Zumwalt organized 36 men and they set out west towards Gonzales for the scene of the attack on the morning of August 6. Tucker Foley’s naked, mutilated body was found. A grave was dug with butcher knives, Foley’s body was wrapped in a cotton saddle blanket and buried under a huge live oak tree.
Zumwalt’s company took up the trail of the Comanches and began tracking their movements.
That same morning perhaps twenty miles to the north.
In early 1840, the area moving northwesterly between Gonzales and the new capital of Austin was almost completely uninhabited.
One has to wonder how much mail carriers were paid back then.
The mail carrier from Austin to Gonzales happened upon a large, fresh Indian trail crossing the road in the vicinity of Plum Creek. The Indians appeared to be bearing down towards the coast of Texas. The mail carrier hurried to Gonzales and reported this startling find.
The Gonzales militia was under the command of Captain Matthew “Old Paint” Caldwell, who had been wounded in March in the council house fight. On August 5th, Caldwell had left with some of his men tracking other Indians who had been reported to the west.
Ben McCullough therefore organized a 24 man volunteer party to investigate the tracks. McCulloch sent Word at once to the settlements along the Guadalupe and Lavaca rivers. He asked for those citizens to come to the assistance of those from Gonzales in cutting off the body of Indians.
A larger number would have moved out, but for the very short notice of the intended expedition and the great difficulty of procuring horses, the Indians having about a week before stolen a majority of the best in the neighborhood.
Captain McCulloch’s volunteers rode out from Gonzalez at 4 PM on August 6 for the Big Hill settlement about 16 miles east of town. McCullochs men reached this point and made camp for the night.
Meanwhile, at least FORTY MILES or more to the south, at the same time McCulloch was leaving Gonzales...
at about 4 PM on August 6, the 600+ Comanche party under Buffalo hump appeared on the outskirts of Victoria.
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
