Texas Rangers

The frontier troops were paid by Texas and provided protection from Indians, enforced Confederate conscription, rounded up deserters and gave protection from renegades and bandits. Texas Rangers are known as -- Rangers, Ranger Companies, Minute Men, Mounted Volunteers, Mounted Gunmen, Mounted Riflemen, Spies, Frontier Men, Texas State Troops, Special Force, Frontier Battalion and State Rangers.

According to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame Museum:
“During the Civil War, Frontier Defense Troops were generally called Texas State Troops, (TST), Texas Militia or Texas Mounted. We consider these men Texas Rangers because the service they performed was that of the Texas Frontier Defense against Indians, not fighting with the Confederacy against Union Soldiers. These Texas State Troops were not part of the Confederate States Army (CSA) but served under the command and control of officers in the employ of the State of Texas, although the organization of the troops was along military lines. The first of these groups was the Frontier Regiment which existed from mid-1861 until December 1863 when the group was mustered into the CSA. This Frontier Regiment was the backbone of home security, operating under the ‘legal authority’ of the pistols they carried or the rifle swinging in their saddle boot and whose motto was THEY WERE THE MEN WHO COULD NOT BE STAMPEDED.”

Event Date: 1860-80s