Hello Jim, When General Grant was made the over all commanding Union general in March of 1864 one of his objectives was to send the galvanized Yankees out West. At least what they considered West that being Minnesota. There had been a Sioux uprising in 1862 in the state which was put down by General Pope thus elevating him to the leadership of the Army of the Potomac in which he was fired by Lincoln after 2nd Manassas in 1862.

General Grant's reasoning for the transfer of galvanized Yankees out West was not so much for manpower as he needed every soldier he could muster himself but rather he felt it was wrong to place former Confederates at risk by being captured by their former army.

Almost every northern prison camp had an element of galvanized Yankees formed from their prison population. The 11th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Cavalry as an example had some galvanized Yankees within their ranks and if my memory is correct I believe it was company F. Not everyone in company F was a galvanized Yankee however. In my opinion they had a unique idea by putting some former Camp Chase prison guards within company F. Some of their duty assignments were in the territories of Colorado and Nebraska. One company F's camp for a short period of time was in northern Colorado and they named it after their Colonel; Collins. This would later become the city of Fort Collins, Colorado. Colonel Collins had a son who also was a lieutenant in the 11th Ohio Cavalry named Caspar Collins who was killed by Indians. A fort was named after him called Fort Caspar. Later on a city would emerge named Casper, Wyoming. So to help answer your question galvanized Yankees were sent out West to various places not just Minnesota and they also used in the Eastern Theatre of war prior to March of 1864.

Two battalions were formed as a regiment. Only one of these galvanized Yankee battalions were used against the Confederacy that being the 3rd Maryland Cavalry. Research has determined that at least 85% of the galvanized Yankee battalion within the 3rd Maryland Cavalry were former Confederates. Going through research at the National Archives I believe I can safely say they were very much in fear of being captured by their former army. Letters written from a wife as an example expressed her concerns about her husband being hanged if caught. Some of the galvanized Yankees were captured however for the most part they were taken to Camp Ford in Tyler, Texas and not hanged. Only one, I believe probably meant his death by former Confederates after being captured. However he was doing things out of the ordinary routine. He had a part time business it appears. He appears to have taken off his Federal uniform and switched into civilian clothes and went across the lines and threatened and robbed his former citizens. A Confederate junior officer had noticed him within the Confederate lines many times before but had no reason to suspect him of anything. When a complaint was made by one of the citizens he was arrested and was drunk and had with him almost $100.00 in gold. He told the Confederates who he was a galvanized Yankee and later the next day after the liquor had worn off claimed a different story. He said he had brought his Union cavalry boots from a local civilian whom he could not remember. His story ends there. I would imagine he meant his death rather quickly.

A point that is often time over looked in my opinion are the junior officers within the galvanized Yankee battalion. Only one officer was a galvanized Yankee the rest were Union officers. Let's take today as an example. Suppose 400 plus known Al-Qaeda members held in Cuba were made United States soldiers. They then would be sent to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban. How would a junior United States officer feel about taking the former enemy to Afghanistan and having those troops at his back? Probably not too safe. While the example may not be exactly the same some junior officers within the galvanized Yankee battalion resigned their positions once they found out where they were being deployed.

The 1st Connecticut Cavalry also had two companies made up chiefly as galvanized Yankees. They were used to also fight Confederates in the Eastern Theatre of war until General Grant transferred them to Minnesota in 1864. However a few of them stayed with the 1st Connecticut Cavalry by choice.

The South also needed her troops and the galvanized Confederates were used against the Union army in Tennessee and other Southern states. They could not afford the luxury of taking into the consideration of what might happened if they were captured. Indeed many of the former Union soldiers within the 10th Tennessee deserted as soon as they could and in my opinion did what they felt they had to do to get out of Andersonville and survive.

I've not ran across any information about galvanized Confederates in Texas being used to fight the Comanche.

Insofar as the Texas Rangers in the Confederate army the mere definition of a Texas Ranger is highly complex and has many different meanings some based upon time periods in my opinion. There was one self reported Texas Ranger within the galvanized battalion of the 3rd Maryland Cavalry as an example. I am fairly weak upon the great history of Texas but I would imagine that some Texas Rangers were on duty during the war and were used to help maintain justice in the state. There are others on this board from Texas who are more informed on this area than I am. I can say that Texas offered it's citizens a vote to leave the Union in 1861 and other than Virginia no other southern states made such a vote. If I remember correctly it was about 2 out of every 3 citizens in Texas voted to leave the Union. Texas also had an issue with it's southern border and some Mexicans during the war, it was just not the Comanche they had to keep an eye on.