Bettye --

If you could clarify or confirm the date of the law, that should help answer your question. Actual details of the kind of service to be rendered would be included in the law itself, which should be readily available in a Texas state library.

To work with what we do know at the moment, since the law was enacted by the State of Texas and at least one unit raised under authority of the law is described as "home guard", these are not soldiers in the usual sense of the word. The law probably includes no provisions for pay, uniforms, equipment, rations or arms issued by the state to these men. It probably does specify when and how companies could organize, and the extent of their authority to act for home defense. Members were probably limited to law enforcement duties (collecting deserters and conscripts) within their home county, and in event of an emergency, the governor could call them into limited service (probably no more than thirty days).

Since these men were not paid for service and probably never called by the governor, no discharge was necessary. It is quite likely that with few exceptions home guard members went about their lives as farmers, merchant or lawyers as they always had. They wore comfortable clothing, ate food prepared in a stove at home and slept in a warm bed. Confederate General Samuel G. French, division commander for Ector's Texas Brigade, refers to these men as "feather bed rangers".