Warren Angus Ferris spent six years as a Mountain Man — and left behind a vivid account of his days in the Rocky Mountains.

Further reading:

Life in the Rocky Mountains: A Diary of Wanderings on the Sources of the Rivers Missouri, Columbia, and Colorado, 1830-1835

Land is the Cry!: Warren Angus Ferris, Pioneer Texas Surveyor and Founder of Dallas County — Susanne Starling

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Music: Man of the Mountain Land by Hawken Horse

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

In 1842, Texans staged a punitive expedition down to the Rio Grande, in retaliation for a Mexican incursion into San Antonio. Things went badly. Very badly.

Further reading:

Soldiers of Misfortune: The Somerville and Mier Expeditions, by Sam W. Haynes

Intro music: Dead Man Walking, Justin LaPoint, Uppbeat

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Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

In 1932, Robert E. Howard created his most enduring and popular character — Conan the Cimmerian. Part of Conan’s DNA came from the legendary Texas Ranger Bigfoot Wallace. This episode explores that connection: 

Further reading:

Beyond the Black River by Robert E. Howard

On An Underwood No. 5 — Bigfoot vs. Bigfoot: Biggest Bout of the 19th century! Or…The Four Deaths of Chief Bigfoot by Ben Friberg

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Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

Captain Leander H. McNelly and 26 Texas Rangers crossed the Rio Grande to recover a herd of stolen cattle in November of 1875. They were defying the odds — and international law. McNelly had a mission, and he was willing to risk his own life, the lives of his Rangers, and war with Mexico to accomplish it.

Further reading:

Texas Seizes Large Sanctuary Island in Campaign Against Cartels

Taming the Nueces Strip, by George Durham

Follow Me To Hell: McNelly’s Texas Rangers and the Rise of Frontier Justice, by Tom Clavin

Cult of Glory: The Bold And Brutal History of The Texas Rangers, by Doug J. Swanson

https://thoughtsfromafar.blog/2018/08/26/the-red-raid-1875/

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Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

Leander McNelly — a “puny” consumptive with exceptional drive and martial prowess — recruited 41 men to form a Special Force of Texas Rangers to take on rampant banditry in the Nueces Strip in South Texas in 1875. It was more a counterinsurgency mission than a law enforcement operation, and it would make him and his men Frontier Partisan legends.

Further reading:

Taming the Nueces Strip, by George Durham

Follow Me To Hell: McNelly’s Texas Rangers and the Rise of Frontier Justice, by Tom Clavin

https://thoughtsfromafar.blog/2018/08/26/the-red-raid-1875/

Support The Frontier Partisans Blog and Podcast through Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/frontierpartisans

Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

In 1847, General Winfield Scott landed an American Army at the port of Veracruz and pushed west to take Mexico City. The Texas Rangers under Col. John Coffee Hays were tasked with counter-guerrilla operations to keep the vital supply line between Veracruz and Mexico City open.

Sources:

Mixed Blessing: The Role of the Texas Rangers in the Mexican War, 1846-1848, Masters Thesis by Major Ian B. Lyles

Cult of Glory: The Bold & Brutal History of the Texas Rangers by Doug J. Swanson

Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texas Rangers by Robert M. Utley

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Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

Ben McCulloch was a Tier 1 Frontier Partisan — a highly capable scout and spy, and an outstanding combat leader. He was also an ardent pro-slavery Southern patriot, who died in battle in service of the Confederate States of America. All that makes him... complicated... for folks in the 21st Century, but he’s a man who should be remembered.

(Note: I know that there’s a weird repeat at the end. Couldn’t figure out how to get rid of it, and it doesn’t do any harm, so there it is, is, is).

Sources: Ben McCulloch and the Frontier Military Tradition by Thomas W. Cuttrer

The Filibusters — Spawned by the Frontier (Frontier Partisans Podcast)

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Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

Mabry B. Gray — known to history and legend as Texas Ranger Mustang Gray — is the avatar of the dark side of the Ranging Way of War. If John Stark of Rogers Rangers represents the tough but honorable ideal of a Ranger, Mustang Gray represents the vicious, vengeful, natural-born killer element, giving rein to his darkest impulses in a deadly blood feud.

Sources: 

MIXED BLESSING: THE ROLE OF THE TEXAS RANGERS IN THE MEXICAN WAR, 1846-1848 A thesis presented to the Faculty of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF MILITARY ART AND SCIENCE Military History by IAN B. LYLES, MAJ, USA M.A., University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, 2001

Irregulars: Guerrilla and Rancher egulars: Guerrilla and Ranchero Warfare in South T e in South Texas and exas and Northern Mexico during the Mexican - American War James Mills The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, [email protected]

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Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

Tougher than leather — that’s Cicero Rufus Perry. He started riding with the Texas Rangers in his teens, in the 1830s, when the new nation of Texas was locked in a two-front war with Mexicans along the border and Comanches to the west and north. He rode with many of the great men of that legendary Frontier Partisan force — Jack Hays, Ben McCulloch, Sam Walker.

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Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative

John Stark was a badass — a real-deal American hero, born and bred on the New England Frontier. He served as second-in-command of Rogers Rangers in the French and Indian War, led a frontier-bred contingent of New Hampshire militias to Boston, where they hammered the British Army with devastating volleys of accurate musket fire in the battle of Bunker Hill, and he beat a German contingent of the British Army in a standup fight at Bennington in the summer of 1777, setting up the key American victory at Saratoga. His gritty determination and his tactical acumen were on display early, when he was captured by Abenaki warriors in the spring of 1752...

Support The Frontier Partisans Blog and Podcast through Patreon:

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Music: Blue Frontier by Jim Cornelius

Graphics by Lynn Woodward, Woodward Creative