Come all ye Texas Rangers, who ever you may be
And I'll tell you all a story that happened unto me
My name is nothing extra so that I will not tell
And here's to all ye Rangers, I'm sure I wish you well

'Twas at the age of seventeen I joined our jolly band
We marched from San Antonio down to the Rio Grande
Our captain, he informed us, perhaps he thought it right
"Before this day is over lads, you'll surely have to fight"

And when the bugle sounded, the captain raised his hand
"To arms, to arms", he shouted, "And by your horses stand"
We saw the smoke ascending, it seemed to reach the sky
And then the thought, it struck me, my time had come to die

I saw the Indians coming, I heard them give a yell
My feelings at that moment, no human tongue could tell
I saw their glittering lances, their arrows 'round me flew
And all my strength had left me then, and all my courage, too

We fought for nine hours fully before the strife was o'er (over)
The like of dead and wounded I never saw before
And when the sun had risen and the Indians, they had fled
We loaded up our rifles, and counted up our dead

And all of us were wounded, our noble captain slain
The sun was shining sadly across that bloody plain
Sixteen a brave young ranger as ever rode the west
Were buried by their comrades with arrows in their breast

And now my story's ended, I think I've said enough
The life of any Ranger, you see, is plenty tough
So if you have a mother who don't want you to roam
I advise you - from experience - you'd better stay at home

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Note from Joe Offer (Feb 2008): this is almost the same as Melani's post of the Ian & Sylvia lyrics (above). Note that there are slight but interesting differences in in the first and second verses.