The
Online Archive of Terry's Texas Rangers
Sharing & preserving the history of the 8th Texas Cavalry Regiment, 1861-1865
The
Online Archive of Claiborne's History of Terry's Texas Rangers
Paul R. Scott, Editor
It must have been about 1985 that I first ran across the 1913 edition of State Participation in the Civil War, 1861-1866, a bibliography published by the U. S. War Department Library. It showed that John M. Claiborne had published a history of Terry's Texas Rangers in the New Birmingham Times in 1891. I used all the usual bibliographies in a futile effort to find this history. The only known run of this newspaper ended in the 1880's. Librarians in Cherokee County and the University of Texas also tried to help, but failed to locate either issues of the paper or clippings.
Over the years I scoured the papers of the veterans, their families, and their admirers with no luck. Finally, in 1996 while examining the finding guide to the Louise Duff Maverick Papers at the University of Texas, I ran across a reference to clippings from the New Birmingham Times, but they were not in the collection. I asked the archivist if she could determine what had happened to them. After a few minutes she reported that they had relocated the clippings with the newspaper files and were now microfilmed with the existing issues of the Times. I happily paid the University of Texas to make copies of these articles and spent untold hours toiling on this transcription.
This transcription has many shortcomings. First and foremost, not all of Claiborne's history has survived. Second, Claiborne's spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure was very erratic and I was even more erratic in my corrections. Some things I corrected, most I did not. This, after all, is not meant to be a resource, and not a publication.
At the risk of self aggrandizement, I note the challenges in preparing this transcription. Not only did I have to contend with the inherent difficulty of reading a fourth generation copy but the originals were often folded, torn, and fragmented. At times I had to literally between the lines and I had to reconstruct some articles from fragments.
I believe my efforts have been worth while. Claiborne's history contains many personal observations and insights that will make future histories of the regiment come alive. It is, moreover, full of hard facts that must have come from a collection of contemporary sources including at least one diary, personal letters, and official documents. One can only hope that somewhere there is a set of Claiborne papers that will eventually be made available to future historians.
In closing, I grant my permission to copy and distribute
this work to anyone who is so inclined. I ask only two things. First, to acknowledge
Claiborne as the author and myself as the editor and, second, to refrain from
charging any more than may be necessary to recover your own direct costs.
This is, after all, meant to be a work to honor the men and associates of
Terry's Texas Rangers and their efforts to save their short-lived nation.