DUANE
Duane's take
The way this marker in Goliad County tells it, I'm going to do my best to pass the story along straight. Now settle in, because this one's got teeth. When the Civil War ended in April 1865, a whole lot of Texas men came home to find their farms gone to seed and their cattle scattered across the brush country, running wild and unbranded.
Four years of war will do that to a place. And if you thought peace was going to fix things overnight, well — you didn't know Reconstruction. Federal troops arrived to occupy Texas in June of 1865, but they couldn't get a handle on the cattle thieving and the general lawlessness spreading through the region.
Things stayed that way for years. By June of 1868, General J. J.
Reynolds — commander of the Federal forces — had seen enough. He appointed a man named Jack Helm as special marshal to the Goliad area. Helm was a former deputy sheriff of DeWitt County, and he came to this job with a certain kind of reputation.
Helm put together a vigilante band of fifty men, mostly local ranchers. They called themselves the Regulators. They were based out of Middletown — the place now known as Weesatche — and they pursued criminals with what the record describes as vigor, and often with cruelty.
That's not me editorializing. That's what it says. Their method was simple and it was final.
Known and suspected lawbreakers were ordered to leave the state within ten days. Those who defied that warning were shot without benefit of trial. No courtroom, no judge, no jury.
Just a deadline and a consequence. In 1870, Governor E. J.
Davis appointed Helm to the newly formed state police force. But Helm didn't last. He was discharged — and the reason given was his ruthlessness.
A man too rough even for rough times. Still, something was shifting. The Texas Rangers were reorganized under Governor Richard Coke in 1874, and the combined pressure of the Rangers and the Regulators did much to restore order in the area.
By 1876, most of the violators had left. And the men of the Regulators — those fifty ranchers who had ridden out of Weesatche with a ten-day ultimatum and a very short list of mercy — were finally able to go back to what they'd started out doing. Ranching.
Farming. Living quietly on land that had once been anything but quiet. That's the thing about Reconstruction-era Texas.
The line between law and lawlessness had a way of blurring until you couldn't always tell which side of it you were standing on.
What the marker says
When the Civil War ended in April 1865, many Texans returned to find their farms and ranches neglected, their cattle running wild and unbranded. The Federal troops sent to occupy Texas in June 1865 could not control the widespread cattle thieving and general lawlessness of the Reconstruction Period. Gen. J. J. Reynolds, commander of the Federal forces, appointed Jack Helm special marshal to the Goliad area in June 1868. A former deputy sheriff of DeWitt County, Helm captained a vigilante band of 50 men, mostly local ranchers, known as the Regulators. Based at Middletown (now Weesatche), these volunteers pursued criminals with vigor and often with cruelty. They ordered known and suspected lawbreakers to leave the state within 10 days. Those who defied the warning were shot without benefit of trial. In 1870 Helm was appointed by Gov. E. J. Davis to the newly formed state police force but was soon discharged for his ruthlessness. The activities of the Regulators and of the Texas Rangers, reorganized under Gov. Richard Coke in 1874, did much to restore order in this area. By 1876, most of the violators had left, and the Regulators were able to devote their time to ranching and farming. (1977) (1977)