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1011
hand and foot, and thrown into the river and given a free swim down to its mouth. But he was not a good swimmer, and a few days later his body was found lodged against a boat. Another Mexican who was captured at the fight of Rancho Davis stepped into the Great Beyond f from the back of Capt. Tumlinson's saddle horse, and a fourth one was hanged from a large root that projected from a bluff bank out over the waters of the Rio Grande. Each one of these men richly deserved the fate that befell him, for there was not a crime of which one or the other had not been guilty.
"Captain Hunter also failed to mention a fight that took place at Mule Shoe Bend, when Cortina and his men tried to capture a steamboat laden with gold and silver, whose passage down the river the Rangers were protecting. The Greasers were stationed in a jacal surrounded by a picket fence and were so busy watching the boat that they did not know until it was too late that Tumlinson had led a part of his company over into Mexico and was coming up in their rear. Tumlinson whipped' them to a finish, drove them into flight and captured all their horses, as well as their supplies of ammunition and provisions. Such terror, indeed, did Tumlinson's men inspire in the minds of the Mexicans there that they never rallied again, and always afterwards spoke of the Americans as being 'muy diablos.' I was lucky enough to take part in that fight, having been, a few days before, transferred to Tumlinson's company, in which I had a brother, J. B. Burris.
"After this fight I went home on furlough and while I was away the company was disbanded. The first I knew of its disbandment was when on my way back to rejoin it I met the boys returning to their homes. Never having been mustered out myself and never from that day to this have I received any pay from the state for my services, I still claim to be a Ranger.
In 1861 I joined a company of cavalry that was