The Ranger Life

"After the war between the states, the citizens of Texas realizing that the state was overrun with Indians and outlaws, following in the wake of war, found that the battles of its first great pioneers would have to be, in a measure, fought over again.  Not for the independence of a republic, but, for the life and liberty of her people, guaranteed by the constitution, and compact of states." So begins Captain Dan Roberts memoir of his seven years of life in the field as a Texas Ranger.During the Civil War, the frontier, which for four score and seven years had moved ever westward across the continent, halted in Texas. In some parts it even moved backwards. By 1874 it was high time for that territory to be re-won and for the frontier to be marching on.Captain Roberts and the men of Company D - Frontier Battalion formed one of the most active Texas Ranger units in that forward march and were at the vanguard of the Rangers' transition from Indian fighting to law enforcement.Indians, rust