Rosters & Name Lists

Identifying the individuals who served with Terry's Rangers is not always an easy task. Many of the men that originally mustered in came from locally organized militias that did not always enlist as a whole. During the war the regiment received replacements, additional enlistees, and men who transferred from other commands as well as numerous individuals who served among the rank and file as volunteers without ever officially enlisting. This is then combined with the confusions that frequently arise regarding David S. Terry's Regiment, the Texas Rangers of Frontier and Law enforcement traditions, erroneous family histories and various other sources of information that lend to a number of extra individuals mistakenly being identified with the regiment.

The original muster rolls are not available. The surviving wartime records only provide us with a snapshot of a particular point in time and because of the nature of cavalry service may not list men on detached duty or special assignments. They are often fragmentary and difficult to read. Frequently they list men by first initial and last names and can contain any number of spelling variations for an individual. The Compiled Service Records in the National Archives were transcribed from these records, the transcribers encountered the same difficulties we face today. And because these cards were filled out by hand they have their own inherent difficulties regarding eligibility and spelling. Additionally, the CSRs are often incomplete and occasionally have men from other regiments misidentified as being Terry's Rangers. There were also rosters created by veterans long after the war which are prone to contain their own errors and omissions of memory. Because the records are fragmentary and known to contain errors it is certainly prudent to carefully consult a wide variety of sources when trying to identify an individual's service with the 8th Texas Cavalry regiment, Terry's Rangers.

Index to our Biographical Notes

One of our main projects has been researching the lives of individuals associated with Terry's Rangers. As part of this we have been working to develop our own list of men associated with Terry's Regiment. Gathered from a variety of sources this index links to our notes on individuals and frequently contain information gleaned from the rosters listed on this page as well as the documents throughout this site.

 

Terry Rangers Organized by locality

A list of Terry's Rangers broken down by county affiliation.

 

The Compiled Service Records (under construction)

We are working to reconstuct muster rolls from the microfilmed cards compiled from original muster rolls in the National Archives

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Mel Wheat's "The Men" (offsite)

Based largely on Claiborne's Roster, Mel Wheat's "The Men" was the first Roster for Terry's Rangers to be published on the Internet. It contains some notes from his research and his work with the Terry's Texas Rangers descendant's association.

 

NPS Soldier Sailor Index (offsite)

Undoubtedly one of the most useful places to start searching for any Civil War Veteran. This project by the National Park Service is attempting to create a computerized index to the Compiled Service Records contained in the National Archives. It may contain spelling and transcription errors so be sure to check for name variations.

Muster Roll of Terry's Texas Rangers, With Historical Remarks. (in progress)

Prepared by John M. Claiborne for the Reunion in Galveston, February 20, 1882.

List of Company C on 1st Scout started Nov. 5th 1861 from Camp Johnston

This list was penciled into a notebook carried during the war by George Turner.

 

Terry Masonic Lodge 1863 / 1864

Published in the Batchelor Turner Letters this list of Master Masons from the Terry Lodge is undoubtedly compiled from original documents created during the war.

Muster Roll of Company B

Confederate Veteran magazine published this muster roll in 1900. It was submitted by Oswald Tilghman.

 

Muster Roll of Company F

Confederate Veteran magazine published this muster roll in 1911. It was apparently transcribed from an original Muster roll that had been preserved by Nat Holman. If anyone knows the present day location of this historic document we would certainly appreciate learning about it.

 

Roester of Company K

Roster based on Mel Wheat's website.

 

Falls County Civil War Veterans: 8th Texas Cavalry

Charles Rush contributed this annotated list of Terry's Rangers from Falls County to the website in 1998. His notes and footnotes will be invaluable to anyone researching individuals from this county.

 

Paul Scott's Roster (Not Yet Online)

Developed as an appendix to Paul Scott's Master's Thesis, this summary of Claiborne's Roster and the Compiled Service Records has been an invaluable tool to researchers for many years.

 

Annotated Roster of Terry's Texas Rangers, the 8th Texas Cavalry (Not Yet Online)

More than ten years of research has contributed to making this the most accurate, complete roster yet compiled for Terry's Texas Rangers. Andrew Jones has consulted the Compiled Service Records, journals, letters, news clippings, reunion records, census records, and many, many other sources to develop this remarkable contribution to Ranger History.