252:(now Morgan City), where 800 Union troops were stationed. After dark, McNelly and his 40 troops marched back and forth across a long bridge that led to the city, shouting as if they were speaking to unseen generals and colonels. At dawn, McNelly and his small force rode into the Union camp under a flag of truce and demanded an unconditional surrender. The Union officers believed that the noise they had heard signified a very large Confederate force and surrendered immediately. McNelly was able to take all 800 Union troops prisoner.
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to the customs house and demanded the cattle. When the
Mexican Captain stalled by politely saying they didn't do business on Sunday, he promptly took the Mexican Captain prisoner, hauling him to the Texas side of the border. He told the Mexican leader to get the cattle started back to the U.S. side within the hour or he would die. The operation was successful, and instead of 250 head returning to Texas, more than 400 were crossed back.
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were
Cortina's hand-picked men, who had boasted they could cope with any Rangers or vigilantes. Captain McNelly issued his orders. "Don't shoot to the left or the right. Shoot straight ahead. And don't shoot till you've got your target good in your sights. Don't walk up on a wounded man. Pay no attention to a white flag. That's a mean trick bandits use on green-hands. Don't touch a dead man, except to identify him."
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were killed, as well as a gringo, Jack Ellis, who had beaten and mistreated a shopkeeper's wife at
Nuecestown. Two hundred and sixty-five head of stolen stock were rounded up and eventually returned to their rightful owners in the neighborhood of the King Ranch country. Nine of the fourteen saddles recovered turned out to be Dick Heyes' saddles stolen in the raid on Nuecestown three months earlier.
393:, area, always retreating across the Rio Grande to avoid Texas law enforcement. Cortina was from a wealthy family that owned more than 260,000 acres (1,100 km) of land in that area, which had once included the location of the town of Brownsville. Cortina commanded a force in excess of 2,000 armed Mexican outlaws and
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After a needed night's sleep, Captain McNelly moved his men directly opposite
Camargo on the Texas side of the Rio Grande. Thus, in another invasion of Mexico, twelve or thirteen Rangers, not including McNelly – though accounts differ – crossed the river in a rowboat. McNelly marched up the riverbank
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The first major gunfight between the
Rangers and Mexican bandits occurred in June 1875. McNelly's Rangers surprised a group of sixteen Mexican cattle thieves and one American man, driving about 300 head of cattle toward the Rio Grande, and also toward Juan Cortina, and a steamer headed for Cuba. They
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while aggressively dealing with lawlessness on the
Mexican border, he had also gained a reputation of taking part in many illegal executions, and confessions forced from prisoners by extreme means. McNelly also made himself famous for disobeying direct orders from his superiors on several occasions,
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and his band of outlaws. Although notable as rustlers, Fisher's band rarely raided US civilian populations, concentrating more on rustling cattle from their
Mexican counterparts across the border. This added to tensions among the Mexican population, and gave an excuse for Mexican bandits to raid in
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The battle, which has since been called the "Red Raid," or the "Second Battle of the Palo Alto," was waged nearly all day in a succession of single hand-fights, which left dead
Mexicans and horses covering a swath through the prairie about two miles wide and six miles long. All the Mexican drovers
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force, naming McNelly one of its four captains. The new police force had an inauspicious start, as its first director promptly ran away with $ 34,000. Many of the officers were accused of killing prisoners and harassing voters. In his most visible job as part of the State Police, McNelly was
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McNelly now moved south to end the bandit gangs that had run unchecked over that area for several years. Within one year's time, McNelly had completely destroyed both the bandit bands led by
Cortina and by Salinas, by repeated actions where McNelly disobeyed orders and took his force across the
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that he had been flogged. McNelly investigated the crime and arrested four men, one of whom was immediately released. The other three had smuggled weapons, and they opened fire as McNelly was returning them to jail. McNelly was wounded, and in a newspaper interview he later castigated the local
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Spying the
Rangers, the Mexicans took flight, driving the herd before them at a frenzied pace, until they reached a little island in the middle of a salt marsh. The Mexicans then turned and waited for the Rangers, who were right on their heels, to cross the shallow, muddy lagoon. But McNelly
362:. In two days, McNelly recruited 41 men. He rejected most native Texans who had applied so that they would not have to face the possibility of shooting at their own relatives or friends. The group became very loyal to him, and called themselves the "Little McNellys".
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border into Mexico. King Fisher's gang dispersed; Fisher went into retirement as a rancher, following a Ranger raid on his ranch during which McNelly arrested him. The two came to an agreement that Fisher's over-the-border raids would cease. Fisher later became
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Further north up river, McNelly was faced with a gang led by Juan Flores Salinas. This gang did not have the manpower of the Cortina's gang, but was nonetheless as ruthless. This gang was headquartered at Camargo, Mexico, directly across the border from the
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In an episode of the radio show, “Inheritance” Captain McNelly (misspelled as McNally) is played by Lloyd Talbott in an episode dramatizing the formation of the Special Forces unit of the Texas Rangers. The Original Radio Broadcast aired June 13, 1954.
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Leander McNelly's most infamous exploit was his invasion of Las Cuevas, Mexico in order to get back stolen cattle. McNelly and his Rangers entered Mexico on November 20, 1875. Under cover of brush and scrub oak, they made their way on foot to General
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and breaking through the Mexican frontier for self-appointed law enforcement purposes. His actions proved to be effective, however, and he was responsible for putting an end to the troubles with Mexican bandits and cattle rustlers along the
350:. There is a contemporary report that six members of McNelly's unit were engaged in a gunfight with unknown parties six miles from Clinton on the Yorktown Road, which resulted in one missing, one wounded, and two horses killed
346:, on August 1 and remained for four months to ensure that Taylor and the witnesses against him lived through the trial. Following that incident, McNelly was ill, and went home to recuperate on his cotton farm near
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are some outlaws that claim they're bigger than the law—bigger than Washington law, bigger than Texas law. This won't be a standoff or a dogfall. We'll either win completely, or we'll lose completely."
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from Ringgold Barracks arrived with a missive from Colonel Potter at Fort Brown, on the Rio Grande at Brownsville, urging McNelly to retreat. During the gunfight, McNelly was shot through both hands.
572:. Shanklin, a high-ranking Texas Ranger, is loosely inspired by McNelly, and the incidents depicted in the episode have their counterparts in McNelly's actual career in as a lawman.
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John B. Jones, and a designated Special Force, commanded by McNelly, financed by cattle ranchers. McNelly's special group had the specific task of bringing order to the
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sheriff for not finding the weapons. McNelly was also unhappy with Davis, who had promptly declared martial law. The State Police force was abolished on April 22, 1873.
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259:. He took no sick leave or furlough in the entire four years of fighting, however. In the last months of the war he led mounted scouts working near
342:. The feud had begun in March 1874 when a member of the Taylor family killed a member of the Sutton family. McNelly and 40 Rangers arrived in
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245:, where he was given a commission on December 19, 1863. He led 100 guerrilla scouts, and once carried out a spying mission dressed as a woman.
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portrays a fictionalized son of Captain McNelly, Clyde McNelly, who tracks down men who at one time were pursued by the elder McNelly.
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captain. McNelly is best remembered for leading the "Special Force", a quasi-military branch of the Texas Rangers that operated in
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in the hope that the climate would improve his health. In Texas, McNelly helped his family raise sheep and regained his health.
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McNelly's methods had been questioned throughout the years, and although he recovered many cattle stolen from the Texan
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military chief for the Rio Grande frontier, was conducting periodic guerrilla operations against the local ranchers.
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regained control of Texas in 1873, and in 1874, to combat massive lawlessness, the newly elected governor,
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during the New Mexico campaign, Green named McNelly his aide. Following fighting in the
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guest stars as the title character in "Shanklin," an episode of the TV series
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ranch, which in English means "The Spoon Corner." Later that afternoon, Major
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581:(2001) very loosely portrays the exploits of McNelly, who is played by actor
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anticipated the ambush and stopped to issue his pep talk, "Boys, across this
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It was in 1875 that McNelly was faced with how to eliminate several Mexican
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Follow Me to Hell: McNelly's Texas Rangers and the Rise of Frontier Justice
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In April 1875, Coke ordered McNelly to organize a special force and go to
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https://www.greatdetectives.net/detectives/inheritance-the-texas-rangers/
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From among American outlaws, McNelly's greatest rival was Texas gunman
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entitled "Sam Bass" (1957) the character Captain McNelly is played by
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693:Legendary Texians, Volume II
634:Davis (1985), pp. 107, 109.
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726:(St. Martin's Press 2023)
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56:, Virginia, United States
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250:Brashear City, Louisiana
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383:Juan Nepomuceno Cortina
227:Confederate States Army
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257:Battle of Mansfield
239:Battle of Galveston
172:Carey Cheek McNelly
151:Battle of Mansfield
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525:In popular culture
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403:US Cavalry
372:Rio Grande
290:grand jury
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