Augustus McCrae, commonly known simply as "Gus" for short, is a fictional Texas Ranger who appears in three books in the Lonesome Dove series by the American writer Larry McMurtry. He is very close friends with Woodrow F. Call, and much of the series (except for Streets of Laredo) revolves around their relationship, which endures for decades despite (or perhaps because of) their opposite personalities. While a capable Ranger, Gus frequently complains about the work they do, and when not on the job, enjoys being lazy, unlike Call's more Type A personality. Gus is also a very social, gregarious and talkative man, whereas Call is more focused on the job at hand, rarely discussing what he sees as trivial matters, including relationships with women.
In this book, and the film based on it, he and Call are in their late teens or early twenties, and sign up to be members of the Texas Santa Fe Expedition, led by Cpt. Caleb Cobb. Before leaving Austin, Gus meets Clara Forsythe, the daughter of a local store owner, and is instantly smitten. It also reveals that he is actually from Tennessee. The mission to Santa Fe turns out to be a failure. The party is arrested upon its arrival and taken to Mexico, where the Mexican authorities decide whom to shoot and whom to spare by using black and white beans, a historical method borrowed from the Mier Expedition. Gus, Woodrow, and Long Bill Coleman are some of the few who are not executed. They are then escorted back to Texas by way of the Jornada del Muerto. Back in Austin, he is reunited with Clara.
In the film, Augustus is played by David Arquette.
In this book, he and Woodrow have now been Texas Rangers for ten years. Gus has been competing with a horsetrader named Bob Allen for Clara's affections, but his relationship with Clara continues at the mercy of his duties as a Ranger. As the novel begins, he and Call are on a mission with their commanding officer, Inish Scull. When the Indian Kicking Wolf steals Scull's horse, Scull takes off on foot to find it, taking only the Kickapoo tracker Famous Shoes with him. He gives Gus and Call ad hoc promotions to Captain and puts them in charge of getting the company of Rangers back to Austin. Back in Austin, Gus is heartbroken to learn that Clara has decided to marry Bob Allen. He is shocked to learn that Inish Scull's wife Inez, despite seducing him and apparently having a habit of doing so to many other Austin men while her husband is away, also expects him and Call to lead an expedition to get her husband back.
Gus and Call lead the expedition, which also includes Pea Eye Parker, Jake Spoon, and Joshua Deets. However, upon hearing that Austin has been raided by Comanches, they return home. While back in Austin, they receive word from the Mexican bandit and torturer Ahumado they are willing to trade Scull for a herd of cattle. Governor Pease instructs Gus and Call to meet a Captain King who lives in the small border town of Lonesome Dove, so that they can buy a herd of cattle from him. King, however, seems uninterested, and untrusting of the state to pay him what he believes the cattle are worth. Gus and Call decide to leave their troop behind and rescue Scull themselves. They find him deserted, as Ahumado left the camp behind to find a place to die, and everyone else left when they noticed his absence. Scull has had his eyelids cut off and is losing his sanity, but they take him back home where, in time, he recovers.
In the film, Augustus is played by Steve Zahn.
In this volume, Gus, Call, Pea Eye Parker, and Joshua Deets have retired from Rangering, and now own a small ranch in the town of Lonesome Dove. When Jake Spoon comes to town for a visit, he tells them about a trip to Montana, convincing Call that it is a cattleman's paradise. Woodrow ultimately convinces Gus to help him get a herd together. Gus decides that the trip would be a good excuse to visit Clara in Nebraska. On the way, though, he ends up having to take care of Lorena Wood, a whore who falls in love with Jake Spoon, when Jake himself proves unreliable. While Jake is on a trip to San Antonio, Lorena is captured by Blue Duck, and Augustus must rescue her. Later, Deets discovers that Jake has ended up traveling with a band of killers. Gus and Call reluctantly have to hang Jake for associating with them. Soon after that, though, they arrive at Clara's. Gus had hoped that Clara, whose husband has been fatally wounded by a horse kick, may now have an interest in him when her husband dies. But while she is happy to have him as a friend, she has no interest in marrying again. She asks Lorena to stay with her, and Gus is happy to let her stay, since she and Clara have become fast friends.
Once the company reaches Montana, Gus and Pea Eye Parker ride out to scout for good ranch land. Gus sees a herd of buffalo and decides to chase them. He ends up running into a traveling party of Indians, who shoot him in the leg. The Indians keep him and Pea Eye surrounded until that night, when Gus sends Pea Eye back to the herd to bring Woodrow. In the morning, Augustus is woken by a traveling doctor who wants to amputate Gus's leg. Gus refuses to let him, so the doctor loans him a horse to get to the nearest town. When he arrives in town, he is nearly passed out. Some customers walking out of a local bar help him off his horse and to a doctor's office. When he wakes again, he finds that the town doctor has amputated his right leg. The doctor then tells him he must cut off the other leg as well, since the blood poisoning has spread. Gus, however, refuses to let him have the leg, even when told that death is inevitable otherwise. Later that night, Woodrow arrives, and tells the doctor to take the leg off. The doctor informs him it is too late, and Gus himself threatens to shoot Woodrow if he even tries. Augustus lives his last minutes of life with Woodrow by his side. He asks Call to buy his half of the herd from him and give the money to Lorena. He writes a farewell letter to both Lorena and Clara, and makes Call promise to take his corpse back to Texas, to be buried in a grove of pecan trees by a creek where he and Clara used to spend time together. Finally, Gus dies. The usually stoic Call is moved to tears by his friend's death. When spring comes around, he keeps his promise, and spends months taking Gus's body back to Texas.
In the manner of his death and burial, Gus parallels real-life cattleman Oliver Loving, who also died of blood poisoning from an Indian arrow, and asked Charles Goodnight to take his body back to Texas for burial.
In the film, Augustus is played by Robert Duvall.
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