CAPT'N JOHN - Story of a Texas Ranger by Glenn, Frankie - 1991

Austin: Nortex, 1991. First Edition. Hardcover. FINE/very good. SIGNED with author's presentation, frtspc. portrait, photographs, bibliography, map, 144pp. Gilt spine titles on navy cloth, photographic dj.

Biography of John William Sansom, a member of J. H. Callahan's Ranger Company in the years 1854-1858 and later commanded two minute-man companies in the Hill Country. He was in charge of four companies of the Texas Rangers in the years 1870-71, and briefly served as Sheriff (in name only) of the newly formed Kendall County in 1862. During the Civil War he helped lead the German men out of Texas, and the Battle of Nueces was fought, August 10, 1862. He was in the United States Army during the time he served as Sheriff in a Confederate State. Author was Sansom's Great Grandniece and lived in Boerne. Biography of John William Sansom, German-Texan Union hero of the Civil War and Texas Ranger. In 1855 he became a private in the local company of Texas Rangers, thus beginning nearly thirty years of public service. That year he took part in the Callahan expedition. By 1856 he was a captain. During the Civil War Sansom, from a staunch Unionist family, was invited to accept a position of leadership in the Union Loyal League, a militia organized to protect parts of Kendall, Gillespie, and Kerr counties from Indian raids and Confederate actions. Sansom joined the First Texas Cavalry, U.S.A., and took part in the Rio Grande campaign. After the war Sansom continued his service as a captain and later major of ranger troops (Texas Rangers) in the Hill Country. One episode during this time was the capture by the Indians of Sansom's young cousins Clint and Jeff Smith. In 1882 Sansom was invited by New Mexico to help organize the territorial troops of that state. In 1883 he retired to ranch holdings he had acquired earlier in Uvalde County, Texas.