Taming the Nueces Strip: The Story of McNelly's Rangers

by George Durham, Clyde Wantland

Only an extraordinary Texas Ranger could have cleaned up bandit-plagued Southwest Texas, between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, in the years following the Civil War. Thousands of raiders on horseback, some of them Anglo-Americans, regularly crossed the river from Mexico to pillage, murder, and rape. Their main objective? To steal cattle, which they herded back across the Rio Grande to sell. Honest citizens found it almost impossible to live in the Nueces Strip. In desperation, the governor of Texas called on an extraordinary man, Captain Leander M. McNelly, to take command of a Ranger company and stop these border bandits. One of McNelly's recruits for this task was George Durham, a Georgia farmboy in his teens when he joined the "Little McNellys," as the Captain's band called themselves. More than half a century later, it was George Durham, the last surviving "McNelly Ranger," who recounted the exciting tale of taming the Nueces Strip to San Antonio writer Clyde Wantland. In Durham's account, those long-ago days are brought vividly back to life. Once again the daring McNelly leads his courageous band across Southwest Texas to victories against incredible odds. With a boldness that overcame their dismayingly small number, the McNellys succeeded in bringing law and order to the untamed Nueces Strip—succeeded so well that they antagonized certain "upright" citizens who had been pocketing surreptitious dollars from the bandits' operations.

Genres: History

204 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

Reviews

[Bradley Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fascinating! It is essentially an oral history of a trooper who rode with Captain Leander McNelly's Texas Rangers in 1875-1876. During that time South Texas was a lawless frontier with raiders from Mexico stealing cattle and horses from nearby ranches with very little intervention of the law. George Durham tells of the Rangers attempt to change that. Well written with plenty of folksy color Durham's account is fast-passed and easily read.

It is Texiana at its best, and an interesting look at post-Civil War Texas. I highly recommend!

[P.S. Winn · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the civil war, America was torn apart and people were doing anything to make a living. Mainly those things that were unlawful. This is the story of the Texas Rangers and how they handle the people who decided that stealing, murder and worse were something they could get away with.

[Dar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly interesting, but not very well written.

[R. W. Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book!! Best of both worlds for me: A combination of western genre wrapped around some facts—Louis L’Amour meets David Grann. I loved this book. Though I’m in my last trimester of life, hopefully not too deep into it, I hope to stumble upon this book again sometime down the road and re-read it.

[Maryann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a lot about the Texas Rangers I had never known. That Captain McNeely was one sure character. He may have stretched the law, but those bandits surely didn't want to mess with him. It's understandable why his men were very loyal to their Captain.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read!

Really interesting book. Good insight into the time and country it’s set in. If you’re into Texas history this is definitely a book to read.

[Phil Lyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have now read this book four times.
Great Texas Ranger history.

[Don Diego]

This is a first-person narrative, from an interview with a former Texas Ranger. It is straight-talking, and very good.

[Joel Ortiz-Quintanilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was a good informative book about one of the texas rangers who was still living in south texas when this other author went and found him down near King Ranch. its the story of Mcnellys rangers who came to bring law to this region of texas between the nueces and rio grande, back in the day, the 1870 it was a land that only outlaws lived in because the us didnt really care and mexico was still just so close, but this area was really part of mexico and it was part of tamaulipas mexico till the us just said the border was the rio grande when the border was origanlly the nueces river, but the horse rustlers and thieves and outlaws living in this are was pretty cool.

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not sure if the book itself is the reason why I didn't enjoy it, or if it is because my whole notion of what Texas Rangers did was totally destroyed.
I like the notion of what the author Larry McMurtry had written as the life of the rangers and there was only one incident of the Texas Rangers doing anything remotely similar in this book.
Ranger McNelly himself didn't seem to do much work at all, and this book makes him and the rangers seem more like renegades. Very disapponted.

[Barb Gant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once you have read this book you will understand the great Texas Ranger Captain L.M. McNelly and what his troop dealt with in the Nueces Strip - the area between the Rio Grande and the Nueces River in South West Texas. Mexican banditos, Indians, and outlaws. The way the early ranger troops armed themselves and the deported themselves. A great read!

[Todd Stillwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about great grandfather and how he was apart of the Texas Rangers. Grew up hearing these stories as a child from making my grandfather as we drove around the ranch checking watering holes at Norias.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Outlaws, bandits, and Indians inhabited the region between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande in Texas. Captain McNelly with a handful of Rangers was given the task of bringing peace to the region.

[Manda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed it, especially the mentions in it of my Nana's grandfather, old W. W. Wright. He was quite a character!

[Vicki Valenta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is set mostly in the area where I live. Many of the families in the stories still live in Nueces County and in the Calallen area.

[Joe Bax · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone interested in Texas History will enjoy this short but very entertaining book.