Captain Banta was married to my Great-G-Grandmother. It was their second marriage. her name was Athetha Ann Cadwell-Banta. Captain Banta along with his friend and fellow ranger John Wesley Cadwell Sr. went after a group of (men) German settlers from Fredericksburg Texas. The Germans were heading for the Mexican border. They were heading south to get out of Texas where they would reverse their course around Texas and head to the union side of the Civil War. The Germans were signing up for the Union side. (They were living in Texas and going in a group to enter the war on the Union side.) Banta and a large group of men went after the Germans and caught up with them on the US side of the border. After the battle there were no Germans left alive.

Years later, while chasing bad guys, Banta and a group of rangers went into Frederickburg (A Texas German settlement) and they were recognized as the part of the men that had killed the German traitors. They were taken into custody and it is said that the (German) men of the town broke into the jail and shot up the rangers. William was shot several times but made his escape. William Banta and his step-son John Wesly Cadwell Jr. wrote a book "27 Years on the Texas Frontier" (1883). I think William died in 1895.

Dan Cadwell