"Nobody seems to mention unusual thirst in their accounts, indicating that 1840 had not been a drought year, in which case water and forage along the route would have been largely absent. Still, watering 3,000 head on that return journey must have been time-consuming."
Not realy Birdy. Think on it a bit. The Comanches were moving, for them, relatively slowly. Many accounts of raiders covering 100 miles in 24 hours.
Now what is happening is the best horses and mules are going to be in the lead of the general heard and will be able to snatch a drink and a few mouthfulls of forage at any water point before the least able come up and push them on. The weakest, poorest would be at the very back of the heard and would not have time for anything. The Comanche knew that the best mounts would survive and the poorest be lost as was always the case on any raid. Many accounts in Wilbarger of Indians abandoning horses and mules when they were retreating from a strike when the animals could not keep up.
How much playing with their new gotten goods delayed them is open to question as you say. By the description of the way they were arrayed, top hats, parasols, bolts of cloth streaming from their ponies tails etc it must have been some.
As an aside: What was the main cause of the demise of the Comanche. IMO his total inability to be anything but a Comanche.
Carry on.
