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Back to the Great Comanche Raid as per Steven L. Moore (Savage Frontier Vol. III)...

TUESDAY AUGUST 4th 1840

The Indian offensive was reportedly encouraged by General Valentine Canalizo, the military commander of northern Mexico, who was headquartered in Matamoros (near the mouth of the Rio Grande, on the Mexican side).

The Texans erroneously perceived that the Comanche threat had subsided during the early summer months, when in fact they were busy acquiring firearms for battle. The Comanches held a peace counsel with their old enemies, the Cheyenne and Arapaho‘s, during the summer near Bent Fort Inn the upper Arkansas river outside Texas territory....

The Comanches and Kiowas offered their new friends large numbers of horses. In exchange, they ask for guns blankets and kettles. The Comanches then broke camp and headed south back into Texas, taking along some of the extra guns and munitions they had been able to acquire.

The party of Comanches and Kiowa numbered more than 600 as they descended into Texas again. They also moved in company with a small number of Mexican citizens....

The senior surviving leader of the Penateka Comanches was Buffalo Hump, who now led what would be the largest of all Southern Comanche offensives.

During the night of August 4, they descended from the Hill country above San Marcos and Austin and began their march to the coast to avenge their fallen chiefs.

The large Indian force would slip around and between the Texas settlements to strike Victoria, the seat of the Mexican Federalist Government in exile, and Linnville, the site of their Arsenal. Some Historians have suggested Buffalo Hump was expecting a Mexican military offensive up from Matamoras in coordination with his raid.