More thoughts...
The people of Texas, up until the very end of the frontier period, were never able to stop Indian raiding. This was especially true during the 1840's, when Texan numbers were still comparatively few and their Indian enemies so widespread and numerous across such a vast range.
I believe this is why a cannibal savage like Placido could be so esteemed my those actually going out where the arrows were flying. Placido could and did kill Comanches, and could guide parties of White men so that they could actually kill Comanches too, a thing that could otherwise be exceedingly difficult.
The situation on the Texas Frontier reminds me of the Russian Front from a German perspective in WWII. In WWII the Germans were facing a constantly losing battle across a wide front. On that front there were a few stars, popular heroes to the German public, who somehow prevailed again overwhelming odds.
The Stuka ace Hans Ulrich-Rudel comes to mind, who while flying an obsolete aircraft achieved the seemingly impossible, and became the most highly decorated serviceman of that war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Ulrich_RudelYet Rudel's effect on the outcome of the war? Negligible.
The same elevation of heroes during dark times applies to the German fighter aces and, in the previous war, to the British and German fighter aces battling over the unimaginable carnage that was killing so many down below.
I'm gonna advance the theory that Jack Hays fits that description. Of the just four (if we include Plum Creek) fights where parties of Texan and Comanche men fought pitched battles on open ground and the Texans won, two of these were led by Jack Hays.
In popular history Hays STILL walks on water today. Yet his individual effect on the greater flow of events? Negligible.
JMHO,
Birdwatcher
