Legends of the Old West - TEXAS RANGERS Ep. 3 | "War, and the Walker Colt"

Episode Date: May 12, 2019

President Polk is furious with General Taylor's ceasefire agreement with Mexico and he orders General Winfield Scott to continue the war. Jack Hays, Samuel Walker and John "RIP" Ford return to Mexico for the final push toward the capital, but the Rangers suffer a devastating loss in the fighting. A brief meeting between Samuel Walker and Samuel Colt leads to the creation of the Colt Walker revolver and revolutionizes the firearms industry. Join Black Barrel+ for early access and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Look for new value programs when you shop at Loblaws, in-store and online. Conditions may apply. See in-store for details. This episode is brought to you by LEGO Fortnite. LEGO Fortnite is the ultimate survival crafting game found within Fortnite. It's not just Fortnite Battle Royale with minifigures. It's an entirely new experience that combines the best of Lego Play and Fortnite. Created to give players of all ages, including kids and families, a safe digital space to play in. Download Fortnite on consoles, PC, cloud services, or Android and play Lego Fortnite for free. Rated ESRB E10+. The Mexican-American War was a defining moment for the Texas Rangers. Men who were already household names in Texas became household names across the country.

They would meet with presidents and be celebrated from New York City to San Francisco. The war also caused great change within the Rangers. It represented the changing of the guard, the passing of the torch. After the war, one captain would finish his career and ride west into the sunset. One would leave Texas in search of fortune, only to return with frustration, and a new captain would rise to take command of all the Rangers. But the fighting in Mexico would take its toll. One of the most prominent Rangers, a man whose insights would have a dramatic impact on the American West, would not survive the war. From Black Barrel Media, this is Season 5 of the Legends of the Old West podcast,

presented by the Cowboy Lifestyle Network. Here's Episode 3 of the Texas Rangers, War and the Walker Cult. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch. And organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell and grow at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Thank you. and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. With the internet's best converting checkout, 36% better on average compared to other leading commerce platforms,

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Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash realm, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash r-e-a-l-m now to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash realm. slash realm. of the last day? How about a 4 p.m. late checkout? Just need a nice place to settle in? Enjoy your room upgrade. Wherever you go, we'll go together. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamx. Benefits vary by card. Terms apply. After General Zachary Taylor signed an unpopular eight-week armistice with Mexico in September 1846, the Texas Rangers drifted home.

They received joyous welcomes from New Orleans to San Antonio, but their days were not spent entirely in celebration. There was sadness and mourning, too. In October, Samuel Walker attended a ceremony to memorialize his good friend Robert Addison Gillespie. Gillespie had fallen at the Battle of Monterey, and now Walker asked the Assembly to draft resolutions to honor the longtime Ranger. The resolutions would be sent to Gillespie's relatives and all the newspapers in Texas. resolutions would be sent to Gillespie's relatives and all the newspapers in Texas.

After paying tribute to his friend, Walker traveled east to Washington, D.C. at the request of President James K. Polk. He met with the president and various army officials at the end of November, and then made the fateful trip I've been alluding to. On December 2nd, 1846, On December 2nd, 1846, he traveled to New York City and met gun manufacturer Samuel Colt. Colt had been scraping by the last few years, but now he was hopeful he could sell a big batch of his pistols to the U.S. Army for use in Mexico. President Polk had secured a declaration of war on Mexico from the U.S. Congress, and 50,000 troops were mobilizing. Colt wanted to secure a contract with the government to provide many of those troops with his pistols. But there was a problem. The Army's Chief of Ordnance didn't like them.

During the meeting, Walker told Colt about the Rangers' fight at Walker's Creek two years earlier. The Rangers had won, in large part, because of the Patterson Colt about the Rangers' fight at Walker's Creek two years earlier. The Rangers had won, in large part, because of the Patterson Colt. Walker was a true believer in the weapon, but he said it could be a little better. It needed to fire a larger round, which meant it needed to be bigger and heavier with a longer barrel. The additional size and weight could also have a secondary use. Once it was empty, it could be used as a club if necessary. Thirty years in the future, wielding newer models of the gun, lawmen like Wyatt Earp would use the pistol as a club as their primary option when dealing with rowdies. In cow towns like Dodge City, Earp used gunplay as a last resort.

His first choice was to club a drunken cowboy over the head and let him sleep it off in jail, and he called the practice buffaloing. Or, if you were a Texas Ranger and you were frustrated with dawdling service in a San Antonio saloon, you could use the gun to whack a surly bartender. It was versatile that way. After the meeting, Walker used his connections to President Polk and the Secretary of War to help Colt secure an order of 1,000 pistols for the U.S. Army. Colt was so thrilled by the order that he named the new model after Walker,

and the Colt Walker pistol was born. The famous Army Colt, and the Navy Colt, and all the other long-barreled Colts that were to come, owe their existence to the Colt Walker 1847 model. Now I grew up calling it the Walker Colt, which is a common name for the gun, but if you think about it, they probably called it the Colt Walker back then if they used those words at all. I imagine this is similar to how we refer to cars today. The name of the maker comes first, the name of the model comes second. We call the Ford Explorer the Ford Explorer, not the Explorer Ford. Either way, the heavy, long-barreled, six-chambered handguns set the standard, and it assured

places in history for Colt and Walker. While Walker was busy in the East doing little things like unknowingly revolutionizing the firearms industry, the Mexican-American War was heating back up in the West. President Polk had dispatched General Winfield Scott to Mexico to finish the work started by General Taylor. Scott's plan was to sail his army to Veracruz on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and then march east to Mexico City and capture the capital. Taylor was supposed to rendezvous with Scott at Veracruz, which meant

he had a long march ahead of him, which meant he needed his scouts back. In December 1846, not long after Walker met Colt in New York, General Taylor asked Ben McCullough and the Texas Rangers to return to Mexico to scout for his army. Just a month later, McCullough and 27 Rangers reunited with their old comrades in Taylor's army at Saltillo, a few miles southwest of Monterey. Taylor immediately put the Rangers to work. He needed them to scout 30 miles of road south of Saltillo. On the scout, McCullough's men had three quick skirmishes with Mexican soldiers, a couple of whom were deserting from the army. After interrogating them, McCullough began to

get worried. He was starting to suspect that a decent-sized force was somewhere ahead of him. What he didn't know was that Santa Anna himself was closing in with 15,000 soldiers. On a cold February night in 1847, Ben McCullough and the Rangers reined in their horses on a path high in the hills south of Saltillo. McCullough dismounted and gazed at the scene below him through his spyglass. The Mexican deserter he had interrogated had told the truth. Santa Ana was marching north with a huge army. McCullough stared down at a camp that he thought was at least a mile long. Hundreds of campfires burned near tents that held thousands of soldiers. McCullough sent all but one of his company back up the road to warn Taylor.

McCullough and his lieutenant stayed at the lookout spot, five miles from the Mexican camp, and waited until dawn. As the sun rose, McCullough again spied the camp through his scope. Bugles and drums erupted in the camp to wake up the soldiers. Men crawled out of their tents, rekindled their fires, and began cooking breakfast. The Rangers waited long enough for McCullough to estimate the enemy's strength at roughly 15,000 men. Then they raced back to Taylor's camp. that roughly 15,000 men. Then they raced back to Taylor's camp. As the Rangers galloped toward headquarters, they could see a column of dust rising in the distance. The army was on the move. McCullough's men had reached Taylor in the night and given him the early report.

Taylor was moving his army to a safer spot, but he himself had waited in camp for McCullough. McCullough told Taylor about the size of the army that was moving toward him, and that it was under the direction of Santa Ana himself, no less. The Mexican force would be here tomorrow, McCullough reported. Taylor and the Rangers joined the rest of the army in falling back to a pass between mountain ranges called Buena Vista. The bloodiest battle of the war happened two days later. The two armies sized each other up on February 22, 1847. Santa Anna had the numerical advantage. He had somewhere around 15,000 troops and Taylor had somewhere around 5,000.

Santa Anna, with his usual arrogance, tried to convince the Americans that it was pointless to fight. He sent a note under a flag of truce to General Taylor. It read, You are surrounded by 20,000 men and cannot, in any human probability, avoid suffering a rout and being cut to pieces with your men. But as you deserve consideration and particular esteem, I wish to save you from a catastrophe, and for that purpose give you this notice in order that you may surrender at your discretion. Legend has it, Taylor replied by saying, you can tell him to go to hell. That afternoon, the Mexicans tested the left side of the American army.

The Americans held, but it was just a skirmish compared to the fighting the next day. The Mexican assault began early the next morning. Santa Ana's soldiers drove hard into volunteers from Arkansas and Kentucky. The Americans fell back in confusion. A unit from Indiana hurried up to the line to help, but they were pushed back also. The Mexican cavalry stormed through the hole in the line. They began to march around the left flank of the American force, but they

were met by a unit from Mississippi and the Texas Rangers. The Americans sliced into the Mexican troops and cut off part of the advance, but many of the Mexican horsemen were already beyond the Americans. The Mexicans charged toward the Americans' base of supply near Hacienda Buena Vista. The Americans' wagons were protected by wagoneers and infantry, and now the guns of those soldiers exploded into the faces of the oncoming Mexicans. The Rangers and the American troops were in hot pursuit of the Mexican cavalry. The men guarding the wagons repulsed the Mexican charge,

and then the Rangers and the Dragoons rushed up from behind and routed the cavalry. Meanwhile, back on the battlefield, the unit from Mississippi was in a pitched battle with a sizable number of Santa Ana's men. The Mississippians had plugged the hole in the line, but then Santa Ana sent another force around the extreme left flank of the American line. The men from Mississippi pivoted and engaged the Mexicans on the flank. The US flying artillery rushed around to support the troops. Together, they pounded the Mexicans until Santa Ana's men were forced to withdraw. As night fell, all the hotspots on the battlefield grew quiet, except for the agonizing moans of the wounded on both sides. The Americans suffered 267 killed and 468 wounded. The Mexican casualties were 591 killed, 1,048 wounded. It turned out to be the bloodiest battle of the war, the second phase of

which was just beginning. But it was a decisive American victory, and Taylor gave enormous credit to Major Ben McCullough. It was his scouting mission that had alerted Taylor to the size and position of the Mexican army, which helped him choose a safer battlefield. size, and position of the Mexican army, which helped him choose a safer battlefield. And Taylor gave credit to the heroic efforts of the unit from Mississippi and its colonel, Jefferson Davis. The Battle of Buena Vista made Davis. In six years, he would be Secretary of War. In ten, he would be a Senator. In 14, he would be the president of the Confederate States of America. But despite the praise heaped on Ben McCullough, this was the end of his war in Mexico, though he didn't know it yet.

In early March 1847, about two weeks after the Battle of Buena Vista, McCullough returned to Texas to buy fresh horses and recruit more men. While he was gone, General Taylor made his final decision on the Rangers. He wrote, The mounted men from Texas have scarcely made one expedition without unwarrantedly killing a Mexican. He wrote, Taylor's words were probably true, but they were also a broad, sweeping generalization. As the commanding general, he had not witnessed any of these atrocities firsthand. He was working from reports that came in from all kinds of sources. And very few, if any, of his regular army soldiers and officers had ever experienced the brutality of fighting on the Texas frontier, or during the Texas Revolution.

The Comanches regularly butchered combatants and non-combatants alike in horrifying ways. The Mexican army under Santa Anna famously offered no quarter to Texans during the Revolution. Santa Anna considered them criminals and pirates, not soldiers. He had hundreds executed at the Alamo and Goliad after they surrendered. So while there were certainly a few bad eggs in the Texas regiment, which there will always be in every army, it's probably not accurate to assume that the Rangers were just marauding through the countryside, killing at will when they weren't fighting battles. Either way, they did earn the nickname Texas Devils while they were in Mexico,

and General Taylor sent them home. So McCullough's war came to an abrupt end, but Jack Hayes' war was about to resume. While McCullough was in Texas on his recruiting mission, Hayes was in Washington meeting with President Polk. He secured an enlistment of one year for new companies of Rangers. They would have two goals, protect the Texas frontier and help General Winfield Scott as he marched to Mexico City. Peter Hansborough Bell was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and given command of the Ranger companies on the Texas frontier in the spring of 1847. The companies returning from Taylor's army now fell under his guidance, and three of his captains were Ben McCullough, Henry McCullough, and Bigfoot Wallace. While these men protected the state, Jack Hayes and Samuel Walker went south to fight for the nation. General Winfield Scott's mission

was fairly direct. He was supposed to sail to the port city of Veracruz on the Gulf Coast and then march almost straight east to capture Mexico City, but that was a distance of about 400 kilometers, or 250 miles. He needed the Texas Rangers to scout the roads and protect his supply lines from bandits and guerrilla fighters. Walker arrived with 182 Rangers in May and joined Scott's army and they began their march to Mexico City. Walker's company of rangers clashed with the enemy almost immediately. The rangers fought skirmishes at villages along the road, and they steadily drove the Mexicans from the path of the army.

By the end of May, the Americans had reached a point on the road where it was time for Walker's rangers to stay behind and guard the supply lines. General Scott continued his march east to Mexico City, and Walker began to stalk the hills for bandits. Walker's company now fell under the command of Colonel Francis Murray Wynkoop, whose younger brother Edward would end up investigating the Sand Creek Massacre 18 years from now. Walker and Wynkoop did not get along, and their rocky relationship only declined over the summer. In August, Walker spotted a unit of Mexican cavalry in the hills. There was a brief fight, but then the cavalry fled before Wynkoop's men arrived.

Wynkoop was worried about being cut off, and he ordered Walker and the Rangers to retreat to a safer location. Walker disobeyed, and later that day, the whole unit got into a fierce fight with 500 Mexican soldiers. Walker and his 50 men held off the Mexicans until Wynkoop's infantry rushed forward to help. Together, they pushed the Mexicans back. As the Mexicans fled, another American unit joined the fight, and they all drove the Mexicans through the hills for two miles before they disengaged. The fight began the deep rift between Walker and Wynkoop.

Walker accused Wynkoop of cowardice for wanting to retreat. Wynkoop chastised Walker for disobeying an order. A month later, Wynkoop instructed Walker to charge the first of two villages on the road. Walker saw no threat from the village and refused to expend the energy on a charge that wasn't necessary. Wynkoop was furious at Walker for disobeying another order. Walker was outraged by Wynkoop's willingness to let his soldiers plunder the towns and villages they passed. The two men got into a heated argument that was about to turn violent before they were separated by their men. Wynkoop ordered Walker and his company to return to the castle

that was being used as their headquarters, and at that point, Walker's company was given to another man, and Walker was confined to his quarters. And while Walker and Wynkoop quarreled on the mountain roads near Veracruz, General Scott threatened the capitalé la capitale et a commencé la dernière phase de la guerre. Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada As Walker and Wynkoop protected his supply lines, General Scott marched toward Mexico City in the summer of 1847. On September 13th, right around the time Walker and Wynkoop had their falling out, Scott attacked Mexico City. By the 14th, he had pushed Santa Anna out of the capital, and Mexico City had fallen. It was the last major battle of the war, but the fighting was certainly

not done. Santa Anna and his army had been beaten, but not destroyed. They fled Mexico City and joined the siege of an American stronghold at Puebla, southeast of the capital. During that time, General Joseph Lane had arrived in Mexico with reinforcements, and as he marched from Veracruz to Puebla to help break the siege, he stopped at the Rangers' headquarters to rest. He promptly released Walker from confinement and instructed the captain to add his rangers to the reinforcements. Together, they would all ride to Puebla and effectively end the war. But just before they left, Lane learned from a spy that Santa Ana might be in a town called Huamantla, north of Puebla. That would put him just 50 miles from where Lane and Walker now stood.

The general quickly marched 1,800 men and five cannons toward the town. Walker and 200 men led the advance party. On the afternoon of October 9, 1847, Walker and his troops approached the outskirts of Ulamantla. They lined up in columns of four and drew their sabers. Then they thundered into the town plaza and charged 500 Mexican soldiers. Steel clashed with steel as the rangers swung their swords and the Mexicans stabbed with their lances.

steel as the rangers swung their swords and the Mexicans stabbed with their lances. Walker decapitated a Mexican officer with his blade before drawing his Colt Walker pistols. The furious charge scattered the Mexican soldiers, and the Americans began plundering the town, thinking the fighting was done. But two miles away, Santa Ana watched the battle from a church tower. He rallied perhaps 2,000 soldiers to advance on the town. He screamed into the plaza with 500 men, and a new battle raged in close quarters. Horsemen galloped at each other in the streets, striking with swords and pistols. The battle surged back and forth until the Americans began to drive the Mexicans back. Walker had pistols in both hands, the guns that

were personal gifts from Samuel Colt and that bore his name. He blasted away with the heavy weapons, but then he suddenly reeled in the saddle. He crashed to the ground as a rifle slug from a sniper found its mark. As he lay bleeding in the street, he told his men to keep fighting. The infantry would be here soon. Just a few moments later, General Lane's infantry engulfed the town and drove the Mexican force from the streets. When it was done, it proved to be the end of Santa Ana's military career. Three days later, Lane's men marched to Puebla and broke the siege. The Americans had won two more victories, but the emotional cost was severe. Samuel Walker died on the streets of Huamantla.

General Lane was the first of many to express words of extreme sorrow and to honor the fallen Texas Ranger. In his after-action report, he wrote, The victory is saddened by the loss of one of the most chivalric, noble-hearted men that graced the profession at arms, Captain Samuel H. Walker of the Mounted Riflemen. Foremost in the advance, he routed the enemy when he fell mortally wounded. In his death, the service has met with a loss that cannot easily be repaired. Walker was initially buried in Mexico. His old enemy in the army, Colonel Wynkoop, regretted that he had not been able to make amends with Walker

before the captain died. Wynkoop conducted the funeral at Walker's burial in Mexico. A month later, Walker's body was exhumed and brought back to Texas. He was buried in San Antonio's Old City Cemetery in 1848, but then disinterred again eight years later. In 1856, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto, he was reburied at Oddfellow Cemetery in San Antonio. His wish was to be buried alongside his old friend Robert Addison Gillespie, and the Texans granted that wish. Today the cemetery is called Alamo Masonic Cemetery, and monuments to Walker and Gillespie, and defenders of the Alamo are still there.

John Salmon Ford knew he needed a change. He had been a doctor during the Texas Revolution and a politician during the waning days of the Republic, and now he during the waning days of the Republic, and now he was a newspaper publisher in Austin. His paper, The Texas Democrat, gave us several great quotes about the Texas Rangers. But in early 1847, Ford was heartbroken and depressed. The previous summer, he had nursed his new wife through tuberculosis, but she had lost the fight. With her gone, he needed to get out of Austin. So he rode to San Antonio and enlisted in the Texas Rangers.

Jack Hayes was recruiting men to return to Mexico, and Ford signed up. He quickly became Hayes' adjutant. In October, shortly after the devastating news of the death of Samuel Walker, Hayes and Ford and a new Ranger regiment sailed from Texas to Veracruz to help the U.S. Army finish the war with Mexico. The major battles were done. Santa Ana's army had been vanquished, but the general was still on the loose. done. Santa Ana's army had been vanquished, but the general was still on the loose. A peace treaty had not been signed, and there were still thousands of renegades prowling the hills between Veracruz and Mexico City. It was the job of Hayes and the rangers to clean them out, a task they were all

too familiar with. Once the rangers were assembled in Veracruz, their first order of business was to make sure they were properly armed. Hays requisitioned 394 Colt Walker pistols from the supply depot. Once the Rangers were equipped, they set off for Mexico City. In November, they helped Samuel Walker's former commander, General Lane, on a rescue mission south of Puebla, the city that had been under siege when Walker died. Over two days, the combined force of army and rangers fought hundreds of Mexican troops and liberated 21 American prisoners from a Mexican garrison, as well as capturing a huge store of weapons and ammunition. as well as capturing a huge store of weapons and ammunition. In early December, Jack Hayes led the Rangers into Mexico City, which had been held by General Scott for almost two months.

The presence of the Rangers was noted by everyone, friend and foe alike. General Ethan Allen Hitchcock wrote, Hayes' Rangers have come, their appearance never to be forgotten. Not in any sort of uniform, but well-mounted and doubly armed. Each man has one or two Colt revolvers, besides ordinary pistols, a sword, and every man his rifle. The Mexicans are terribly afraid of them. The fear was tangible, and it caused bloodshed on both sides. As Hayes led the Rangers into Mexico City, a bandit threw a rock and knocked Hayes' cap off his head.

A Ranger pulled his colt, fired at the bandit, and killed the man with a headshot. In short order, a Ranger killed another Mexican citizen, and General Scott ordered Colonel Hayes to account for the killings. Hayes was direct and to the point. He told Scott that yes, his men had killed two people upon entering the city. But the rangers, said Hayes, were not accustomed to being insulted without resenting it. Hayes were not accustomed to being insulted without resenting it. Scott was impressed by Hayes' forthright manner and allowed the ranger to explain the situation. Hayes gave Scott a brief history of the years of bloody resentment between the two cultures. Scott took no action against Rangers. The same month Hayes entered Mexico City, Texas elected a new governor. He was the first of many former Rangers to hold office.

He was George Wood, the commander of the 2nd Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers at the beginning of the war, the regiment made up of rangers from East Texas. In national politics, a freshman congressman of the old-line Whig Party made news for himself, but not the way he would have liked. He and some other legislators questioned the dubious origins of the Mexican War. The border between Texas and Mexico had always been disputed, and he questioned the spot on which American blood had been shed. Was it really American soil, he asked. Three days before Christmas 1847, he introduced the spot resolutions, and the bill earned him a derisive nickname. That congressman was 37-year-old Abraham Lincoln, and a newspaper in his adopted

state of Illinois began to call him Spotty Lincoln. In the new year of 1848, Jack Hayes and the Rangers went to work hunting down bandits who harassed American troops. In late January, Hayes and General Lane nearly captured the man himself, Santa Anna, but the general received a warning just two hours before the arrival of the Americans, and he escaped. Hayes and the Rangers fought engagements almost continuously throughout January and February, despite the peace treaty that was finally signed on February 2nd. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended hostilities between Mexico and the United States, but while American soldiers were on Mexican soil, it wasn't easy to enforce.

In Mexico City, Americans were murdered on a nightly basis, which of course prompted retaliation. On February 13th, a ranger disappeared in the most violent quarter of the city, an area known as Cutthroat. The man's company found his body the next day. When night fell, they raged through the streets. It was said there were 80 fresh bodies in the city morgue come morning. Twelve days later, February 25th, 1848, Hayes, Ford, and the Rangers fought in the final bloody engagement of the war. Ford had been terribly sick on the campaign from Veracruz to Mexico City and had missed most of the fighting. But now, he acquitted himself valiantly. He killed at least four Mexican soldiers by himself in the last action of the war. Three weeks later, the Rangers packed up and began the trip to Veracruz. Their service was done. On April 29, 1848, the Texas Rangers mustered out a federal

service, feeling that they had avenged the massacres of their countrymen at Goliad and the Alamo. Hayes and Ford were the last two to leave. They had many reports to write, but after they were done with the paperwork, they too sailed for home. On May 20, 1848, the city of San Antonio threw a grand ball for its returning hero and favorite son, John Coffey Hayes. Hayes had been given his first command just seven years earlier. In those seven years, he had led the effort to elevate the Rangers with diligent training, new tactics, and new weapons. Under his leadership, and with the assistance of captains like Samuel Walker, Robert Gillespie, the McCullough Brothers, Peter Bell, Bigfoot Wallace, and many others, the Texas Rangers had become a feared fighting force

with international fame. Yes, they might have been quick to the trigger at times, but they were products of their environment. There was no place like Texas. In the wake of the Mexican-American War, many things in Texas changed, and many things stayed the same. Two celebrated commanders left the Rangers, but others rose in their places. For many Texans, the focus had never left the threat of the Comanches on the frontier, but now that the war was over, the U.S. government joined in the effort to protect the settlements. The U.S. Army quickly discovered it knew nothing about fighting Comanches,

and it begrudgingly called on the Rangers for help. To lead the Rangers in this new era was a new commander, John Salmon Ford. Those stories are next time on the Legends of the Old West podcast. The theme song, Yellow Rose of Texas, was arranged and recorded by the Mighty Orc in Houston, Texas. Much of the music for this show was produced by Rob Valliere in Phoenix. And a very special thank you to Matt Lowry in Ireland for producing color images of these famous Texas Rangers for the first time. Matt is a world-renowned photographer

whose project, My Colorful Past, breathes new life into old photos. Check out his Facebook page for more of his work. life into old photos. Check out his Facebook page for more of his work. And, as always, thank you for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please give it a rating and a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening. You can check out our website, blackbarrelmedia.com, for more details, and follow us on social media for news of the show. Our Facebook page is Legends of the Old West Podcast, and our handles on Twitter and Instagram are at Old West Podcast. Thanks again. We'll see you next week.