In short, he was and is a human being.

He was not the first ranger in American history. Others came before him, such as Rogers’s Rangers during the time of the revolution. The word ranger has implied someone who ranges widely and freely. Usually the term has been applied to keepers of the peace, though in Australia the “bush ranger” was an outlaw on the loose.

Texas’s first rangers were a horseback force organized by colonizer Stephen F. Austin in 1823, when Texas still belonged to Mexico and Americans there were scarce. The rangers’ primary duty was to protect colonists from Indian raiders, though they were instrumental in putting down the ill-conceived Fredonian rebellion of 1825, a less-than-honorable prelude to Texas’s revolution against Mexico.

A small ranger force existed during the revolution, primarily serving as scouts for Sam Houston’s army. They helped refugees escape into Louisiana during the so-called runaway scrape when it appeared that Mexican General Santa Anna’s troops would overrun all of Texas and repeat the wholesale slaughter already demonstrated at the Alamo and Goliad.

Texas won its freedom from Mexico in the Battle of San Jacinto and the capture of Santa Anna. During the ten years that it was an independent republic it faced not only a constant threat of Indian raids but also Mexico’s attempts to reinvade and regain possession of its former province. The rangers remained in service, their fortunes rising and falling with the ups and downs of the new nation’s meager treasury and the vagaries of its politicians.

Though authorized by the Texas Congress, the rangers during that time were more like a loose local militia than the centralized professional force they would eventually become. There was no uniform, not even an official badge to demonstrate their authority. Pay was low and often deferred, sometimes not delivered at all. Enlistments were limited to comparatively short periods, usually in response to a specific Indian raid or prospect of hostilities. Ranger turnover was high.

From the time of the republic until the chaos of the Civil War, ranger energy was largely devoted to Indian fighting. The larger tribes were considered hostile, especially Comanches and Kiowas, in the western and central part of the state, and Apaches, in the southwestern and extreme western part. They frequently raided the settlements of Texas and northern Mexico, running off with horses and mules, taking scalps when and wherever they could. Reckless was the frontier farmer who went to his fields unarmed.

The rangers set up outposts beyond the settlements, constantly guarding against Indian incursions. This buckskin line was Texas’s first line of defense. When the line was breached, the rangers often led local volunteers in pursuit of the invaders, occasionally following them far into Indian strongholds.

In 1840, a peace conference between Comanche chiefs and Texans turned ugly. The Council House Fight burst out into the streets of San Antonio and caused heavy casualties on both sides. A thirst for vengeance led to a huge and unprecedented Comanche raid all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. In the port town of Linnville, white survivors of the surprise attack jumped into rowboats and fled out into the surf, pursued by Indians on horseback. The devastated town never recovered. However, rangers and area volunteers followed the retreating raiders. Though badly outnumbered, they surprised and routed the invaders in a reckless counterattack at Plum Creek.