbed, all creeds and colors into their ranks over two hundred years as they evolved into police officers: Anglo, Black, Hispanic, Indian, and women Rangers.

The many roles played by guns in the old West with personal accounts by many early settlers and hundreds of photos.

"In the annals of law enforcement few groups or agencies have become as encrusted with legend as the Texas Rangers. The always-readable historian Robert Utley has done a thorough job of chipping away these encrustations and revealing the Ranger's rather rag-and-bone, catch-as-catch-can beginning in a time when the Texas frontier was very far from being stable or safe. A fine book."--Larry McMurtry, author of Lonesome Dove From The Lone Ranger to Lonesome Dove, the Texas Rangers have been celebrated in fact and fiction for their daring exploits in bringing justice to the Old West. In Lone Star Justice, best-selling author Robert M. Utley captures the first hundred years of Ranger history, in a narrative packed with adventures worthy of Zane Grey or Larry McMurtry. The Rangers began in the 1820s as loose groups of citizen soldiers, banding together to chase Indians and Mexicans on the raw Texas frontier. Utley shows how, under the leadership of men like Jack Hays and Ben McCulloch, these fiercely independent fighters were transformed into a well-trained, cohesive team. Armed with a revolutionary new weapon, Samuel Colt's repeating revolver, they became a deadly fighting force, whether battling Comanches on the plains or storming the city of Monterey in the Mexican-American War. As the Rangers evolved from part-time warriors to full-time lawmen by 1874, they learned to face new dangers, including homicidal feuds, labor strikes, and vigilantes turned mobs. They battled train robbers, cattle thieves and other outlaws--it was Rangers, for example, who captured John Wesley Hardin, the most feared gunman in the West. Based on exhaustive research in Texas archives, this is the most authoritative history of the Texas Rangers in over half a century. It will stand alongside other classics of Western history by Robert M. Utley--a vivid portrait of the Old West and of the legendary men who kept the law on the lawless frontier. "A rip-snortin', six-guns-blazin' saga of good guys and bad guys who were sometimes one and the same. By taking on the Texas Rangers, Utley, an accomplished and well-regarded historian of the American West, risks treading on ground that is both hallowed and thoroughly documented. He skirts those issues by turning in a balanced history.... An accessible survey of some interesting--and bloody--times."--Kirkus Reviews

Presents an account of crime in Oklahoma Territority from 1889 to 1907.

George Washington insisted that his portrait be painted with one. Daniel Boone created a legend with one. Abraham Lincoln shot them on the White House lawn. And Teddy Roosevelt had his specially customized. Now, in this first-of-its-kind book, historian Alexander Rose delivers a colorful, engrossing biography of an American icon: the rifle. Drawing on the words of soldiers, inventors, and presidents, based on extensive new research, and encompassing the Revolution to the present day, American Rifle is a balanced, wonderfully entertaining history of this most essential firearm and its place in American culture. In the eighteenth century American soldiers discovered that they no longer had to fight in Europe’s time-honored way. With the evolution of the famed “Kentucky” Rifle—a weapon slow to load but devastatingly accurate in the hands of a master—a new era of warfare dawned, heralding the birth of the American individualist in battle. In this spirited narrative, Alexander Rose reveals the hidden connections between the rifle’s development and our nation’s history. We witness the high-stakes international competition to produce the most potent gunpowder . . . how the mysterious arts of metallurgy, gunsmithing, and mass production played vital roles in the creation of American economic supremacy . . . and the ways in which bitter infighting between rival arms makers shaped diplomacy and influenced the most momentous decisions in American history. And we learn why advances in rifle technology and ammunition triggered revolutions in military tactics, how ballistics tests—frequently bizarre—were secretly conducted, and which firearms determined the course of entire wars. From physics to geopolitics, from frontiersmen to the birth of the National Rifle Association, from the battles of the Revolution to the war in Iraq, American Rifle is a must read for history buffs, gun collectors, soldiers—and anyone who seeks to understand the dynamic relationship between the rifle and this nation’s history.