Customer Reviews

Yours to Command: The Life and Legend of Texas Ranger Captain Bill McDonald (Frances B. Vick Series)

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Yours to Command: The Life and Legend of Texas Ranger Captain Bill McDonald is the biography of Captain Bill McDonald (1852-1918), the most well-known of the "Four Great Captains" of Texas Ranger history. Rangers under his command were involved in incidents ranging from the Fitzsimmons-Maher prizefight in El Paso, to the Wichita Falls bank robbery, the murders by the San Saba Mob, the Reese-Townsend feud at Columbus, the shootout with Mexican Americans near Rio Grande City, and much more. Only one Ranger ever lost his life while under McDonald's command. McDonald's marksmanship, skill at using weapons to intimidate opponents, and ability to handle unruly mobs are the stuff of legends. Yours to Command reveals the truth behind the legends. Though Yours to Command is a scholarly accounting, McDonald's amazing life story is a pleasure for anyone fascinated by true tales of the Old West to read. Highly recommended for public and college library biography shelves.

Bill McDonald was one of the "four great captains" of the Texas Rangers during the late 19th and early 20th century. He was, literally, a legend in his own time, the inspiration for the apocryphal tradition "one riot, one ranger," and more than any single individual the source of lore and legend about the Rangers. Harold Weiss has done a splendid job of sorting the man and his career from the mythology surrounding him, in a biography that is always interesting, often exciting, and engaging even when it emphasizes that a captain's life was as much one of paperwork and personnel management as of confronting often dangerous criminals (and McDonald did plenty of the latter, though with fewer gun battles than legend would hold). This is a fascinating work of biography, one that others should look to for instructive example. To anyone interested in Texas, the frontier west, and the reality behind the myths surrounding both, this book is highly recommended. Once you start reading, you can't put it down.