It is unfortunate that the specifics of the first employment of revolvers against Comanches in a pitched fight seems clouded with uncertainty. At least most agree on the time... early June 1844, a still green and pleasant time down here, tho' this shortly transitions into at least three months of intensely sunny and hot.
Fehrenbach puts this battle in 1840 and has Hayes and fourteen Rangers charge through "a blizzard of Comanche arrows". That seems unlikely, given the vaunted accuracy of Comanche archers.
Likewise even with revolvers in hand Ford, who would know, puts the bow and revolver on parity, hard to imagine anyone charging through said blizzard on purpose even if the arrow was a tad less lethal than the lead ball.
Anyhow, all accounts agree... fifteen Rangers versus seventy-five or more Comanches. The Rangers were camped near to the Guadelupe River near the present-day hamlet of Sisterdale, today a pleasant spot on the road between Boerne and Luckenbach, like most everthing in that area slowly getting overrun by high dollar housing "estates".
Everyone but Fehrenbach states the Comanches tried to bait the Comances in to a charge, retreating to high ground in their rear and actually dismounting behind cover.
Interesting that, and counter to the Plains Indian "ride in circles around the wagons" stereotype. Perhaps these guys had already participated in a number of engagements wherin they charged guys with rifles, with disatrous results.
From here, accounts differ on what happened next, Gwynne in "Empire" gives a version based upon one presented in the
Houston Morning Star newspaper based upon an interview with Hays. UT gives substantially the same account...
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/btw02...wherein the rangers enter a ravine just in front of the Comanche postion deep enough to hide them, and use it to flank the Comanches, gaining access the the back fo the Comanche line, at least partially dismounted on a hilltop. Sounds odd that the Comanches didn't anticipate this.
What happens then is a bit unclear, the rangers forming into a wedge and assaulting the hilltop, the fighting according to Ben McCullough becoming "hand to hand", dismounted or mounted unclear, but "attacks on both flanks" by the Comanches.
From there the fight devolves into a long chase, Comanches repeatedly turning to face the rangers only to be dropped by revolvers, the Comanche leader Yellow Wolf being finally dropped at 30 yards with the Rangers' last bullet.
I find this other account more credible, still involcing a ranger flankng attack as it does, and mention of ten Comanche bowmen having stationed themselves in cover on what they had anticipated would be the rangers' flank makes sense.
Note that rifles from cover was a usual prior Ranger battle tactic, suckering the Comanches within pistol range would be logical too...
http://www.classicballistx.com/HistoryWalker_Colt.htmlWhen, at sixty yards distance from the band of Indians, he saw a second and a third rank behind the first, Hays wheeled and ordered his men into a stand of timber to the side. As
they approached the timber, concealed Comanches showered them with arrows. Hays plunged into the position, surprising a dozen bowmen who sprinted in flight for their horses.
Now in a defensible position, three Texans held horses while the others deployed to meet the charging Comanches.
The first line of Comanches absorbed a rifle volley then the main body raced to attack as the Rangers supposedly reloaded. But the Texans stood up and poured a hail of pistol balls into the startled Comanches. Warriors and ponies fell and the Indian charge was shattered.
Quickly, while the chiefs assembled their position at a distance, Hays� men reloaded their two pistols each
with their extra cylinders, charged their rifles and shotguns, mounted, and counterattacked....
During the fight, Sam Walker and his good friend R. A. "Ad" Gillespie were separated from the other Rangers and both suffered wounds from Indian lances. Birdwatcher
