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Still on Monday, August 10th, four days after the initial alarm. Gonzales.....

While he waited the return of Captain Caldwel Ben McCulloch assisted the Gonzalez citizens in raising another volunteer company. Captain James Bird was elected to command the 30 additional Gonzales volunteers. Among those now in his number were Ben McCulloch, and his brother Henry McCulloch.

Henry McCullough was five years younger than his older brother Ben, and was 24 years old at the time of these events. A few months prior to the raid Henry had confronted and shot the lethal Ruben Ross.

Henry would live to the ripe old age of 78 years old, in his later years becoming a much valued source on historical events in early Texas. A number of his letters on this topic survive but it may be significant that apparently none of all describe the circumstances of his killing of Ross.

It could be there were still Ross descendants/partisans around, or maybe he had just up and shot Ross outside of a duel setting, either way going up against the deadly outlaw leader was no small thing.

No surprise then....

As Captain Bird was gathering his volunteers, Henry McCullough set out to scout for the Comanches. He rode out to Big Hill, 14 miles east of Gonzales, to view the passing cavalcade. He saw them pass and noted Captain Tumlinson’s pursuit party still in tow. McCulloch then rode hard to alert his brother and Captain Bird.

It always struck me how much nerve it took to ride out fifteen miles by yourself towards a high prominence overlooking the route of possibly a thousand hostile Indians. I woulda figured there’d be Indians up there for the same reason.

The fact that there weren’t might indicate how careless and overconfident the Comanches had become.

Someday I shall have to go and locate this high hill. Not as easy to find today, the country was far more open back then, live oak prairie with strips of woodlands along the watercourses.

Just ten days later Henry McCulloch got married in Gonzales, a Kentucky girl, him and his wife had twelve kids, opened a mercantile business in Seguin.

He did remain exceptional on the Frontier, like his brother Ben noted for his skill at tracking, they both musta hung out with those same Choctaws in their youth.

1847, as a Ranger Captain, Henry McCulloch would establish a Ranger Station way up in Burnet County. Likely he was filling in for the likes of his brother and Jack Hays who at that time were down in Mexico for that war.

This Ranger Station was shortly taken over by the Feds and renamed Fort Croghan (??). 1847 that location was way out there, but by 1852 the place was already obsolete and abandoned, indicating just how fast Texas was settling up.

In his 40’s, as a Brigadier General for the Confederacy, Henry McCulloch commanded Texas cavalry both on the Texas Frontier, Arkansas and as far east as the Vicksburg campaign.

He’s surprisingly obscure in popular Texas history today, maybe we just had too many remarkable guys back then. One wishes he had written a book.