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1.

Most people who follow the career of Capt. McNelly will know the story of the Las Cuevas fight, when McNelly and some of his men crossed the Rio Grande in pursuit of stolen cattle, and after a fight with some Mexicans, managed to negotiate the return of the cattle, or at least some of them. This is the story of this escapade by McNelly and the Texas Rangers.

McNelly was commissioned by Major John B. Jones to form a Special Force that was to patrol the area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. The official name of this group that McNelly recruited was the Washington County Militia. (thus called because the majority of the recruits were from Washington County) Known to other Rangers as the Special Force, they were formed to stop, amongst other things, the stealing of cattle from ranchers in the Nueces strip, and being transported over the Border into Mexico for onward sale to South America.

The lead up to the Las Cuevas Fight began on November 18th, 1875, but the records of the story from here on differ depending which report you choose to believe. There are three biographies that describe the fight: In his Book, "A Texas Ranger" N.A.Jennings describes the fight as if he were there, but he didn't join McNelly`s Rangers until after the fight, so got his version of the fight from Rangers that took part or knew others that had taken part in it. George Durham took part in the fight, but his biography was dictated to Clyde Wantland, a reporter and writer who put his own twist on the story. Walter Prescott Webb wrote about it in his book "The Texas Rangers", and he got the details from Ranger William C. Callicot 46 years after the event. Lt Robinson wrote articles for the Austin Press, under the name of "Pidge" and was an eye witness to the fight, but his reports were always written in a jovial manner, making fun of the moment.

The most likely true version of the fight was given by W.C. Callicut in 1921 to Walter Prescott Webb. He was an old man at the time and had failing eyesight so could only write down his version of events when the sun was strong. His reading and writing was even at that age only rudimentary, so it was unlikely that he had read any of the other biographies, and his version depended on only his memory of events as they happened. Chuck Parsons has written about Lt. Robinsons reports to the press during his time with McNelly, and also a biography of Capt. McNelly and he has reported the fight in both of these books aswell.

So lets return to the night of November 18th 1875. McNelly had information that a large herd of cattle was to be moved across the Rio Grande and his scouts were out looking for trails and information that would tell them where the herd was to cross. But as in the past the information reached McNelly too late for him to take effective action. (George Durham maintains that the hard riding needed to catch up with the rustlers had cost the lives of four horses in the past. These horses were replaced by local ranchers keen to stop the rustling, among them Captain Richard King of the Santa Gertrudis Ranch).

Information this time came in that there was a herd of seventy five to a hundred cattle being driven towards the border. George Durham says that Jesus Sandoval came into camp with orders to leave straight away, and mentions that they were ready to ride within ten minutes. Lt. Robinsons version is that written orders came from Capt. McNelly at 1:00p.m. of November 18th, and in his report he says the Rangers …"were to ride rapidly to Las Cuevas, alias Robbers Roost. We obeyed them to the letter; we rode rapidly fifty-five miles in six hours, each man carrying one hundred rounds of ammunition" Callicots version varies again. He says that McNelly himself led the group accompanied by Jesus Sandoval, Sullivan, ( interpreter) and twenty-four Rangers each armed with fourty rounds of revolver and fourty rounds of carbine ammunition, and that they made a ride of sixty-five miles in less than five hours. Whichever report we are to believe they are all unified in the fact that they arrived at the banks of the Rio Grande too late. The cattle had already crossed.

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