John Barclay Armstrong
John Barclay Armstrong (born January 1, 1850 in McMinnville , Tennessee , † May 1, 1913 in Armstrong , Kenedy County , Texas ) was an American police officer and second lieutenant in the Texas Rangers .
biography
Armstrong lived the first few years of his life in Missouri and Arkansas . He moved to Austin , Texas in the early 1870s and joined the Travis Rifles as a lawman a few years later .
Texas Ranger
On May 20, 1875, he joined the Texas Rangers , as a member of Captain Leander Harvey McNelly's special unit , the Washington County Volunteers . He soon became a sergeant and participated, among other things, in the Las Cuevas dispute. He was also involved in the killing and capture of several suspected criminals in the Eagle Pass and Laredo areas . In this service he soon earned the nickname McNelly's Bulldog .
When McNelly had to retire due to illness, Armstrong continued his service under Jesse Lee Hall , under whom he was promoted to second lieutenant .
Armstrong's best-known achievement was the capture of John Wesley Hardin . Hardin was the murder of Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County , Charles Webb , accused in May 1874 and the Rangers were riveted on its heels. After Hardin was captured in Louisiana in September 1874 , he managed to escape after being transferred to Texas and continued searches for him until he was seen in August 1877. Armstrong, who was suffering from a gunshot wound at the time, received permission from the prosecutor to go to find Hardin with investigator John Duncan . When they tracked down Hardin in Alabama , they got an arrest warrant and the helpful support of the railroad as Hardin tried to escape to Pensacola , Florida . After Armstrong arrived in Pensacola, still injured, he managed to kill one of several Hardins gang members, arrest everyone else, and bring them back to Texas. In 1878, Bulldogg Armstrong was still involved in the killing of train robber Sam Bass .
In 1881 he left the Texas Rangers and was then a short time US Marshal . Later retired, Major Armstrong lived as a cattle farmer in Willacy County . He died at his Armstrong home on May 1, 1913 and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Austin. He was inducted into the Texas Rangers' Hall of Fame.
Media processing
In the film Texas Rangers , which tells the formation and work of the Washington County volunteers , John B. Armstrong was portrayed by Robert Patrick .
Web links
literature
- George Durham, Clyde Wantland: Taming the Nueces Strip. The Story of McNelly's Rangers . Foreword by Walter Prescott Webb . University of Texas Press, Austin 1962, 178 pp. ISBN 978-0292780484 , English (no German translation available)
- Walter Prescott Webb : The Texas Rangers . Boston 1935.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Major Armstrong as farmer - Handbook of Texas , accessed July 15, 2013
- ↑ John Armstrong ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Texas Rangers Hall of Fame entry, accessed July 15, 2013
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Armstrong, John Barclay |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Armstrong, John B. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American policeman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 1, 1850 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | McMinnville , Tennessee , USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 1, 1913 |
| Place of death | Armstrong , Texas , USA |