Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Nine years a Captive

Some great reading and history in this thread.

The interesting aspect of Lehmann's story is, he wasn't a small child when he was taken captive. He was 11 years old. Yet after living 9 years as a plains Indian, he wasn't eager to return to the white man's world. He "went native" and never took both feet out of his Indian past. I get the impression from his writings that he always considered himself a Comanche who just happen to live among whites.

share picture

Absolutely, Bristoe!

Counting Coup and Cutting Horses by Anthony R. McGinnis is a good read too.

I do not know if it is on kindle as I do not have a device, but again I cannot let this book get by without a mention.
“The Evolution of a State" by Noah Smithwick.

If you read no other book on the 1830-1860 time period of the area, this is THE book to read. That os if you want first hand experiences and events from one who was right in the thick of it.

The thing that impressed me about his narrative is its the middle to late 1870’s and the 17 year old Herman has killed an Apache and is on the run. Months later sheer loneliness compels his to walk up to a Comanche camp up on the Panhandle out of the dark.

By that time those Comanches were hunted, refugees in their own land. No reason at all to take pity on some lone, wandering White youth. He’s lucky he didn’t get killed in the first moments when the Comanches scattered from the fire in the dark.

Instead, their initial alarm gave way to curiosity
, ending with, as even T.R. Fehrenbach put it, the Comanche band leader saying simply ”You’d better come with us.” Almost certainly saving the young man’s life.

One of the cooler vignettes in our frontier history.

Thanks!

This!!!

It was online for free on “oldcardboard” for years, now on “lsjunction”. Here it is in it’s entirety.

http://www.lsjunction.com/olbooks/smithwic/otd.htm

What about fiction? Do you guys know of any related fiction novels that come close to being historically accurate in the story? Recommendations?

Don’t mean to sidetrack but good time to ask. I really enjoyed Comanche Dawn by Mike Blakely.

Im really not into fiction. Just me. But, for me the non-fiction I have read is in many instances, more unfathomable than any fiction! Just my tastes run to the non-fiction. Specifically first hand accounts.

Thanks Birdy!!!

(Birdy knows I’m a bit biased when it comes to old Smithwick. I live right in the middle of his backyard!).

A more recent book that ties together several of the captives is; "The Captured" by Scott Zesch.

He covers Lehmann, the Babb's, Smith brothers, Adolph Korn( who was a relative of Zesch) and Rudolf Fischer who lived out his life with the Comanches and could not readjust to white life. Several other captives are also covered.

What's interesting with getting Lehmann's side of the story is that in some of the fights between the whites and the Indians you get a different take on what went down. The white story is often how numerous Indians were killed and Lehmann will say how nobody was killed or losses were minimal at best when talking about the same engagement.

If the Comanche had killed Lehmann, it would have been because he was an Apache. By age 17 everything about Lehmann, except perhaps his eye coloring presented him as an Apache.

The fact that he was an outcast from his tribe for killing a respected Apache medicine man is what persuaded the Comanche to let him live.

The plains Indians respected strength and a warrior spirit.

The only reason he wasn't killed after he was captured by the Apache is because he held up under the tortures imposed on him during the trip to the Apache village. The Apache took a lot of satisfaction in making things very hard on their white captives.

Afterwards he developed a measure of status with the Apache for the abilities he demonstrated as he grew into a young man.

Lehmann doesn't portray himself as such in the book. But just from reading the activities that he participated in, he could be as badazz as the situation called for.

Killing a tribal medicine man took a lot of nerve. But Lehmann did so at age 17 to avenge the death of his benefactor.

Personally I just can’t get into fiction about the old west when there is so much history and eyewitness accounts of said history available.
My main interest lies in the Sioux wars, but this last winter I read “The Apache Wars” by Paul Hutton. Interesting read, their treatment of captives ranged from adoption into the tribe to unbelievable torture.
At one ranch the Apaches impaled a young girl on a meat hook in the barn. She was found days later still alive hanging on that hook, but soon died. Infants with their heads smashed with rocks seemed the favorite way to finish them off.
Had never been to Arizona until this past March and it made the book come alive. I never knew Arizona was so mountainous and beautiful, would love to go back and do some extensive off-roading.

Thanks Lonny! I could not remember the name of that book! But I saw it on my old compenero’s bookshelf when I pulled the Lehmann book out to bring home. When I take it back, I’ll grab that one!!!

George Bent was exactly the same as Lehmann in his descriptions of fights with the army, state teoops and etc.

Apparently, he read many (what we call today an After Action Report) army reports of engagements he was involved in as well as those he was not involved in while he was composing letters and interviewing other tribal members for historian George W. Hyde. He found many discrepancies with body counts and participants. On the other hand he also verified many reports as being correct as well.

The Great Menard County Indian raid of 1866 is one of my favorites

Yes! I just happen to be good friends with (as well as reenact with) the staff at Ft. McKavett!

Cody Mobley there on staff is a first rate collodionist!!

https://m.facebook.com/RubyAmbrotypes/

He did this likeness of me while at Washington on the Brazos last November!

Interesting thread here.

time for a couple of miles with the wife and dog,

I'll get back to reading this later.

Even though it's TX history, there's some cool stuff here it seems.