Half a dozen collected versions set the action in the Civil War, with "Yankees" or "rebels" substituted for "Indians" according to taste.

The earliest known version dates, in fact, from the Civil War. The Boston paper "The Commonwealth" (Dec. 18, 1863) prints a letter taken from a Texan captured in Louisiana by soldiers of Union General Nathaniel Banks.

Confederate soldier Joseph M. Martin of Lamar Co., in the extreme northeast corner of Texas, the wrote to his sister, who asked him to send her "a Long ballet." The letter was written at "Camp Kiamishi, Choctaw Nation [Indian Territory], March 27, '63." All spelling and punctuation sic:
                  
                      THE TEXAS RANGER.
                      March 20th, 1863.

Come all you Texas Rangers Wherever you may bee
A story I Will Tell you Which happand unto me
My name is nothing extra so it I will not tell
I am a Texas Ranger I am shure I wish you Well

At the age of fifteen I Joined a Jolly Band
We marched from Sanantonio unto the Ryogrand
Our Captain there Informed us prehaps he thought it rite
Befour you reach the Station ses he you will have to fight

I Saw the Smoke assending, it seemed to reach the Skies
I thought at that momment now is my tyme to die
And when the Bugle Sounded our Captain Gieve command
To arms To arms he shouted and by your horses stand.

I saw the Indians coming I herd them Gieve the Yell
My feelings at that momment my Tongue can never Till
I saw the glittering lancets, the arrows round me hailed
My heart did sink within me my courage almost faild

We fought for full nine hours befour the Strife was o'er
So many ded and wounded U never saw before
Five as noble Rangers as ever Saw the West
Wos burred by their Comordas Sweet be theire pieceful Rest

I thought of my dear mother in tears to me did say
To you they are all Strangers with me you had better stay."
I thought she wos childish the best she did not no
My mind wos Fixed on Ranging and I was bound to go

Prehaps you have a Mother likewise a sister too
May bee you have a sweet heat to weep and mourn for you
If this bee your sittuation all though you love to roam,
I will advise you by Exsperanse you had better stay at home.


A letter from another soldier describes the circumstances surrounding Martin's letter (qtd. from Alwyn Barr, "Polignac's Texas Brigade" (1998):

"Lived for three weeks on cold flour (parched corn, ground to meal) and water. No tents, no blankets, hardly anything to keep life and soul together. Many and many a night have I slept on the frozen ground with...a lump of ice for a pillow. Men died every day. They laid themselves down. They would not move and they died. …From Ft. Smith to the Mouth of the Kiamichi [River] where we camped, our trail was a long graveyard."

In March, 1863, when Martin wrote to his sister, the unit had not yet seen action.