The war party of perhaps as many as 1,000 Comanches and Kiowas had a productive raid. On this, just the fourth day after crossing the line of settlement they had raided across 90 miles, acquired perhaps 2,000 horses and mules and more trade goods than they could easily carry from the warehouses at Linnville on the Gulf Coast.
Waiting to intercept them that morning to the west of their route were a force of 120 men under Captain John Tumlinson coming from Victoria and to the east forty men out of Texana under the command of Captain Clark L. Owen.
One George Kerr was among the brave souls who had ridden east from Tumlinson’s force in the night to locate Owen, that morning he sent a message to Colonel John Moore of LaGrange, asking that a force be assembled to the north to intercept the Indians.
From Steven L. Moore’s “Savage Frontier” on the dangers of looking for Comanches, even if you are on a good horse as we might guess such volunteers were...
During the early morning hours of August 9, Captain Owens company was approached by the returning Comanche war party. The hundreds of campaigning Indians passed between the camps of Owen and Tumlinson, making it impossible for the two to unite.
Captain Owen sent out three of his men as scouts-John Sutherland Menefee, a Dr. Bell, and a man named Nail. These three were attacked and chased by the Comanches on Arenosa Creek. Dr. Bell was killed and Nail escaped only by the sheer speed of his horse. He fled towards the Lavaca settlements and escaped.
John Menefee, a San Jacinto veteran and Texas Congressman, was struck in the body by seven arrows. He somehow managed to escape and hide in some brush along the creek bank until the Comanches passed on.
Menefee walked and crawled to a ranch the following day. He had managed to pull the seven arrows from his own body. Although suffering from serious blood loss, he survived, and would keep the seven arrows in his Jackson County home for years.
"...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
