Leander H. McNelly

Leander Harvey McNelly (March 12, 1844 – September 4, 1877) was a Confederate officer and Texas Ranger captain. McNelly is best remembered for leading the "Special Force", a quasi-military branch of the Texas Rangers that operated in south Texas in 1875–76.

Early years Leander H. McNelly was born March 12, 1844, in Follansbee, Virginia (today West Virginia), to P.J. McNelly and his wife Mary Downey. McNelly suffered from consumption as a child, and in 1860 his family moved to Texas in the hope that the climate would improve his health. In Texas, McNelly helped his family raise sheep and regained his health.

Civil War On September 13, 1861, McNelly enlisted in the Confederate States Army, joining Company F of the Fifth Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers under General Thomas Green. After the Battle of Valverde during the New Mexico campaign, Green named McNelly his aide. Following fighting in the Battle of Galveston, McNelly was sent to Louisiana, where he was given a commission on December 19, 1863. He led 100 guerrilla scouts, and once carried out a spying mission dressed as a woman.

McNelly and his men were tasked with capturing Brashear City, Louisiana (now Morgan City), where 800 Union troops were stationed. After dark, McNelly and his 40 troops marched back and forth across a long bridge that led to the city, shouting as if they were speaking to unseen generals and colonels. At dawn, McNelly and his small force rode into the Union camp under a flag of truce and demanded an unconditional surrender. The Union officers believed that the noise they had heard signified a very large Confederate force and surrendered immediately. McNelly was able to take all 800 Union troops prisoner.

The Democratic Party regained control of Texas in 1873, and in 1874, to combat massive lawlessness, the newly elected governor, Richard Coke, created two branches of the Texas Rangers, a Frontier Battalion under the command of major John B. Jones, and a designated Special Force, commanded by McNelly, financed by cattle ranchers. McNelly's special group had the specific task of bringing order to the Nueces Strip, a hotbed of cattle thievery and banditry, where Juan Cortina, the Mexican military chief for the Rio Grande frontier, was conducting periodic guerrilla operations against the local ranchers.

One of his unit's first assignments was to travel to DeWitt County and resolve the Sutton–Taylor feud. The feud had begun in March 1874 when a member of the Taylor family killed a member of the Sutton family. McNelly and 40 Rangers arrived in Clinton, Texas, on August 1 and remained for four months to ensure that Taylor and the witnesses against him lived through the trial. Following that incident, McNelly was ill, and went home to recuperate on his cotton farm near Burton. There is a contemporary report that six members of McNelly's unit were engaged in a gunfight with unknown parties six miles from Clinton on the Yorktown Road, which resulted in one missing, one wounded, and two horses killed.

Nueces Strip In April 1875, Coke ordered McNelly to organize a special force and go to Nueces County. In two days, McNelly recruited 41 men. He rejected most native Texans who had applied so that they would not have to face the possibility of shooting at their own relatives or friends. The group became very loyal to him, and called themselves the "Little McNellys".

In the episode of the NBC TV series Tales of Wells Fargo entitled "Sam Bass" (1957) the character Captain McNelly is played by Ray Teal.

In the episode of the TV show Kung Fu entitled "Empty Pages of a Dead Book" (1974) actor Robert Foxworth portrays a fictionalized son of Captain McNelly, Clyde McNelly, who tracks down men who at one time were pursued by the elder McNelly.

Don Meredith guest stars as the title character in "Shanklin," an episode of the TV series The Quest. Shanklin, a high-ranking Texas Ranger, is loosely inspired by McNelly, and the incidents depicted in the episode have their counterparts in McNelly's actual career in as a lawman.

The film Texas Rangers (2001) fictionalizes the exploits of McNelly and his Rangers on the Nueces Strip, and is based on the autobiographical account of the campaign, Taming the Nueces Strip by former Texas Ranger George Durham, who served on McNelly's "Special Force." McNelly is played by Dylan McDermott. Ashton Kutcher plays Durham.