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Follow me to hell : McNelly's Texas Rangers and the rise of frontier justice
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2023
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Library Journal Review
At 5' 5" and 125 pounds, Leander McNelly was an improbable figure for a hero. But as captain of the Texas Rangers in the mid-1870s, he was a legendary fighter who led his unit from the front and never asked of them things he wouldn't do himself. He first became a police officer when Governor Edmund Davis established a Texas State Police force in 1870 and named McNelly as one of four captains. One of McNelly's first assignments was arresting and bringing back his own boss: he had absconded with $38,000. Lack of funds closed the unit, but it was reestablished in 1875 to address widespread cattle rustling, and McNelly was rehired, leading a unit in south Texas in 1875--76. He died the following year at the age of 33. Clavin (Tombstone) knows Western history, but the story he tells here is inconclusive--the Texas Rangers would arrest someone; then the suspect would escape or be let loose--and laying out the backstory for every person introduced slows the narrative repeatedly. Still, Clavin tells a good story. VERDICT Primarily for lovers of Western history.--David Keymer
Publishers Weekly Review
Bestseller Clavin (coauthor, The Last Hill) sketches in this scrupulous if meandering history the origin story of the Texas Rangers. Beginning in 1821, when Anglo settlers "thought it a good idea to have a sort of militia always ready for future provocations" by local Indigenous tribes, Clavin recounts land skirmishes, cattle raids, Civil War battles, and more. The book's focal point is Leander McNelly, a member of the infamous Sibley Brigade during the Civil War, who famously tricked 400 Union soldiers into surrendering to his unit of 40 Confederates. McNelly's "daring courage and consummate skill" in the Battle of Galveston and other Civil War clashes led to his appointment in 1874 as captain of a Texas Ranger unit in Washington County, Tex. Tasked with ridding the Nueces Strip between the Rio Grande and Nueces rivers of bandits and cattle rustlers, McNelly was renowned for his bravery, cunning, and independent streak; he risked international conflict by leading raids into Mexico, but also helped evolve the Rangers "into the modern police force of today." Though there's plenty of action, McNelly's fascinating character often gets lost in historical minutiae and filler. This saga sags a little too often. (Apr.)
Kirkus Review
A rollicking tale of a Texas lawman and the iron-jawed contingent that rode with him. Before there were the Texas Rangers, writes Clavin, an old hand at popular Western history, there were other rangers, assembled and deputized mostly to kill Native Americans and Mexicans. One early band "were not technically Rangers but pretty much served as such until Stephen Austin gave them a name." As Clavin notes, the Mexicans who first allowed the Anglos to settle in Texas soon came to regret the decision. Whereas they had hoped that the new settlers would constitute a buffer between them and raiding Apaches and Comanches, they saw that the newcomers "were not adhering to Catholicism and continued to own slaves," both violations of Mexican law. The author doesn't soft-pedal the racist ethos surrounding the Rangers, but neither does he paint a heroic portrait of the likes of Travis and Crockett or the free-shooting pacifiers of the borderlands. One most effective of these early groups was a troop led by a Confederate veteran named Leander McNelly, who lived out a long life enforcing the law on the frontier in parallel with more organized police forces until finally being folded into the Texas Rangers in 1874. McNelly had plenty of scrapes and adventures, and he wasn't shy about crossing into Mexico, violating international law, when the occasion suited him. Among the most noir of his bêtes noires was the outlaw John Wesley Hardin, who makes a much more interesting figure overall than McNelly. It took years to bring Hardin, elusive and seemingly impervious to bullets until his last moments, to justice, a story that takes up many pages here. McNelly, for his part, helped shape the Texas Rangers into a formidable force, and, as Clavin notes, he was acknowledged as such by being "a member of the first class inducted into the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame" decades after his death. Fans of the Wild West and its pistol-packin' miscreants will enjoy Clavin's latest. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Summary

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Tom Clavin's Follow Me to Hell is the explosive true story of how legendary Ranger Leander McNelly and his men brought justice to a lawless Texan frontier.

In turbulent 1870s Texas, the revered and fearless Ranger Leander McNelly led his men in one dramatic campaign after another, apprehending cattle thieves, desperadoes, border ruffians, and other dangerous criminals and throwing them in jail or, if that's how they wanted it, six feet under. They would stop at nothing in pursuit of justice, even sending twenty-six Rangers across the border to retrieve stolen cattle--taking on hundreds of Mexican troops with nothing but their Sharps rifles and six-guns. The nation came to call them "McNelly's Rangers."

Set against the backdrop of 200 years of thrilling Texas Rangers history, this page-turner details the tough life along the Texas border that was tamed by a courageous, yet doomed, captain and his team of fearless men.

New York Times bestselling author Tom Clavin takes readers deep into the heart of Texas and beyond in this thrilling true account of some of the most legendary frontier lawmen of all time.

Table of Contents
Author's Notexi
Prologuexv
Act IColonists and Captains
Chapter 1"Texian Devils!"3
Chapter 2Luckless Liberators7
Chapter 3The Long Republic14
Chapter 4A Connecticut Yankee18
Chapter 5The Empresario24
Chapter 6The "Magna Carta"29
Chapter 7An Inkling of Independence32
Chapter 8Unlearned Lessons40
Chapter 9Austin Behind Bars45
Chapter 10"Come to Our Aid"50
Chapter 11"How Do You Like That Answer?"57
Chapter 12Looting and Shouting65
Chapter 13"Hurry On!"69
Chapter 14"Victory Purchased with Blood"77
Chapter 15Take the Fight South83
Chapter 16From Bad to Worse88
Chapter 17The Finest Company96
Chapter 18"My Men Evinced No Dismay"101
Chapter 19"Boys, Fight to the Last!"105
Chapter 20Invading Comancheria112
Act IILone Star Lawman
Chapter 21"Walking Whiskey Keg"123
Chapter 22Gettysburg of the West131
Chapter 23"Coolness and Courage"143
Chapter 24Frontier Forces152
Chapter 25"True to His Colors"161
Chapter 26Farmer and Father166
Chapter 27No Book to Stop This Bullet173
Chapter 28Follow the Money180
Chapter 29Another Long and Bloody War184
Chapter 30Quick with a Gun196
Chapter 31"A Perfect Reign of Terror"205
Chapter 32The Peacekeepers212
Chapter 33Reporters and Rangers217
Act IIITheir Backs to the River
Chapter 34Patrolling the Nueces Strip229
Chapter 35"You Must Be the Judge"237
Chapter 36Emperor McNelly245
Chapter 37"Got You Now!"254
Chapter 38"Master of the Situation"260
Chapter 39"The Jaws of Death"266
Chapter 40"Kill All You See"272
Chapter 41Rio Grande Standoff279
Chapter 42"Death Squad"288
Chapter 43Captain McNelly Goes to Washington296
Chapter 44"This Rash Young Man"303
Chapter 45"Two Best Pistol Fighters in Texas"310
Chapter 46The New Lieutenant318
Chapter 47"The Brave Who Sink to Rest"327
Epilogue334
Acknowledgments343
Selected Bibliography345
Index353
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