Hey Birdy, (and any others of the many knowledgeable folks here)
Without meaning to interrupt the flow this very well told story...
Don't know as much on Texas history as I should...
But a couple of quick questions on the firearms used by the various Texas Indian Raid 'First Responders' being discussed here.
Were the firearms issued or privately owned? If they were privately owned, how much ammunition did the owner bring with him? What about resupply while on the expedition? How long would that ammunition last? What did that ammunition cost to the owner?
Just remembering that one of the many problems the Patriot militia faced at Minisink was that a bunch of them ran out of ammunition during the battle.
And of course, after some number of rounds, a black powder muzzle loading rifle may start to show reloading problems due to fouling. (Don't know if that is an issue with a smoothbore. Any experts know?)
Of course, that leads to the question, How often did each side stick around long enough to actually worry about running out of ammunition?
