Still following along, Texian friend.
Why thanks for the mention Poboy
Continuing...
One wishes we had more on Deaf Smith and the at least fifteen years he spent in Texas operating out of San Antonio BEFORE the Texian War broke out.
We know that he was proficient with stock, practised the droving horse/cattle trade, and fit in easily with the Texano culture. We also know that he was proficient and mobile enough that, even at age forty-eight, he quickly became all but indispensible as a set of eyes and ears for the Texians.
Odd then that his brief rangering career should have been so anticlimactic. That began the year following independence early in 1837. Around twenty Rangers under Smith gathering on the San Antonio River south of town. The author Stephen Moore (Savage Frontier Volume 1: 1835-1837) having it that they "trained in frontier warfare and took on provisions".
Included among this group was the nineteen year-old Jack Hays, recently arrived from Tennessee, personally assigned to Smith's care by Sam Houston hisself.
Then comes a distinct misstep (from Moore)...
By mid February 1837 Captain Smith was forced to move his company to the Medina River [about six miles south]due to the scarcity of good grazing for their horses. At the Medina River, Smith's rangers lost their entire stock of horses to either outlaws or Indians on February 21st. It does seem like 1837 was a bad year for horse raids, at least two other Ranger companies elsewhere along the frontier also being set afoot such attacks (and narrowly recovering their horses in the case of Noah Smithwick's group out of present-day Austin) but still, for an experienced drover and and old Texas hand like Deaf Smith this seems like an odd mishap.
Possibly an ulterior motive; Rangers entering service were expected to use their own horses and weapons and were paid $30 a month but apparently could be reimbursed for loss. One of Smith's men put in a claim of $75 for his horse which sounds like a lot by the standards of the day. Twenty years later Olmstead would be pronouncing $30 as being on the high side.
Also interesting that the grazing was apparently insufficient around San Antonio in February of 1837, possibly indicating large herds of cattle or sheep in the area at that time.
Birdwatcher
