John S. "Rip" Ford: Texian Hero

Rip Ford was a bold, fearless combat leader, an expert pistoleer, and a master tactician who led hard-hitting cavalry charges against foes with far greater numbers. Ford was a ferocious warrior against the enemies of his beloved Texas, and from his first arrival in the Lone Star Republic, he volunteered eagerly for militia companies. During the Mexican War, he battled his way through the jungles and mountains of Mexico as a regimented adjutant alongside fellow Texians. During the 1850s, Rip Ford was called upon to lead Rangers in defense of frontier Texas. Usually, he campaigned against raiders and stock thieves along the Rio Grande, but in 1858, he planned and executed a dangerous attack north into Comancheria against horseback war parties. Ford defended the Rio Grande and its valuable cotton trade during the Civil War. He formed a rugged regiment known as the Cavalry of the West, and he led his men to a Confederate victory in the final battle of the Civil War - one month after Lee's surrender.

But Old Rip did not confine himself to soldiering. He was a man of many parts, a Renaissance man of early Texas. He came to Texas from Tennessee as a young physician. He read for the law in San Augustine and learned the surveyor's trade. He became a journalist, sharing his strong views as the owner-editor of several Texas newspapers. He was elected to the State of Texas's legislative bodies and the Lone Star Republic. He was mayor of Austin and of Brownsville. He served as the innovative superintendent of the Texas Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb. Ford wrote a lengthy account of nineteenth-century Texas history, and he was a founding member of the Texas State Historical Association.

But this giant of a Texian (a term he embraced) is increasingly overlooked in the twenty-first century. Hopefully, the readers of this book will become better acquainted with an adventurous, heroic Texian.