Legends of the Old West - LEGENDS Ep. 3 | “Texas Rangers, Part 1”

Episode Date: April 29, 2018

From Walnut Creek to the Gulf of Mexico, the early Texas Rangers fought against defiant Native tribes and the Mexican army when the Republic of Texas declared its independence. They were fearless frontiersmen, and in one case, maritime fighters, as well. Here are some of the early stories of the Texas Rangers. Join Black Barrel+ for early access and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. The Rangers had hiked through three feet of snow for four days before they finally got close to their destination. They were on a long-range reconnaissance mission to scout the French forces in a fort at Ticonderoga in upstate New York. It was March of 1758, and this was the French and Indian War. Captain Robert Rogers was in command of the recon patrol made up of colonial militiamen. The men had donned early snowshoes to complete the trek, but unbeknownst to them, the strategy would have dire consequences.

The night before Rogers' Rangers neared Ticonderoga, 230 French and Indian troops had reinforced the fort. They'd spotted the distinctive trail of Rogers' company. Now, 95 men raced out of the fort to intercept the Rangers. Fifteen minutes later, 200 troops marched out in a second wave. The Rangers had no idea how badly they were outnumbered. Rogers had requested 400 men, but his commander had reduced the number to 180. The advanced scouts for the Rangers now saw 95 enemy combatants, mostly Indians, approaching through the woods outside Teconderoga.

Rogers' men fired on the attackers and then chased them, mostly Indians, approaching through the woods outside Ticonderoga. Rogers' men fired on the attackers and then chased them, thinking they were the entire enemy force. They slammed right into the 200 French troops. The Rangers retreated up a hill and fought as long as they could, but they took devastating losses. Most were killed, and the few survivors faced difficult journeys back to Fort Edwards, where they'd started. The engagement didn't go well for Rogers, but his Rangers earned fame for their work in the conflict. Nearly 20 years later, many of them joined the first 10

rifle companies of the Continental Army of the United States of America. Today, the U.S. Army Rangers trace their history back to Rogers men. Rogers Rangers were the most widely known frontier fighters in America for almost 100 years, until the fearless settlers of a former Mexican province organized companies of men called the Texas Rangers. Companies of men called the Texas Rangers. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch.

And organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell and grow at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Whether you're selling scented soap or offering outdoor outfits, Shopify helps you sell everywhere. They have an all-in-one e-commerce platform and in-person POS system. So wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. With the internet's best converting checkout, 36% better on average compared to other leading commerce platforms, Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers. Shopify has allowed us to share something tangible with the podcast community we've built here,

selling our beanies, sweatshirts, and mugs to fans of our shows without taking up too much time from all the other work we do to bring you even more great content. And it's not just us. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S. Shopify is also the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries. Because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per Thank you. to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash realm. Welcome to the Legends of the Old West podcast. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this is part one of a two-part series on the Texas Rangers. Today, we'll tell stories of the formation of the Rangers and some of their early battles.

The Rangers settled into camp, stowed their gear, brushed down their horses, and unpacked their grub to make supper. The men milled around the campsite called Hornsby Station on the Colorado River, ten miles below present-day Austin. Captain John Tumlinson, Jr. had organized the company under the authority of the General Council of Texas. Texas was still under Mexican rule, but had been moving toward independence for several months. On November 28, 1835, the council ordered three companies of men to form up and patrol the areas around the growing settlements to guard against Native American attacks. No one knew it at the time, but Texas was just five months away from victory over Mexican President Santa Ana and achieving the independence it desperately wanted.

But at the moment, all the council wanted was three groups of men to keep the citizens safe. These men were not yet called Texas Rangers, but the only thing they lacked was the title. The council appointed Robert Williamson to the rank of Major and gave him overall command of the volunteers. Below him, there were three captains, John Tumlinson Jr., Isaac Burton, and William Arrington. Each captain raised a troop of fighters and proceeded to a designated area of patrol. of fighters and proceeded to a designated area of patrol. Now, in January 1836, Tomlinson and his 60 men were bedding down for the night along the Colorado River before heading to the hill country northwest of Austin. Tomlinson was the son of one of the first Anglo settlers in Texas. His father

had been the alcalde of a settlement under the Mexican government, an office that's similar to a town mayor today. But John Tomlinson Sr. had been killed by a Native American warrior in 1823, and John Jr. had inherited his father's fighting spirit. As Tomlinson and his men, which included Private Noah Smithwick, prepared their supper, they received a shock that changed their course of action. A young white woman staggered into their camp. Her body was bleeding. Her clothes hung in rags off her limbs. She was utterly exhausted. As the men rushed to her aid, she sank to the ground, unable to go any further. She was overwhelmed by whatever ordeal she'd been through, any further. She was overwhelmed by whatever ordeal she'd been through, and she could not give the rangers a coherent explanation of her situation. After a while, though, she was composed enough to tell them her tale. The woman's name was Sarah Hibbins. She, her husband, her brother, and her two small children had been traveling to the site of their new homestead on the Guadalupe River, commonly pronounced the Guadalupe in Texas.

They were on a lonely road, miles from anywhere, when they had been attacked by a band of 13 Comanches. Her husband and brother had been killed. Their wagon had been plundered. She and her two children had been taken prisoner. Her oldest child, her son, was just three years old. Her youngest was probably less than a year old. Sarah and her son were strapped to mules to be carried away to the Comanche camp. She held her young child in her arms, but it screamed and cried incessantly. Nothing she did could quiet the child, so a Comanche snatched it away from her and killed it. When the deed was done, the Comanches rode away with their prisoners in tow.

They crossed the Colorado River near the spot where Austin now stands. They settled in a cedar break for the night. A bitterly cold north wind swept down on the group. The Comanches wrapped themselves in buffalo robes to guard against the chill, and soon they were asleep. They didn't bother to tie up the captives. They were confident Sarah Hibbins and her boy would not escape. They thought she was so overcome with grief after the loss of the baby that she would never leave her only remaining child.

That night, Sarah faced an agonizing decision. After one more day's ride, they would be so far beyond the settlements that there would be no hope of rescue. She forced herself to make a terrible choice. She waited until the Comanches were sound asleep, then tucked a buffalo robe around her sleeping son and stole off into the night. She was sure that the river they'd just crossed was the Colorado. She knew there were settlements farther south. She had no idea how far, but they were her only chance of survival and help for her son. She found the riverbank and crept along it, moving as quickly as she could in the darkness.

The icy waters froze her feet, but they also covered her tracks. At one point she stopped, standing dead silent and still. She thought she heard her son call out. She waited, terrified she would hear a Comanche yell of alarm as they realized she was gone. But the moment passed. She continued along the banks of the river, through timber and brush that tore her clothes and slashed her body. She kept moving through the night. She kept moving as the sun rose and morning transitioned to afternoon.

Then she saw her first sign of civilization. She came upon cows grazing near the river bottom. She thought they were milk cows, and if so, it meant a white settlement must be nearby. She hid near the cows, waiting for them to finish eating. When they did, they began to wander back home. She followed them and eventually straggled into the ranger's camp. She'd traveled ten miles on foot through a cold January night and day and finally found help. She described the Comanches who had attacked her. She described the

mule her son was riding, and she noted the direction the group had been traveling. The rangers forgot about supper. They hurriedly packed their gear and leapt into their saddles and set out after the Comanches. The rangers began the pursuit late in the day. The sun was setting fast. They covered as much ground as they could with Reuben Hornsby, their guide, in the lead. They thought they discovered the Comanches Trail, but they were forced to stop for the night, afraid they might lose it in the darkness. At daylight, the rangers sent scouts to find the trail, and they discovered it easily. The rangers tracked the Comanches, and by nine or ten o'clock that morning, they'd found the Comanche camp.

Captain Tumlinson divided his force. He stationed some of his men below the camp, while he took the rest above the camp to cut off avenues of escape. The Rangers attacked simultaneously. They caught the Comanches totally by surprise. attacked simultaneously. They caught the Comanches totally by surprise. Private Noah Smithwick's horse got excited and it raced right through the middle of the Comanches. A warrior dodged the horse and fired his musket at the ranger, but the shot went wide. Smithwick jumped down and chased the man on foot. He fired and the warrior fell. Smithwick left him for dead and continued on, but the warrior was still alive. He reloaded his musket and took a shot at Captain Tumlinson.

The shot punched a hole in Tumlinson's coat and killed his horse, but the captain survived. Another ranger, Conrad Rohr, finally dispatched the Comanche. The rest of the warriors hurried into the thick brush where the rangers couldn't follow with their horses. The rangers captured the Comanche ponies and the goods they'd stolen from the Hibbins family. But in the chaos, the mule the Hibbins boy was riding sprinted away from the camp. The mule took off with the boy clinging to it. He was small and still wrapped in a buffalo robe. A ranger chased after the mule, thinking the rider was a Comanche.

The ranger's horse easily caught up, and the ranger leveled his rifle at the boy as they rode. He pressed it against the back of the buffalo robe and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired. the buffalo robe and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired. He pulled the trigger again, but it misfired again. He reached for the trigger a third time, but a fellow ranger got there at the last possible moment. He knocked the gun up just as his comrade fired. This time, the gun worked, sending a ball screaming past the child. The ranger who nearly killed the boy was Conrad Rohr, the man who had saved his captain's life just minutes before. The rangers were able to slow down the mule and rescue the boy, but it was a very close call. Sarah Hibbins' gamble paid off and she was reunited with her son.

She was nearly overwhelmed with joy as she hugged him, and Smithwick noticed that there was suspicious moisture in the corner of many eyes of the hard-bitten rangers as they watched the reunion. The rangers escorted the Hibbins to safety and then continued to their appointed post. In time, the rescue effort became known as the Walnut Creek Fight, named for the stream north of Austin where the action took place. The Rangers had killed four of the 13 Comanches in what was the biggest fight between Rangers and Comanches up to that time. It would be dwarfed by another fight along another small creek four years later, but that was a long way off, and there was a series of major incidents

that led to that battle. For now, the Rangers continued to their outpost and built a blockhouse as their headquarters, but their time on patrol was brief. They were called back south less than a month later when Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna marched into Texas with an army, and the revolution began. Lieutenant Albert Martin rode hard for Gonzales. His mission was literally of life or death importance. He carried a letter that said it plainly. In his possession was arguably the most famous document in Texas history. It was a letter from Colonel William Barrett Travis, commander of the Texian forces inside the Alamo. In the letter, he said he was besieged by a thousand or more

Mexican troops under General Santa Anna. The men, women, and children trapped in the Alamo had sustained a continual bombardment by cannon for 24 hours. Santa Anna had demanded their surrender. Travis said in the letter, I shall never surrender or retreat. He pleaded for anyone who came in contact with his words to rush to the Alamo to help his tiny force of 189 fighters. But if no one came, he would hold out as long as possible. Then he ended the body of the letter with these words, Victory or death. Lieutenant Martin had slipped out of the Alamo on February 23, 1836. He raced into Gonzales on February 25th.

A courier was waiting to carry the letter on the next leg of its journey to incite Texians to save the Alamo. Martin quickly scribbled a postscript on the letter to drive home the urgency. It said, We were short on ammunition when I left. Hurry on all the men you can in haste. When I left, there was but 150 determined to do or die. The courier grabbed the letter and galloped out of Gonzales. In the town square, between 22 and 25 men mustered into action. They were the Gonzales Ranging Company of Mounted Volunteers. They'd volunteered one day earlier under the supervision of George Kimball. The commanding officer of all Ranger forces, Major Robert Williamson, had ridden to Gonzales three weeks earlier to form a company, but these men were not part of that detachment.

They were just volunteers who were ready to fight for the cause. Upon hearing the dire news brought by Martin, they immediately set out for San Antonio, 70 miles to the west. They picked up a few more men on the way, so that by the time they reached the Alamo on March 1st, they had 32 volunteers in their party. on March 1st, they had 32 volunteers in their party. Five days later, Santa Ana's army attacked the old Spanish mission and killed every man inside, all 189. The 32 men who answered Travis's call for help are known today as the Immortal 32. Six weeks after the fall of the Alamo,

32. Six weeks after the fall of the Alamo, General Sam Houston and the Texian army lured Santa Ana's forces into a trap just east of the present-day city of Houston. The Texians routed the Mexicans in one decisive battle that lasted just 18 minutes. Among the men who cried, Remember the Alamo that day, were soldiers who would become legends in Texas Ranger lore. Major Robert Williamson, Captain John Tumlinson Jr., who led the fight at Walnut Creek, and his brother Joe. They fought to avenge their cousin George, who died at the Alamo. Ranger Captains Isaac Burton and Robert Coleman joined up as privates in the army to fight for independence. So had two young brothers, Ben and Henry McCullough, whose careers were just beginning. The Texans decisively defeated the Mexican army and captured its general, who was also

the president of the country, But they were under no illusions. They assumed the Mexicans would be back, and they were right. Mexico never recognized Texas' independence, and it staged two more invasions of its former province, but those stories are for the next episode. Texas Secretary of War Thomas Rusk wanted to keep a close eye on the Mexican army as it retreated after San Jacinto. He ordered Ranger Captain Isaac Burton to patrol an area along the Gulf Coast between Matagorda Bay and Mission Bay to guard against any trickery by the army. On June 2nd, 1836, six weeks after Texas won its independence, Burton learned that a schooner had been spotted in Capano Bay. The bay was on the southern end of his patrol area and had been used by the Spanish as a landing spot since their colonial days.

It was the second of three small bays in a series that led from land out to the Gulf of Mexico. second of three small bays in a series that led from land out to the Gulf of Mexico. Mission Bay is right along the coast, about 15 miles from the town of Refurio. Mission Bay feeds into Capano Bay. Capano Bay feeds into Aransas Bay, and Aransas Bay squeezes through the barrier islands on the edge of Texas to feed into the Gulf. Burton and his men dashed toward Capano Bay. They rode hard for 20 miles and made a cold camp that night near the coast so they wouldn't be noticed. At dawn, the rangers spotted the two-masted schooner anchored in the bay. The ship was not flying a flag, but the rangers could read the name of the vessel, the Watchmen. Burton kept

most of his troop on a bluff above the bay, but he sent two men down below to signal the ship. The crew of the Watchmen spotted the two men and quickly ran up the stars and stripes to show they were an American ship, but the Rangers didn't buy it. They made no motion to respond. The watchmen then lowered the American flag and hoisted a Mexican flag. The men on shore gestured excitedly for the ship to send in a small boat. The captain of the watchmen and four sailors began to row toward the shore. Burton and his rangers on the bluff crept down to the shoreline and concealed themselves. When the crew from the ship arrived, the rangers carefully sprang their trap. They captured all five men while also screening themselves from the men watching from the

ship out in the bay. Burton left four rangers on shore to guard the five prisoners while he and the rest of the troop rowed the boat out to the schooner. They caught the crew completely off guard, and captured the ship without a shot fired. Secretary of War Thomas Rusk then sent orders to Burton to sail the ship north along the coast to the port city of Velasco. But storms rolled in from the Gulf, and the trip was delayed by almost two weeks. Then, on June 15, 1836, as Burton finally prepared his captured ship to leave, two more ships arrived in Capano Bay.

Burton's sneakiness had worked once, so he decided to try it again. He ordered one of the prisoners on the watchman to send up the Mexican flag and signal the other ships. He invited their captains on board the watchman for a glass of grog. Burton's deception worked. The two schooners, the Comanche and the Fanny Butler, pulled in close to the watchman. Several Rangers rode out to the two ships and quickly captured them without firing a shot. So on June 17th, Burton and his Rangers sailed out of Capano Bay toward Velasco, but now they had a flotilla of three ships instead of one.

They ended up traveling past Velasco and, two days later, landed in Galveston. They were escorted into the harbor by some very happy Texans and then set to work confiscating every usable item in the ships. The total haul was enormous for the fledgling government of Texas. $25,000 worth of pickled pork, beef jerky, rice, beans, gunpowder, ammunition, bayonets, and muskets. The accomplishment wasn't bad for a bunch of rangers who were more at home in the saddle than on the water. guns, gunpowder, ammunition, bayonets, and muskets. The accomplishment wasn't bad for a bunch of Rangers who were more at home in the saddle than on the water.

A month later, the maritime adventure of the Rangers made news outside of Texas. Edward J. Wilson, a Kentuckian who went to Texas to help fight for independence, sent a letter back home to his local paper, the Kentucky Gazette. He said, On yesterday, news came of the capture of three Mexican vessels by a troop of horses. These you will call horse marines, I suppose. The label became legend,

and today we know Burton and his maritime rangers as the Horse Marines. Over the next three years, hostilities between Mexicans and Texans died down. But hostilities between Texans and Comanches ramped up. After Texas won its independence, the Texas Congress declared all lands taken from Mexico open to white settlers. This, of course, included the lands of the Comanches, who had lived there for hundreds of years. It was as if they never existed. President Sam Houston disagreed with Congress. During both his terms as president, he preached a policy of peace with all native peoples, but he was in the very, very small minority.

Congress overruled him, and the white settlements crept westward. They encroached more and more on Comanche territory. As a result, the Comanches attacked more and more white settlers. By the summer of 1838, two years after Texas independence, it was estimated that the Comanches had more than 100 white prisoners. The settlements on the western edge of white civilization screamed for the government to do something. Sam Houston was on his way out of office by that time. The Texas Constitution said a president could not hold office for consecutive terms, and his first term was almost done. Marabo Bonaparte Lamar took over for Houston. He'd been

an officer in Houston's army and a hero during the Revolution, and he saw things differently than his general. In fact, he was the exact opposite of Houston. When Lamar entered office, his first goal was to utterly destroy the Comanches. He wanted to take the fight to them. Under his leadership, the Texas Congress borrowed huge sums of money to recruit volunteers to fight the Comanches. In January 1839, Captain John H. Moore mustered 63 Rangers and 16 Lepon Apache scouts to carry out the wishes of Lamar in Congress. They were going to take the fight to the Comanches. But this expedition, and several that came after it, proved a hard truth to the Texans. Unless they somehow caught the enemy totally by surprise, they had no idea how to fight Comanches.

The Apache scouts led the Rangers west along the Colorado River. They discovered a Comanche camp along a creek and they guided the Texans toward it the Rangers were on high alert the mood was tense they were in the hill country west of Austin no white settler had ever gone this far into Comanche territory and the Comanches knew it too they could not imagine a scenario in which the Texans ventured this far into their homeland, so they posted no guards. They had no idea the Texans were coming. On the surface, this gave the Texans the one ingredient they needed for success, surprise. But as the Rangers crept closer to the Comanche camp, they committed the one mistake that destroyed their advantage, the one mistake they committed over and over again in the early days

of fighting the Comanches. They got off their horses. Even though the Rangers were a motley crew of frontiersmen who were never part of a strict regular army, they still fought with the same tactics. They rode up to an enemy position, dismounted, and attacked on foot. It seems almost insane to us today. We know the Comanches as the greatest horse soldiers in the world during their heyday, but the Texans learned that the hard way. In the pre-dawn hours of February 15, 1839, the Rangers dismounted outside the Comanche camp. They moved quietly forward and then paused in the cold darkness to wait for daybreak. In the first light of day, the Rangers charged into the camp, and one man raced ahead of the rest.

Andrew Lockhart ran toward the camp screaming for his daughter Matilda, who'd been captured the previous fall. He didn't know if she was there, but he shouted anyway in desperation. The Rangers' surprise attack worked. The Comanches were caught completely off guard. The Rangers fired their muskets. Startled warriors rushed out of their teepees and were quickly shot down. Then the battle turned against the Rangers. Based on the logic of the time,

the Rangers expected the Comanches to form up in a line and fight them face-to-face in the old military fashion. The Texans made no attempt to stampede the Comanches' horses, and that mistake came back to haunt them. The Comanche village emptied out as fast as possible. The warriors raced for their horses. The rangers marched around a nearly deserted village, looking for someone to fight. They would not destroy the lodges or harm the women and children, which infuriated the

Apache scouts. The Apaches were mortal enemies of the Comanches. Hundreds of years ago, this land belonged to the Apaches. Then the Comanches moved south after they were forced out of their ancestral lands, and they, in turn, forced most of the Apaches out of Texas. The Apaches moved west to Arizona and New Mexico, where they fought their own wars with white settlers 50 years later. But these Apache scouts had not moved west, and according to their code of war, anyone was fair game. When Captain Moore refused to burn the teepees or kill anyone

remaining in the village after the initial attack, the Apache chief Castro was irate. village after the initial attack. The Apache chief Castro was irate. It was then the Texans fully realized their two major mistakes. They'd gotten off their horses, and they'd allowed the Comanches to get on theirs. Moore yelled for his men to retreat to the safety of the timber outside the camp. The Comanches charged repeatedly, but the Rangers were able to hold them off with their long rifles. The Comanches were good strategists, and they saw no reason to attack an enemy that had that kind of advantage. So they circled around behind the Rangers and galloped two miles to the spot where the Rangers had left their horses, unguarded. The Comanches stampeded the horses and left the Rangers to make the long, slow, humiliating trek home on foot. Castro, the Apache chief, had had enough.

He and his scouts abandoned the incompetent Rangers. As the Texans trudged back down the Colorado River, Andrew Lockhart was still heartbroken. He had not found his daughter, but his guess had been correct. Several months later, he found out that Matilda had been in the village. She'd been in one of the teepees. She'd been screaming for him, but he couldn't hear her over the thunder of the battle. The attack on the village set off an almost continuous back and forth between the Comanches and the Texans that lasted nearly 50 years. In retaliation for the attack, the Comanches swooped down on settlers along the Colorado. They massacred the family of one of the earliest

Ranger captains, Robert Coleman, and killed the family of Dr. James Robertson. In response, a Ranger company that included Jacob Burleson took off after the Comanches. Jacob was one of six brothers of Brigadier General Edward Burleson who was one of the most important figures in early Texas. important figures in early Texas. Jacob was killed in the confrontation, so Edward led his new Frontier Regiment of the Texas Army after the Comanches. They caught up to the Comanches along Brushy Creek and engaged them for four hours, but with little result. After the sun set, the Comanches slipped away and the fight was over.

Later in the spring of 1839, Captain John Byrd and a company of 50 rangers were on patrol up the Little River, which runs roughly from present-day Belton near Temple, Texas, to present-day Hearn near College Station. They struck a group of 20 Comanches hunting buffalo and immediately attacked. The Comanches broke off their hunt and raced away. The Rangers chased them but the Comanches had better horses and they knew the ground. The Comanches began to distance themselves and as the Rangers galloped out onto the open plains, Captain Byrd saw something very troubling. As the Comanches fled, their numbers grew.

Warriors were converging from everywhere and joining with the 20 that Byrd's company had spotted. Suddenly, the entire body of Comanche warriors wheeled around and charged at the Rangers. They screamed their war cries and fired arrows at the Rangers. The Texans spun around and raced back the way they'd come. They were desperate for cover and soon stumbled onto a ravine that was their only hope. They dove into the trench, dismounted, and lined up along the rim. They fired in groups, alternating volleys so they could keep up their defense.

In the cover of the ravine, their muskets were deadly accurate. They turned back the Comanche attack. The warriors could have wiped out the small force of Rangers, but it would have been a costly operation, and no chief was prepared to accept those kinds of losses. The Comanches were very careful about the battles they chose. Eventually, the warriors melted away and let the Rangers go.

But this was another scene that would replay itself over and over again. The Comanches would lure companies of Rangers far out onto the plains where the Texans didn't know the area, or more importantly, the locations of water. The warriors would then attack or simply disappear into the landscape and leave the Rangers to their fate. If the Rangers died on their long journey home, great. If they lived to fight another day, so be it. It cost the Comanches nothing.

Stephen F. Austin led the first group of American colonists to Texas in 1821 to fulfill the agreement with the Mexican government that was begun by his father, Moses Austin, before he passed away. The Comanches and other defiant tribes of Texas had battled the Spanish for two centuries before a single American immigrant set foot in the territory. By the summer of 1839, the Americans were clearly the dominant party in Texas, and all their skirmishes with Comanches were turned out to be preludes for what was to come. Comanches would turn out to be preludes for what was to come. They were undercards for the first main event. That main event was actually a series of five events that snowballed out of control until they culminated in a historic campaign by the Comanches. It was the greatest gathering of warriors on the southern plains, and it resulted in the biggest battle between the Comanches and the Texas Rangers.

That campaign brought a Comanche war chief into the spotlight who would be popularized in a novel by Larry McMurtry almost 160 years later. It also gave rise to the first truly legendary captain of the Texas Rangers, the man who set the standard for all those who came after. Those events also showed that fighting with Mexico had not yet ended, and there was another war on the horizon. All that's coming up on the next episode. Next time on the Legends of the Old West podcast, it's part two of the story of the earliest days of the Texas Rangers, the Great Comanche Raid, and the Battle of Plum Creek. The closing song for Season 1 was composed and performed by The Mighty Orc, a great musician from Houston, Texas.

Additional original music by Rob Valliere. Audio editing and sound design by Dave Harrison. I'm your writer, host, and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Check out our website, blackbarrelmedia.com, and find us on social media. We're at Old West Podcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Thanks for listening. Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada économies en plus des remises en argent. Et vous pouvez aussi commencer à gagner des remises en argent dans vos magasins préférés comme Old Navy, Best Buy

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