Sure is a knotty problem ironing out Texas history; often a paucity of written records and a bewildering array of militias and ranging units mustered for short terms of service, most of which either encountered no Indians at all on their expeditions or else fruitlesslessy mustered in response to murders to chase an elusive foe a hundred miles or more before horses gave out.
Complicating matters more is that civilians not infrequently went out on their own hook in response to raids, usually with the same lack of success. I'll have to consult Wilbarger's classic "
Indian Depredations in Texas" again, he list amny instances of this.
Specific to Colts Patent Firearms with their revolving cylinders, we know that numbers were purchased by the Republic of Texas, and that these began to arrive in 1840. Many went to the Navy, and thus were removed from immediate consideration re: the Comanche Wars, others went to the Texas Army, at least some of which, brand new, were on hand for the Council House Fight.
From that point the problem becomes that the erswhile First Regiment of Infantry (AKA Frontier Regiment) which essentially WAS the Texas Army in 1840 and therefore must have recieved a lion's share of the new arms was singularly inactive in fighting Indians (or anybody else) through 1840, finally being disbanded in 1841 due to the Texas Congress refusing to appropriate funds.
In practice, though the First Regiment had been used against the Cherokees in 1839, Mexico remained the greater threat to the existance of the Republic than did Comanches. Other short term militia or volunteer units would be raised in 1840 to combat Indians, even in San Antonio where the majority of the regiment was based.
It is apparently a topic of much debate exactly when and how many Colts' weapons appeared in the Frontier areas, I shall list individual examples of their use in combat from 1840 as given by Moore, but first an aside about duelling, which carried off two Frontier Regiment Officers after the Council House fight.
Duelling assumes almost comic opera status in that period of Texas (and I suppose Southern) history tho' of course it was no doubt anything but for the participants, such that the officers at least appeared to be in more danger from each other than they were from Indians.
There was a second duel fought between officers of the Frontier Regiment in San Antonio resulting in a wounding that same year. And the nominal leader of the Texas militia which was to fight the Comanches at Plum Creek in August, Felix Huston, had three years earlier almost killed Albert Sydney Johnson in a duel precipitated by himself.
Another participant at the Battle of Plum Creek was the entirely remarkable Benjamin McCullough, later a noted Texas Ranger and Confederate General of considerable natural talent, the guy is pretty much indispensible to Texas history. HIS career was almost nipped in the bud too in 1839, when duelling with the nefarious Rueben Ross..
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fro84This duel was fought at forty paces with RIFLES, Mc Culloch suffering an arm injury that would trouble him the rest of his life. The quarrel with Ross flared up again, and this time it was Benjamin's younger brother Henry that dueled with Ross on Christmas Eve 1839, with pistols, Henry Mc Culloch emerging victorious.
Arm injury notwithstanding, Ben Mc Culloch himself challenged a political rival to a duel in 1840, the other man declining to fight.
Just to add to the general air of lunacy, the President of the Texas Republic at that time was Mirabeau Lamar. Second President of Texas after Sam Houston, elected in 1838 when both his opponents committed suicide.
Were it not for the accounts of such remarkably level-headed folks as Noah Smithwick and RIP Ford, one might conclude that the whole Texas leadership was nuts.
Birdwatcher
