Archillus P. Ratliff: Texas Ranger, Farmer, and Confederate Soldier (1829–1903)
By: William V. Scott
Published: October 30, 2024
Updated: October 30, 2024
Archillus (Archelous or Arch) P. Ratliff, stock raiser, farmer, Texas Ranger, and Confederate soldier, was born on February 22, 1829, at Van Buren, Crawford County, Arkansas, to Guilford and Mahala Ratliff. Arch Ratliff came to Texas sometime in the 1840s. On the 1850 U.S. census, he was listed as a twenty-one-year-old farmer on his parents’ farm in Williamson County. Ratliff and his father served under John S. “Rip” Ford in the Texas Mounted Volunteers for six months service in 1850–51 on the Rio Grande in South Texas. This unit was also known as “Ford’s Old Company,” which was brought in to the area between the Nueces and Rio Grande at the request of U.S. Army Gen. George M. Brooke to establish order in the region.
Archillus Ratliff married Lucinda Anderson, daughter of Henry Madison and Sarah “Sally” (Collier) Anderson, on June 30, 1853, in Williamson County. The couple welcomed eight children. In 1860 Ratliff was listed on the census as a land “Speculator” with $1,500 of real estate and $4,500 in personal estate in Young County. He owned about 160 acres near Fort Belknap.
During the Civil War, Ratliff enlisted as a private in Capt. Edward H. Vontress’s Company A of Maj. Charles L. Morgan’s squadron of Texas cavalry, sometimes listed as the Eighteenth Texas Cavalry (see MORGAN’S TEXAS CAVALRY BATTALION). He was mustered on March 26, 1862, in Dallas, Texas, by J. J. McAllister for twelve months of service. On his enlistment papers it was noted that Ratliff was over thirty-five and entitled to discharge by the Conscription Act. He was discharged from service on July 13, 1862, at Bayou Meto, Arkansas, and soon returned to Dallas. Ratliff was never paid during his service but was reimbursed for his uniform, horse, and firearm on February 27 and March 16, 1863. Ratliff was still on the unit’s muster roll through October 31, 1863, including a sick furlough from August 12.
By 1870 Ratliff had returned to farming near Florence in Williamson County. The 1880 census recorded that the Ratliff family was farming and stock raising in Brown County. Their operations included 275 acres, mostly unimproved, where he raised 60 horses, 39 milk cows, 261 other cattle, 10 pigs, and 25 poultry. He expanded his operations in Brown County throughout the decade. In 1900 the Ratliffs and their granddaughter, Belvia Welch, were farming near Regency Village in Mills County. Archillus P. Ratliff died on February 8, 1903, at age seventy-three, in Mills County, and was buried at the Ebony Cemetery in Ebony, Mills County, Texas.
Bibliography:
“Archelous ‘Arch’ Ratliff,” Find A Grave Memorial (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6711530/archelous_ratliff ), accessed October 3, 2024. Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Texas, National Archives and Records Service, Washington. John S. Ford, Rip Ford's Texas, ed. Stephen B. Oates (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1963).
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The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
William V. Scott, “Ratliff, Archillus P.,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/archillus-p-ratliff.
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- October 30, 2024
- October 30, 2024
