Professor Benjamin Johnson

It lasts from 1846 to 1848.

And in a way, it's from the point of view of the Texas Rangers, it's just an extension of the fighting against Mexico that they've been involved in

virtually since their inception.

So Hayes serves as commander of the 1st Regiment of Texas Mounted Riflemen, which joins the larger constellation of American forces in the U.S.-Mexican War.

They are, at least for a while, useful to the overall U.S.

cause, right?

So that kind of scouting or anti-guerrilla warfare or kind of informal warfare, right?

It's useful for the American military to have this not fully controlled militia body that can do things that benefit them without the American military.

officers necessarily having to take blame or take credit for the actions of the Rangers.

And they come to be known as the Los Diablos Tejanos, right?

So the Texas Devils, literally.

And at some point, American military officers actually

Start condemning the Rangers, right, because their view is that they're out of control and that their violence against civilian populations actually incites the Mexican populace to be more likely to resist American rule.

So it's a double edged sword for the U.S.

military, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.

If you read the press in either Mexico or the United States, you would hear reports and accounts of these.

If you have a brother or a son or a husband who's in the American military,

And he's writing home.

He may be mentioning the Texas Rangers in these stories.

And then particularly in the Mexican descent population in both Mexico and Texas, now there are oral histories, there are stories being told.