Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881

SERGEANT J.B. GILLETT, TEXAS RANGER IN 1879
SIX YEARS WITH THE TEXAS RANGERS
1875 TO 1881
JAMES B. GILLETT
Ex-Sergeant Company A, Frontier Battalion
Von Boeckmann-Jones Co., Publishers Austin, Texas
Copyright 1921
James B. Gillett
TO MY OLD RANGER COMRADES WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
FOREWORD
To write a true and complete history of the Texas Rangers as a state organization would require much time and an able historian. I am not a historian and could not undertake such an exhaustive treatise, which would fill several volumes the size of this, and it is only at the earnest solicitation of my children, frontier friends, and old comrades that I have undertaken to write a short history of the rangers during the years I served with them. This little volume, then, has only the modest aim of picturing the life of the Texas Rangers during the years 1875-1881. I cannot, at this late date, recount in detail all the scouts that were made while I was in the service. I have, therefore, confined myself principally to the description of those in which I was a participant. Naturally, I remember those the best.
It has been said that truth never makes very interesting reading. Of the accuracy of this dictum I leave my readers to judge, for I have told my story just as I remember it, to the very best of my ability and without any effort to embroider it with imagination. If I can interest any of my old ranger comrades or even just one little boy that loves to read about a real frontier, I will feel amply repaid for all the time, trouble and expense expended in presenting this work.