Customer Reviews

Texas Rangers (Osprey Trade Editions)

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I think that The Texas Rangers Elite Series is a very informative, yet entertaining book. The book talks about The Texas Rangers from thier begining up to present day, going into deph about the more famous Rangers like, Jack Hays, and RIP Ford. I would say that this book is well worth investing in, especaially for people to whom the Texas Rangers is a new interrest, its a good starting block.

This book is pretty reliable. It shows every major detail of the Texas Rangers and their exploits. Each of the osprey publishing books is like this. Hopefully, in the future, there can be a revised edition that includes everything.

This book skips over the history of the Rangers from 1823 to 1835. It also reports the first battles against the Karankawas and the Tonkawas inaccurately. A good way to tell if a book on the Texas Rangers is properly researched is if it includes the letter written by Robert Kuykendall to Austin which resulted in the formation of the first two groups of Rangers and the names of those first Rangers; this book does not. Without this history, you are missing a good part of the story.

The Rangers of Austin's Colony Historical Marker From the Texas Sesquicentennial at Courthouse Square dated 1836-1986 states:

In 1823, after several Indian attacks on the members of Austin's Colony, Captain Robert Kuykendall and Alcalde John Tumlinson of the Colorado District requested permission from Trespalacios to raise a company to protect the colonists. Ten men were recruited to serve under the command of Moses Morrison.

When Stephen F. Austin returned from Mexico City in August 1823, he found the colony still plagued by Indian disturbances and announced that he would employ ten additional men, at his own expense, to serve as "Rangers" for the common defense. Although the law enforcement group know as the Texas Rangers was not formally organized until 1835, the "Rangers" of Austin's colony are the earliest recorded force of this type raised in Texas and served as a model for the later formation of The Texas Rangers.