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Browsing the 'net I didn't find a photo of the Red Fork of the Colorado. But perhaps this one will do, somewhere in Texas, overlooking the Red River (found on a way-cool website BTW).

http://frontierjustice.tumblr.com/page/2




The slaughter of the Comanche camp at first light was efficiently done. The Comanches having unwittingly contributed to their own demise by locating the camp in a protected hollow, but really, that deep inside Comancheria they could have had no reasonable expectation that a bunch of Lipans would show up guiding 100 White guys with rifles. Warfare against them on that scale would not occur again until MacKenzie, more than thirty years hence.

On his approach, Moore halted on the rise overlooking the camp. It is worth pausing the narrative here to imagine the moment. Two weeks and 250 miles deep into the Plains, in an era where most of everything between Bastrop and El Paso was a sea of grass.

Wilderness, must have been stunning.

A chill morning, tipis clustered in the shadows below. The Lipan scouts had estimated "sixty families", whether that equated to a like number of tipis I dunno, seems likely . Old Castro likely had abundant reason to have been worried the evening before, to see the camp in its hollow the two Lipan scouts dispatched for the purpose probably had to crawl pretty close, in daylight.

Perhaps a pall of smoke hung in the air around the tipis down below that morning, Moore and his men shivering and tired, but keyed up with anticipation, prob'ly a sense of unreality about their situation and what they were about to do. The air so cold it kept even the camp dogs curled up and silent. It could have been someone stepping outside to pee who first noted the thumping of horses' hooves coming down the hillside in the half-light and moved out to where they could see.

Sizing up the terrain, Moore detached a squad of picked men from the among the ranks and placed them under the separate command of an officer. As the action commenced, this small force circled around to the right of the clustered tipis, crossed the river and ascended the steep hill on the other side. From that vantage point they would rain lethal rifle fire upon the heads of those people splashing across the frigid river below. Capt. Moore would write...

In this, the gallant Lieutenant succeeded admirably.

Moore doesn't say so, but its likely his dispositions that morning were given in a subdued tone of voice....

I soon ascended the hill, and ordered Lieut Clark L. Owen to take command of fifteen men taken from the companies, to act as cavalry, to cut off any retreat of the enemy.

I ordered Capt. Thomas J. Rabb, with his company, up the right, Lieut. Owen in the center and Capt. Nicholas M. Dawson, with his command, upon the left. Just before reaching the village, I had to descend the hill, which brought us withing two hundred paces of the enemy. I then ordered Lieut. Owen with his command to the right of Capt. Rabb's command.

The force was all the way down the slope before an alarm was raised, upon which Moore gave the order to charge, more than eighty mounted men rushing the cluster of maybe sixty tipis. All Hell doubtless broke loose.

A general, effective fire was opened upon the enemy, who soon commenced falling upon the right and left...

Surprise was total, Moore later estimated only two Comanches so much as mounted a horse, those two horses having been tied up in camp, everybody else fled on foot.

The first rush was over pretty quick, the subsequent pursuit using up about another half-hour...

The river and its banks now presented every evidence of a total defeat of our savage foes. The bodies of men, women and children were to be seen on every hand, wounded, dying and dead.

Having found that the work of death and destruction had been fully consumated here, I accordingly ordered my troops to cross the river, and a portion to act in concert with Lieut. Owen.

With the residue, I ordered a general charge in pursuit of the Indians who were attempting to effect thier escape. My men were soon seen flying in every direction through the prairie, and their valor told that the enemy was entirely defeated.

The pursuit ceased at a distance of four miles from the point of attack, and finding that the enemy was entirely overthrown, I ordered my men to the encampment.

Only two Texans were as much as slightly wounded, plus two of their horses.

Upon returning to camp, Moore made a conservative estimate of the Comanche dead...

From the best information, there were 48 killed upon the ground and 80 killed and drowned in the river.

Modern estimates have placed the total as more than 140 shot on dry ground, and perhaps an equal number dead by rifle fire, drowning or exposure suffered while crossing the Colorado. In any case, it prob'ly weren't pretty.

Thirty-seven Comanches, mainly women and children, were taken alive, mostly unhurt, including one youth spared for his conspicuous courage and two teenage Mexican boys who had been taken from the settlements along the Rio Grande the previous summer.

Everything of value, including buffalo robes, that could be carried off on horseback was taken. Many items that had come from the Linnville Raid were noted, taken as proof that these very Comanches had been among those responsible.

The haul included the entire horse herd less the aforementioned two animals, 500 horses, evidence of just how complete the victory had been.

Most everything else, except a couple of tipis for those captured Comanches deemed too old or too seriously hurt to travel, was collected into piles and burned.

Birdwatcher