Tumlinson's men, doggedly tailing the Comanches through three whole days in the endless heat on weary mounts, would miss participating in the fight at Plum Creek entirely. That fight would turn into a running skirmish, running AWAY from Tumlinson, perhaps nine out of ten of the Indians getting away clean, at least with their lives. But if Tumlinson had kept the Comanches worried about their loot and therefore close to the driven herd during their return trip throught the settlements, he may have saved some lives.
Interesting observation. The apparent lack of "look-outs" as noted below in your narrative suggests that the Comanches were either aware of their pursuers and keeping their scouts' eyes directed rearward, or that they'd made unmolested returns from raiding parties so many times that they didn't consider the pursuit worthy of concern.
If the Comanches even threw out any scouts in advance on their way back, such is not recorded. A puzzle fer example that Henry McCulloch had been able to occupy that high solitary hill unopposed on the morning of the 11th and see the whole body of Indians. Were I Henry, I would have expected Comanche lookouts to be already up there.
Actually I'm sure he was keenly aware of that possibility at the time, his solo ride towards the biggest bunch of raiding Indians anyone had ever seen being one of those acts easy to relate after the fact, but probably a cause of no little anxiety at the time.
The Comanches made pretty good time on the return trip, considering they were driving 2,000 head of stock plus what must have been at least 1,000 horses they had brung with 'em. Multiple mounts were common on Comanche Raids, as they were soon to be among the rangers going out against them.
The fact that the Comanches were making 30-40 miles per day argues against them driving cattle, which I doubt could manage even half that pace. Maybe longhorns can go farther, but modern beef cattle are hard-pressed to do 8-10 miles in my limited experience.
Again, I suspect the apparent lack of Comanche scouts on McCulloch's hill may or may not be significant. They'd be mobile scouts, not stationary pickets, so McCulloch could've come up on the hill 5 minutes after a Comanche scout had left and wouldn't know it.
Again, I wonder whether the Comanches were simply indifferent to the idea of pursuit due to 200 years' experience of not being seriously pursued after raids.
Good stuff, Mike!
