Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Texas Rangers vs Comanches

In the topic of people who made remarkable transformations to succeed out West, how about James Kirker.....

Best of all he employed both Shawnees and Delaware, Black folks and even Irish, married a woman of color too, surely a multicultural guy way ahead of his time 🙂

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kirker

Back to the Great Comanche Raid as per Steven L. Moore (Savage Frontier Vol. III)...

TUESDAY AUGUST 4th 1840

The Indian offensive was reportedly encouraged by General Valentine Canalizo, the military commander of northern Mexico, who was headquartered in Matamoros (near the mouth of the Rio Grande, on the Mexican side).

The Texans erroneously perceived that the Comanche threat had subsided during the early summer months, when in fact they were busy acquiring firearms for battle. The Comanches held a peace counsel with their old enemies, the Cheyenne and Arapaho‘s, during the summer near Bent Fort Inn the upper Arkansas river outside Texas territory....

The Comanches and Kiowas offered their new friends large numbers of horses. In exchange, they ask for guns blankets and kettles. The Comanches then broke camp and headed south back into Texas, taking along some of the extra guns and munitions they had been able to acquire.

The party of Comanches and Kiowa numbered more than 600 as they descended into Texas again. They also moved in company with a small number of Mexican citizens....

The senior surviving leader of the Penateka Comanches was Buffalo Hump, who now led what would be the largest of all Southern Comanche offensives.

During the night of August 4, they descended from the Hill country above San Marcos and Austin and began their march to the coast to avenge their fallen chiefs.

The large Indian force would slip around and between the Texas settlements to strike Victoria, the seat of the Mexican Federalist Government in exile, and Linnville, the site of their Arsenal. Some Historians have suggested Buffalo Hump was expecting a Mexican military offensive up from Matamoras in coordination with his raid.

Birdy is a plethora of good stuff. He’s great at the campfire too! I mean a real campfire. I have been neglectful posting much as my duties moving into Comancheria have taken precedence! I’m about done. Just nickel and dime stuff.
Keep it up Birdy.

That Comanche raid down to the coast was wild.

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 5th 1840

By Wednesday August 5th at least some of the Indians had travelled more than forty miles since passing by the site of present-day San Marcos and were now about ten miles east of Gonzales or about fifty miles east of San Antonio

From Savage Frontier....

The first notice that the Comanches were on the move came on August 5, 1840. Dr. Joel Ponton and Tucker Foley were en-route westbound to Gonzalez. The two were attacked by a band of 27 mounted Comanches. The two men wheeled their horses and raced for their lives.

The Indians chased them for about 3 miles discharging arrows along the way. The Comanches raced after Dr. Ponton, one arrow passed through his hat and two lodged in his back. Once his horse became too badly wounded to run, he abandoned the dying creature and hid in a dense thicket.

The Indians continued their pursuit of Foley. He tried to hide but was discovered and captured by the Indians. They immediately cut off the soles of his feet and made him walk barefoot on the rough ground back to the spot where they knew Ponton was hiding.

They forced him to call to Ponton to emerge from his hiding spot, but Ponton did not. The Comanches tortured and slowly mutilated poor Foley, as Ponton silently listen to his friend’s agonize screams. Finally the Indian speared and scalped Foley and left his mutilated body.

Although painfully wounded, Ponton managed to crawl through the bottomland thickets and made his way back home to the Lavaca settlements during the night. The site of Dr. Ponton and the tale he told of the murder of Tucker Foley was enough to energize the community.

Captain Adam Zumwalt was elected to take command of the Lavaca River settlers’ volunteer pursuit party. Zumwalt organized 36 men and the following morning they would set out towards Gonzales to the scene of the attack.

I've said some unkind things to birdy over the years. But I would enjoy a campfire with him in the desert with a couple bottles of hooch.

He is a hell of a good guy, just wish when he's here he'd sleep in a bed, instead of the floor.

Can’t wait for the next installment. Thanx

pretty cool knowing some of my ancestors were the first Texas Rangers.

THURSDAY AUGUST 6th 1840

From Savage Frontier Vol. III

Zumwalt organized 36 men and they set out west towards Gonzales for the scene of the attack on the morning of August 6. Tucker Foley’s naked, mutilated body was found. A grave was dug with butcher knives, Foley’s body was wrapped in a cotton saddle blanket and buried under a huge live oak tree.

Zumwalt’s company took up the trail of the Comanches and began tracking their movements.

That same morning perhaps twenty miles to the north.

In early 1840, the area moving northwesterly between Gonzales and the new capital of Austin was almost completely uninhabited.

One has to wonder how much mail carriers were paid back then.

The mail carrier from Austin to Gonzales happened upon a large, fresh Indian trail crossing the road in the vicinity of Plum Creek. The Indians appeared to be bearing down towards the coast of Texas. The mail carrier hurried to Gonzales and reported this startling find.

The Gonzales militia was under the command of Captain Matthew “Old Paint” Caldwell, who had been wounded in March in the council house fight. On August 5th, Caldwell had left with some of his men tracking other Indians who had been reported to the west.

Ben McCullough therefore organized a 24 man volunteer party to investigate the tracks. McCulloch sent Word at once to the settlements along the Guadalupe and Lavaca rivers. He asked for those citizens to come to the assistance of those from Gonzales in cutting off the body of Indians.

A larger number would have moved out, but for the very short notice of the intended expedition and the great difficulty of procuring horses, the Indians having about a week before stolen a majority of the best in the neighborhood.

Captain McCulloch’s volunteers rode out from Gonzalez at 4 PM on August 6 for the Big Hill settlement about 16 miles east of town. McCullochs men reached this point and made camp for the night.

Meanwhile, at least FORTY MILES or more to the south, at the same time McCulloch was leaving Gonzales...

at about 4 PM on August 6, the 600+ Comanche party under Buffalo hump appeared on the outskirts of Victoria.

In order to have hit Victoria about 4 PM on August 6th the Indians would have to have traveled about ninety miles in less than 48 hours, a remarkable feat for a party of more than 600 men, women and youths to accomplish.

It must have taken considerable command control and discipline on the part of the Indians, and gives an idea of the extreme mobility of Plains Indians. Buffalo Hump must have thought he was striking a lethal blow at the Texians.

The Indians first killed for black servants at Spring Creek, above Victoria. The townspeople were completely oblivious to the danger as the Indians approached. Some even thought that they were a friendly group of Lipan Apaches riding into town. Not until the Indians began yelling and riding towards the citizens did the realization of the true danger sink in.

As the panic set in, Victorians began fleeing for their lives. A small party of the men, numbering 13 hurried to confront the attacking Indians. Although too small in number to stop such a massive Comanche force, the men hoped to at least buy time for their wives and children to flee to safety. The citizen party had no chance against the Comanches, three were quickly killed.

Some Mexican traders were in Victoria at the time, and had about 500 head of horses on the prairie in the immediate vicinity of town. All these the Comanches captured, besides a great many belonging to citizens of the place.

The victorious Indians retired from town and camped that night on Spring Creek. There they killed a settler named Virlan Richardson and two black men, and they captured a black girl.

They had secured about 1500 horses and mules on the prairie in front of Victoria. Unlike most Comanche raids, this time they did not ride away for their homes with their plunder.

I have shared a few campfires with Birdy. He is a good man. miles

”Amongst Indians, a tribe’s greatness is measured by how mighty their enemies be.”

Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s a bunch of hooey, great movie tho.

FRIDAY AUGUST 7th 1840

McCulloch's Gonzales men located the great Indian Trail early on the following morning, August 7. At this juncture they were joined by the party of 36 men under the lead of captain Zumwalt. Collectively, the McCullough and Zumwalt companies numbered 60 men.

They continued south towards Victoria in pursuit along the Indian Trail, spreading out their scouts ahead, left and right, in constant expectation of meeting their savage foe.

Meanwhile, further north on the Bastrop - Gonzales road that same morning, Zachariah Morrell was driving a wagon back to Bastrop, after having delivered a load of lumber to build a house on the Guadalupe River.

” we passed with the wagons just in the rear end across the track of the Indians as they went down. From their trail I thought, and afterwards found I was correct, that there were four or five hundred. I trembled for the settlements below, for I knew this meant war on a larger scale than usual.”

He was immediately anxious to spread the word to Colonel Edward Burleson in Bastrop and the citizens living along the Colorado River Valley near his home in LaGrange. His wagon crossed the Indian trail at noon and he reached home around midnight.

“My oxen were in fine condition, I drove thirty miles in twelve hours. In view of the long race before me, I tried to sleep some, while a horse was being secured.”

While Morrell was reading the Indian sign around noon.

about noon on August 7, McCullough and Zumwalt’s scouts made out a company of horsemen advancing towards the trail. Word of the Indians had also made it down to the Cuero settlement on the Guadalupe River. Captain John Jackson Tumlinson Jr, the 36 year old veteran ranger commander, had taken command of 65 men who volunteered from the Cuero and Victoria area settlements.

Tumlinson brought news that the Comanches had attack the town of Victoria the previous day. Tomlinson took charge of all that he could muster and set out expecting to encounter the main body of Comanches at any moment.

With the force now augmented to 125 men, they pushed ahead at a brisk trot.

Experience had led these men to expect that, having raided Victoria, the Comanches would quickly make their escape back to the northwest.

Late in the day, having reached a creek called Bushy or Brushy Creek, it was deemed advisable to diverge a few miles to the right (West), in the direction of the Guadalupe, for the purpose of intercepting them if they had taken that passage. They stopped for the day about four miles from the trail, and sent out scouts with orders to ascertain whether they had yet passed up.

Tumlinson’s 125 men made a force sizable enough to engage the Comanches. The trouble was that they were too far behind to stop the raids that were already occurring.

Fascinating reading. I drove through, or, around Victoria dozens of times in the big rig, coming up from Los Indios and headed east. Gee, imagine there could be a town in S. Texas named Los Indios [The Indians.]

Fascinating to think that twice in each trip I cut across the trail of the massive Comanche raid on the coast, so many years ago.

Keep em coming Birdy.

Yep. Every time I take I 35 to Austin, somewhere around San Marcos was where the Great Comanche Raid crossed, going down August 4th, and coming back August 12th.

Author Steven L. Moore (Savage Frontier Vols I thru IV) can be a tedious read as he tends to stick to a strict timeline of events, meaning the narrative can jump all over the place geographically between unrelated events. However his style works really well here, you get a sense of events unfolding as it was for the participants.

Meanwhile, down around Victoria....

on Friday, August 7, the Comanches moved from Spring Creek, moving the 3 miles back into Victoria. The Comanches proceeded to burn one house and robbed several others but they were quickly discouraged from doing any more execution. The local men were well armed and they put up enough heavy gunfire to convince the Comanches to move on. They opted to move down towards the lower coastal settlements, rounding up more cattle as they went.

The settler Cyrus Crosby had gone into Victoria early on August 7 leaving his family behind. During his absence the Comanches captured his 25 year old wife. That evening or during the early morning hours of the following day, her small child became hungry and began crying. When the mother was unable to quiet the child, one of the Indians grabbed a baby, threw it down, and speared it before the horrified mother.

The Comanches then turned to the east, across the prairie in the direction of Linville on the coast, 20 miles away. They camped for a portion of the night on Plácido Creek, on the Benavidez Ranch about 12 miles from Linville.

If I go back through the narrative, there’s about twelve additional recorded deaths of settlers and slaves in the path of the raid. I haven’t mentioned them for purpose of brevity. Considering the numbers of Indians involved, the casualty list seems surprisingly short. Perhaps because they stayed together in a cohesive group.

SATURDAY AUGUST 8th

For those who aren’t familiar, Bastrop lies about 100 miles northeast of San Antonio, Austin about 80 miles NNE, these would be the northernmost communities involved.

The day begins in LaGrange, about 15 miles south of Bastrop with 36yo Zachariah Morrell, who had hustled his ox team 30 miles the day before, arriving around midnight.

”At 4 o’clock in the morning I was in my saddle, intending to reach Colonel Ed. Burleson’s at daylight, 12 miles off, on a borrowed horse, as I had no horse in condition for the trip.”

Ed. Burleson quickly began organizing forces to make a stand against the Indians. Sending Morel as a rider on to Austin to spread the word and to raise more forces, Burleson worked on recruiting along the Colorado. He had none of his army troops anywhere in the area, so would have to make the most of the available citizens and the militia.

About that same time, 100 miles south of Bastrop, the Indians moved towards Linnville, then the second-largest seaport in Texas.

Before dawn on August 8, the Comanches approached the town of Linnville . This coastal town was the key shipping point for much of the goods between Southwest Texas and Mexico. Somehow the inhabitants of the town had received absolutely no warning yet of what had happened in Victoria.

Seeing the large herd of horses approaching, they had it first believe this to be a large band of friendly Mexicans arriving with horses to sell. The Indian riders approached in the shape of a half moon and began riding at full speed. Only as the killings began did the townspeople realize the horrible truth.

A part that interests me here is the assumption that the 1,500 horses approaching were being delivered by Mexican traders. Such large-scale trade in livestock by Mexicans and/or Tejanos travelling through Texas does not appear in popular Texas history. Seventeen years later, in 1857, Frederick Law Olmstead, would observe this trade still going on through San Antonio.

I’m gonna skip over the details of the Comanche sack of Linnville, suffice to say during the course of the day they torched almost the entire place and looted the abundant stored of goods in the warehouses there. Accounts speak of the Comanches fantastically garbed in top hats, parasols, reams of fabric etc...

Many of the Texian survivors escaped to boats in the harbor from which they witnessed the destruction. Not mentioned anywhere but it must have been a long, hot day on those boats in the bay in August, one wonders if they had brought enough water.

One guy, Judge John Hays (any relation to Jack Hays unknown) famously stormed back to shore to challenge the Comanches. Perhaps thinking him touched, the Comanches did not approach him. His friends eventually convinced him to come back, whereupon it was discovered he had forgotten to load his gun.

Much of the day the Comanches were engaged in the laborious process of packing mules and horses with plundered goods.

During the late afternoon of August 8, the Comanche host began their jubilant departure from the Texas coast. They withdrew from Linville across the nearby Bayou and made their camp for the night. In their wake they had left 20 dead. They had taken five prisoners, all women and children.

Their routes of retirement towards the Texas Hill country would be a path that would pass about 15 miles east of Victoria. Their return to their northern hunting grounds would not, however, go unchallenged.

The town of Linnville was never rebuilt.

Meanwhile, what of the ranging companies mustering in response?

Twenty-two additional volunteers from the Lavaca River settlements east of Gonzales. The Big Hill is apparently a high point of ground 15 miles east of Gonzales which back then offered a commanding view. This was the place Ben McCulloch’s group has hastened to 48 hours earlier.

The men of Lavaca had been awakened on the night of August 7th via courier who raced into the settlements with the news that Victoria had been attacked. 22 volunteers gathered on the Lavaca River, they elected captain Ward into command and departed on August 8th.

Reaching the Big Hill, and finding the Indians had not passed up, the opinion prevailed that the Indians had crossed over and we’re returning on the west side of the Guadalupe river. The company hastened on to Gonzales.

Captain Tumlinson with his combined force of 125 men, had been delayed in their pursuit of the Comanches the day before by having to guard against that same possibility, stopping well before dark to camp while sending scouts to the west to check for a Comanche back trail.

Captain Tumlinson’s 125 man pursuit party returned to the trail on August 8th. His scouts had returned at daybreak with no news of the Indians. Tumlinson’s volunteers rode the trail throughout the day, without stopping, until they arrived at Victoria about sunset. News that Linville was under attack had made it to Victoria.

The men rested for a short time and took on supplies, approximately 25 of Tomlinson’s party were left at Victoria with worn horses, in return he received an equal number of new recruits.

Tumlinson’s group moved east of Victoria, making camp around midnight. A courier was dispatched to the east for more recruits from the town of Texana. There, he found Captain Clark L Owen of Texana with a 40 man volunteer company.

So, three days after first contact maybe sixty mile to the north, there were 125 men waiting on the west side, 40 men waiting on the east side of the Comanche’s backtrail.

The shooting would commence the next day, Sunday August 9th.


Um.... might take a while, due to familial obligations I’m headed out on a road trip this very morning.

anybody read "Six Years with the Texas Rangers" by James b. Gillett?