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Leander H. McNelly
Leander Harvey McNelly (March 12, 1844 – September 4, 1877) was a Confederate officer and Texas Ranger captain. McNelly is best remembered for leading the "Special Force", a quasi-military branch of the Texas Rangers that operated in south Texas in 1875–76.
Leander H. McNelly was born March 12, 1844, in Follansbee, Virginia (today West Virginia), to P.J. McNelly and his wife Mary Downey. McNelly suffered from consumption as a child, and in 1860 his family moved to Texas in the hope that the climate would improve his health. In Texas, McNelly helped his family raise sheep and regained his health.
On September 13, 1861, McNelly enlisted in the Confederate States Army, joining Company F of the Fifth Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers under General Thomas Green. After the Battle of Valverde during the New Mexico campaign, Green named McNelly his aide. Following fighting in the Battle of Galveston, McNelly was sent to Louisiana, 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.
McNelly and his men were tasked with capturing Brashear City, Louisiana (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.
In April 1864, McNelly was wounded at the Battle of Mansfield. 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 Hempstead, Texas, to round up deserters, and his unit was one of the last Confederate Army units to disband. Following the war, McNelly moved to Brenham, where he married and had a son and daughter.
On July 1, 1870, Governor Edmund J. Davis organized a Texas State Police 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 assigned to Walker County. An African-American man named Sam Jenkins had been murdered after telling a grand jury 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 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.
The Democratic Party regained control of Texas in 1873, and in 1874, to combat massive lawlessness, the newly elected governor, Richard Coke, created two branches of the Texas Rangers, a Frontier Battalion under the command of major 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 Nueces Strip, a hotbed of cattle thievery and banditry, where Juan Cortina, the Mexican military chief for the Rio Grande frontier, was conducting periodic guerrilla operations against the local ranchers.
One of his unit's first assignments was to travel to DeWitt County and resolve the Sutton–Taylor feud. 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 Clinton, Texas, 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 Burton. 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.
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Leander H. McNelly
Leander Harvey McNelly (March 12, 1844 – September 4, 1877) was a Confederate officer and Texas Ranger captain. McNelly is best remembered for leading the "Special Force", a quasi-military branch of the Texas Rangers that operated in south Texas in 1875–76.
Leander H. McNelly was born March 12, 1844, in Follansbee, Virginia (today West Virginia), to P.J. McNelly and his wife Mary Downey. McNelly suffered from consumption as a child, and in 1860 his family moved to Texas in the hope that the climate would improve his health. In Texas, McNelly helped his family raise sheep and regained his health.
On September 13, 1861, McNelly enlisted in the Confederate States Army, joining Company F of the Fifth Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers under General Thomas Green. After the Battle of Valverde during the New Mexico campaign, Green named McNelly his aide. Following fighting in the Battle of Galveston, McNelly was sent to Louisiana, 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.
McNelly and his men were tasked with capturing Brashear City, Louisiana (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.
In April 1864, McNelly was wounded at the Battle of Mansfield. 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 Hempstead, Texas, to round up deserters, and his unit was one of the last Confederate Army units to disband. Following the war, McNelly moved to Brenham, where he married and had a son and daughter.
On July 1, 1870, Governor Edmund J. Davis organized a Texas State Police 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 assigned to Walker County. An African-American man named Sam Jenkins had been murdered after telling a grand jury 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 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.
The Democratic Party regained control of Texas in 1873, and in 1874, to combat massive lawlessness, the newly elected governor, Richard Coke, created two branches of the Texas Rangers, a Frontier Battalion under the command of major 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 Nueces Strip, a hotbed of cattle thievery and banditry, where Juan Cortina, the Mexican military chief for the Rio Grande frontier, was conducting periodic guerrilla operations against the local ranchers.
One of his unit's first assignments was to travel to DeWitt County and resolve the Sutton–Taylor feud. 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 Clinton, Texas, 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 Burton. 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.