Texas Rising

by Stephen L. Moore

  Ranger David Campbell returned fire and his shot struck José María squarely in the breastbone. The chief stayed on his horse until another ranger, Albert Gholson, shot and killed the chief’s horse. The Indians took cover in a ravine and retreated toward a densely timbered river bottom as the Texans maneuvered to cut them off. The divided volunteers suffered several men wounded in the process, and Lieutenant Ethan A. Stroud ordered his men to retreat to another point two hundred yards away. Some of the men, however, perceived this to be an order to fully retreat. Panic set in among a few of the Texans. Chief José María capitalized on the moment and ordered his Anadarkos to the charge. Eleven men of Captain Bryant’s command were killed, two more were mortally wounded during the retreat, and another five were wounded. The Indians were believed to have suffered similar casualties, but they had routed the Texans in what became known as Bryant’s Defeat. Years later, Chief José María visited the Bryant’s Station community to smoke the peace pipe with Benjamin Bryant. The proud chief admitted that his Indians had been whipped and were retreating until he observed the confusion among the Texans.22

  THE TEXAS MILITIA WAS strengthened in East Texas during the following weeks, and President Lamar also appointed officers to his new Frontier Regiment army in late January. Colonel Edward Burleson was elected into command of the First Regiment of Infantry with Lieutenant Colonel William S. Fisher as his second in command. Recruiting for the new army began in earnest at posts staffed in Houston, Galveston, and Matagorda. Some of the original officers of Burleson’s new Frontier Regiment were seasoned veterans of service with the Texas Rangers: William T. Sadler, William H. Moore, Isaac Burton, Jacob Snively, and others.

  Captain Sadler wrote to his old companion President Lamar on February 22 regarding the current crisis with the Indians. He reported the murder of his own wife, child, and related family members that had occurred in the October 1838 Edens-Madden Massacre, and of the difficulties faced in maintaining control of volunteer forces that were raised to challenge aggressive Indians. Sadler felt that more disciplined regulars were needed to quell the depredations. “We cannot check the Indians unless we follow them to their place of rendezvous or where they have their families and visit them with the same kind of warfare that they give us,” wrote Sadler. “We should spare neither age, sect nor condition, for they do not. I know it will be said this is barbarous and too much like the savage. And it certainly is harsh, but it is the only means in my view that will put them down.”23

  The Comanches were already being visited with the very violence that Sadler proposed. Colonel John Henry Moore departed La Grange on January 26 with a 109-man expedition to attack a band of Comanches reported on the San Gabriel River. His force included Captain Noah Smithwick’s Bastrop County Rangers, Captain William Eastland’s La Grange Rangers, twelve friendly Tonkawa Indians under Chief Castro, and forty-two Lipans led by Chief Flaco. Moore’s rangers found and attacked a Comanche village on the San Saba River on the morning of February 15.

  His men rushed through the Indian camp, shooting down Comanches sleeping in their wigwams. The Texans were soon forced into a deep ravine by the regrouped Comanches, who made two strong offensive charges against Moore’s men. The opposing forces met under a white flag of truce to parley late in the day in hopes of exchanging prisoners. No agreements were made, but the Comanches were whipped. They allowed the Texans to retreat from the battlefield that night on foot since the Indians had managed to steal all of the rangers’ horses during the early moments of the battle. The rangers lost one man killed and a handful of wounded in exchange for having killed more than one hundred Comanches. Although Moore had carried out what amounted to a slaughter in the Indian village, the fact that he lost his horses and opted to retreat home on foot left many to consider his Comanche expedition to have been a defeat. Captain Smithwick, for one, deemed the entire affair a “disastrous expedition.”24

  The Comanches mourned their losses for one week, and then rode south to seek the revenge that their culture demanded. On February 24, they attacked the cabin of Elizabeth Coleman—widow of the late ranger commander Robert Coleman—about twelve miles above Bastrop near the Colorado River. They killed the widow and one of her sons and took another son prisoner. The Comanches then proceeded to the home of Dr. Joseph Robertson, where they carried away seven slaves. Word of the Indians on the warpath was spread quickly among the settlements, and two volunteer companies were assembled to counter the Comanches—fifty-two settlers led by Captains James Rogers and Jacob Burleson, the latter a brother of Colonel Ed Burleson.25

  The Texans made contact with the Comanches about twenty-five miles north of the Colorado River near Brushy Creek on February 25. Captain Burleson ordered his men to dismount to fire with their long rifles but the Comanches quickly charged upon them on horseback. Most of the Texans regained their mounts and escaped, but Burleson was shot in the back of the head as he stopped to help a fourteen-year-old volunteer to escape. Believing they had downed the hated Colonel Burleson, the Comanches scalped Jacob Burleson, cut off his right hand and his right foot, and removed his heart.26

  The surviving volunteers retreated from the numerically superior Comanche force but they were joined in the afternoon by another large party of volunteers hastily assembled near Bastrop by Colonel Ed Burleson. With eighty-four men, he rode to Brushy Creek, where they found the Indians maintaining a defensive position in the steep-banked creek bed. Captains Rogers and Jesse Billingsley led their men into the creek beds to drive the Comanche out, but they found their foes well entrenched. The Texans and Comanches engaged in a sniping contest throughout the late afternoon in a fight that became known as the Battle of Brushy Creek. Three more Texans were killed and several others were wounded by nightfall. Burleson estimated that his men killed or wounded at least thirty Comanche in the fight.27

  COLONEL BURLESON’S FRONTIER REGIMENT, authorized for fifteen companies of infantry and cavalry, was unable to muster more than four companies at any point during the first half of 1839. President Lamar thus put out a requisition on six southern Texas counties to help fill out the Mounted Rifleman Battalion for six months under Colonel Henry Karnes. Other support came in the form of the individual county ranger companies that the Texas Congress had also sanctioned.28

  One of the new menaces was the return of Vicente Córdova, who had led the East Texas rebellion in 1838. He departed the upper Trinity River region in March with plans to move to Matamoros to meet with Mexican agent Manuel Flores and General Valentin Canalizo, who had succeeded General Filisola as commander at Matamoros. En route with about fifty-three Mexicans, half a dozen Biloxi Indians, and five runaway slaves, Córdova’s force was spotted on March 27 at the foot of the Colorado River hills. Colonel Burleson quickly organized two Texas Ranger companies commanded by Captain Jesse Billingsley of Bastrop and Captain Micah Andrews of La Grange.29

  Burleson set out on March 28 with seventy-nine rangers and volunteers to pursue Córdova’s force. They caught up with them before sundown the next day on Mill Creek near the Guadalupe River. Burleson immediately formed a battle line, sending Captain Andrews’s company to the right and Billingsley’s to the left. Córdova’s men fought back in the initial firefight but broke and ran when the Colorado-area Texans made a full charge. Dr. James Fentress managed to wing Córdova himself with a shot through his arm. At least eighteen of Córdova’s rebels were killed in the Mill Creek fight, and Burleson’s rangers managed to round up nineteen prisoners in the aftermath. Of greater importance to Colonel Burleson were the correspondence papers of Córdova that his men seized.30

  Córdova’s men retreated up the Guadalupe River in search of a crossing point. During the early morning of March 30, his party encountered five of Captain Mathew Caldwell’s Gonzales County Rangers returning from a scouting party. The rangers were sound asleep when some of Córdova’s men slipped into their camp and stole their horses. Ranger James Milford Day was awakened by the snorting of the horses, and he quickly shot an I
ndian who was untying his horse. Day was shot in the left hip and left seriously wounded while Dave Reynolds suffered a hit just below his collarbone by another musket ball. Córdova’s men fled across the river toward the present Austin area while the rangers struggled back toward the settlements to spread the alarm. Captain Caldwell’s rangers, a group of Gonzales volunteers, and cavalrymen under Henry Karnes pursued the Córdova gang to the Nueces River before giving up the chase.31

  Karnes remained stationed in the San Antonio area while the first of his new mounted gunmen companies moved up from the Houston area. Major William Jones held supervising command of these first two ranger companies under Captains Mark B. Lewis, a veteran of the 1835 Béxar siege, and San Jacinto veteran James P. Ownby. Karnes placed this detachment on the Colorado River to help protect the men who were surveying and building Austin, the new capital city of Texas.

  Mexican Indian agent Manuel Flores, ignorant of the running fights Vicente Córdova’s men had been engaged in, departed Matamoros in late April to attempt a rendezvous. Traveling with about thirty Mexicans and Indians, Flores committed several depredations. On May 14, they attacked a surveying party’s camp near San Antonio. Lieutenant James Rice and another ranger spotted the Flores party the next day and the company of Captain Micah Andrews set out to intercept the rebels. They caught up to Flores near the San Gabriel River. Andrews, a heavyset man, found his horse too worn down to keep up with the constant riding. Rice and sixteen other rangers maintained a fast pursuit of the fleeing Mexicans and Indians, and they engaged in a gunfight late on May 17. Flores and two of his men perished in the brief exchange.32

  The victorious rangers rounded up extra horses, mules, ammunition, baggage, and other belongings of the Flores party as they fled the scene. On the body of Manuel Flores they found a quantity of important papers detailing the secret agreements between General Canalizo, Vicente Córdova, and chiefs of various Indian tribes. The letters, passed along to Colonel Burleson and Vice President Johnston, showed that Flores and Córdova had been commissioned by Mexican authorities to “harass the Texans persistently, burn their habitations, lay waste their fields, [and] steal their horses.” Evidence showed that Flores had contacted chiefs of the Caddos, Kickapoos, Shawnees, Cherokees, and other tribes. In fairness to Cherokee leaders Bowles and Big Mush, there were no reply letters from them, but it was enough to help President Lamar to justify strong actions against the Texas Cherokees.33

  Lamar ordered Major Baley Walters to take two companies of rangers to occupy the Neches Saline just inside the Cherokees’ claim and close to the village of Chief Bowles. Walters and his rangers established Fort Kickapoo at the old Indian village, close to the site of the previous year’s Indian battle. Bowles ordered the Texans away from his area, an action that compelled Lamar to call up all available military forces in earnest. Lamar sent a small party to meet with Bowles on May 26, warning the Cherokee leader that his threats were an error that would lead to his ruin if he further challenged the rangers sent into his territory.34

  John Henninger Reagan, a twenty-one-year-old ranger who was among the messenger party, recalled: “Bowles stated that he could not make a definite answer as to abandoning the country until he could consult his chiefs and head men. So, it was agreed that he might have time for such a consultation ​. . . ​about ten days was the limit set.” Both sides agreed to meet again in early June. Mirabeau Lamar used that time to mobilize his East Texas militia and to order in Colonel Burleson’s Frontier Regiment and Lieutenant Colonel Devereaux Woodlief’s Austin-area mounted gunmen. A showdown with the Texas Cherokees looked to be inevitable.35

  FARTHER WEST, TEXAS RANGERS were engaged in other action.

  Captain John Bird’s rangers from Austin and Fort Bend counties were stationed at Fort Smith on the Little River. He and several of his men encountered a small party of Indians on the morning of May 26. Bird quickly gathered a portion of his company and a dozen rangers from the command of Lieutenant William G. Evans’s “Travis Spies” company to take up the pursuit. The Indians were determined to be an allied force of Caddo, Kickapoo, and Comanche. Bird followed them for about eleven miles and made an attempt to charge them. His men could not get closer than 175 yards due to the speed of the Indian horsemen. He finally ordered his men to turn back, but they found themselves surrounded a half mile later.

  The thirty-five Texans took shelter in a welcomed ravine (later named Bird’s Creek). The Comanches were led by a war chief named Buffalo Hump, who wore a buffalo hide war bonnet complete with horns. He moved his Indians to a nearby hilltop to hold a council of war and to call for reinforcements. The Comanches were soon estimated to number about 250, many of whom began stripping down to prepare for battle. Buffalo Hump then led his warriors down with terrifying war whoops in a heated advance that lasted a half hour. The Comanches then formed their horses into single file and rode circles around the Texans in the creek bed, taunting them.36

  Dutch-born ranger William Winkler took cool aim and shot one of the Comanche leaders from his horse. The other rangers shouted hurrahs and blasted away with their rifles until the Indians retreated to the hilltop to regroup. Buffalo Hump made a second charge twenty minutes later. In it the Comanches managed to kill and wound several of the rangers while taking heavy losses of their own. As the Indians fell back a second time, Captain Bird leapt from the creek to encourage his men. In the process, he was shot through the heart by an arrow launched by an Indian from the incredible distance of two hundred yards—making it one of the luckiest, or best, shots of the Texas Indian wars.

  By this point, half of the ranger officers had been killed or wounded. Command fell upon Nathan Brookshire, a forty-six-year-old veteran of both the Creek Indian Wars and the War of 1812. He encouraged his men on when the Comanches made a third charge to within the edges of the creek banks. The Texans wisely withheld their fire until the last instant and this time shot down many of their attackers. With evening approaching, the Indians withdrew again to their ridge top, where the rangers could see Chief Buffalo Hump urging his men for a final attempt in dramatic fashion. His Indians had suffered many losses, however, and he found few willing to make another ride into the face of the deadly Texan long rifles. Undeterred, Buffalo Hump gathered about a dozen of his men and started down the hill to assault the rangers once again.

  The chief rode to within several paces of the Texan position, fired his gun, and then wheeled his horse around while raising his defensive shield to cover his body. Buffalo Hump left only his head and neck exposed, but it was enough. German ranger James W. Robinett fired a rifle ball through the Comanche leader’s neck, dropping him instantly from his horse. The remaining Indians put themselves in grave danger to retrieve the body of their fallen leader, and many of them were shot down in the process. The ornamental buffalo skin and horns were likely a sign of command, as this headdress would be worn in subsequent years by another Comanche chief known as Buffalo Hump.

  The Comanche and their allies moved off under cover of darkness to mourn their losses. Brookshire and his men escaped through the forest that night and reached Fort Smith during the early morning hours of May 27, having lost five men killed. In return, they claimed as many as forty Indians killed and many more wounded. The battle, known as Bird’s Victory, was the first serious repulse of a numerically superior Indian force. Its effect was much celebrated among the Texas settlers.

  San Antonio–area surveyor and frontier scout Jack Hays was involved in his own Indian encounters during June 1839. Although no muster rolls have survived, Captain Hays reportedly took command of a small force of rangers in February in response to President Lamar’s appeal for frontier volunteers. One of his men, Charles Wilkins Webber, described Hays as “a slight, raw-boned figure, with a lean Roman face, and an expression of modest simplicity.” Unsophisticated and good-natured, the clean-faced Hays stood out among his rougher-looking volunteers. Many wore buckskin suits, with colorful serapes draped about their shoulders and Mexi
can sombreros on their heads. The rangers were a picturesque lot, smoking Mexican cigarettes atop their horses with braces of pistols and knives tucked into their waist belts.37

  In late May, several Béxar citizens and surveyors were killed. Colonel Henry Karnes organized two volunteer companies in San Antonio on June 6 in response to orders from President Lamar to go fight the Comanches who were committing depredations in the area. The companies were under Captains Louis Franks and Juan Seguín. Jack Hays attached himself to the company of Captain Franks to serve as a scout. The Indians fled westward ahead of the Texan force as it scouted high above the forks of the Medina River toward the Frio River. On June 19, they found recent encampments where the Comanches were driving large herds of horses. Jack Hays led a little squad out farther to scout around Canyon de Uvalde, where they destroyed several deserted Indian villages and killed a few Indians in brief encounters. Mary Ann Maverick wrote that the Karnes force returned to San Antonio on June 23 “with some Indian ponies, dreadfully ragged, dirty, and hungry.”38

  IN THE EAST, TEXAS military forces were meeting with Cherokee chief Bowles during early June. As the peace talks continued, President Lamar mobilized his army toward East Texas. From Bastrop, Colonel Burleson marched with two regular companies plus Lieutenant Colonel Woodlief and two of his volunteer ranging companies under Captains Mark Lewis and James Ownby. On June 27, Lamar appointed a five-man special commission to deal with the Cherokee crisis: Major General Rusk, Vice President David Burnet, Secretary of War Albert Sidney Johnston, Isaac Burton, and James S. Mayfield. He authorized them to make compensations for the Indians’ improvements but to pay them no more than one-fourth of the agreed-upon value in cash.39