I can't believe it! I'm a multi-generation Texan and I have never read this book, but I am doing so now!
We just got back from a little trip to the Texas Hill Country and I got quite engaged in the story of the rangers and a little Indian skirmish at Bandera Pass where an early ranger captain, John (Jack) Coffee Hays led his rangers. I quote from Webb's chapter on him: "A captain had not only courage, which may be a purely emotional thing, but he had what is better, a complete absence of fear. For him fear and courage are unknown; he is not conscious of either. This means that he is free, with every faculty about him, to act in complete accord with his intelligence."