McCulloch's Gonzales men located the great Indian Trail early on the following morning, August 7. At this juncture they were joined by the party of 36 men under the lead of captain Zumwalt. Collectively, the McCullough and Zumwalt companies numbered 60 men.
They continued south towards Victoria in pursuit along the Indian Trail, spreading out their scouts ahead, left and right, in constant expectation of meeting their savage foe.
Meanwhile, further north on the Bastrop - Gonzales road that same morning, Zachariah Morrell was driving a wagon back to Bastrop, after having delivered a load of lumber to build a house on the Guadalupe River.
” we passed with the wagons just in the rear end across the track of the Indians as they went down. From their trail I thought, and afterwards found I was correct, that there were four or five hundred. I trembled for the settlements below, for I knew this meant war on a larger scale than usual.”
He was immediately anxious to spread the word to Colonel Edward Burleson in Bastrop and the citizens living along the Colorado River Valley near his home in LaGrange. His wagon crossed the Indian trail at noon and he reached home around midnight.
“My oxen were in fine condition, I drove thirty miles in twelve hours. In view of the long race before me, I tried to sleep some, while a horse was being secured.”
While Morrell was reading the Indian sign around noon.
about noon on August 7, McCullough and Zumwalt’s scouts made out a company of horsemen advancing towards the trail. Word of the Indians had also made it down to the Cuero settlement on the Guadalupe River. Captain John Jackson Tumlinson Jr, the 36 year old veteran ranger commander, had taken command of 65 men who volunteered from the Cuero and Victoria area settlements.
Tumlinson brought news that the Comanches had attack the town of Victoria the previous day. Tomlinson took charge of all that he could muster and set out expecting to encounter the main body of Comanches at any moment.
With the force now augmented to 125 men, they pushed ahead at a brisk trot.
Experience had led these men to expect that, having raided Victoria, the Comanches would quickly make their escape back to the northwest.
Late in the day, having reached a creek called Bushy or Brushy Creek, it was deemed advisable to diverge a few miles to the right (West), in the direction of the Guadalupe, for the purpose of intercepting them if they had taken that passage. They stopped for the day about four miles from the trail, and sent out scouts with orders to ascertain whether they had yet passed up.
Tumlinson’s 125 men made a force sizable enough to engage the Comanches. The trouble was that they were too far behind to stop the raids that were already occurring.
"...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
