Legends of the Old West - LEGENDS Ep. 4 | “Texas Rangers, Part 2”

Episode Date: May 13, 2018

Two decades of fighting between Comanches and Texans culminated in the bloodiest year in early Texas history. In 1840, a series of events led to the greatest war party ever formed on the southern plai...ns as the Comanches cut a swath of destruction through central Texas. All the famous Texas Ranger companies united to fight the first major battle between the two sides along a stream south of Austin called Plum Creek. 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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Starting point is 00:00:55 Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. The town burned as the Texans watched. They could do nothing to stop it, and they would never rebuild it. There was too much destruction. Afterward, when they finally sifted through the ashes, one of the residents, William Watts, wrote these words about that day. The Indians approached the town riding very nearly at full speed and in the shape of a half moon.
Starting point is 00:01:34 The citizens had to flee to the bay, where most of them were saved by getting into a lighter. Five citizens of the town of Linville were not so fortunate. They died at the end of the greatest raid in Comanche history. Four days later, a volunteer in the Texas militia wrote an even more vivid account of his experience in the biggest battle ever fought between Comanches and Texans. It was a spectacle never to be forgotten, the wild, fantastic band as they stood in battle array. Both horses and riders were decorated profusely, with all the beauty and horror of their wild taste combined. Red ribbons streamed out of their horses' tails as they swept around us,
Starting point is 00:02:18 riding fast. There was a huge warrior who wore a stovepipe hat, and another who wore a fine pigeon-tailed cloth coat, buttoned up from behind. Some wore on their heads immense buck and buffalo horns. They bounded over the space between hostile lines, exhibiting feats of horsemanship and daring none but a Comanche could perform. Those were the words of John Holland Jenkins. could perform. Those were the words of John Holland Jenkins. The two sides had clashed in small engagements for years, but those were little more than skirmishes compared to the action on Plum Creek in mid-August 1840. The battle was the culmination of 12 of the most extraordinary days in the early history of Texas and featured a who's who of Texas Ranger captains. But those 12 days were the end of the trail.
Starting point is 00:03:10 The trail began more than a year earlier as one bloody event led to the next. By the end of 1840, no one in Texas would be the same. 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,
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Starting point is 00:05:42 Welcome to the Legends of the Old West podcast. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this is part two of a two-part series on the early days of the Texas Rangers. It's the story of two of the most defining moments of those early days, the Great Comanche Raid and the Battle of Plum Creek. Music Texas Ranger Lieutenant James Rice was hunting deer along Onion Creek, southeast of present-day Austin, when he spotted a large group of riders in the distance. He and his partner rushed back to camp and reported their findings to Captain Micah Andrews. In that area, the most likely suspects would be Comanche warriors, but the Rangers didn't think the riders were Comanches. They thought the suspicious group was Mexicans.
Starting point is 00:06:39 The Rangers broke camp at dawn on May 16, 1839, and went in pursuit of the Riders. The Rangers began to close in after just two miles, but the Riders took cover in tangled clumps of cedar. The Rangers debated about whether or not to charge the Riders, even though they had good cover. Andrews initially said no, but his men wanted to fight. Eventually he relented, but by that time, the riders had escaped north again. The rangers stayed in pursuit, but the next day, May 17th, Captain Andrews' horse came up lame. He instructed Rice to stay on the trail. Rice and 16 rangers chased the riders until they were 25 miles north of Austin,
Starting point is 00:07:27 in the vicinity of present-day Georgetown. The Rangers attacked the riders along the banks of the San Gabriel River. In the running gunfight, Ranger William Wallace shot the leader of the gang from his horse. The Rangers killed two more riders and the rest ran for their lives. The Rangers examined the bodies of, and the rest ran for their lives. The Rangers examined the bodies of the dead men, and clearly understood that their assumption had been correct. These were Mexican agents. And what's more, their leader, the man who William Wallace had shot, was none other than Manuel Flores. Flores had been wanted by the Republic of Texas for some time. As the Rangers divided up the spoils of their small victory,
Starting point is 00:08:08 they made a discovery that set in motion the bloodiest chain of events in early Texas history. In Flores' saddlebags, they found a document that outlined a Mexican plan for a sudden and complete campaign against those usurping adventurers, the Texans. sudden and complete campaign against those usurping adventurers, the Texans. The leaders of Texas knew Mexico would be back after the defeat of Santa Ana. Political turmoil within its own borders had delayed Mexico's plan, but now it clearly had a strategy to retake Texas. For years, the leaders of the Texas government had suspected the Mexicans of trying to incite the native tribes against them.
Starting point is 00:08:47 Now they had proof. In this latest attempt, General Valentin Canalizo of Matamoros had sent papers to seven native chiefs, including Chief Bowles and Chief Big Mush of the Cherokees. The Cherokees had met with the Mexican representatives on prior occasions, but had made no agreement to join them in a war against the Texans. The Cherokees and the Texans had lived in relative peace for almost 20 years. The Cherokees had begun the process of assimilation. They started to grow crops and organize their lives similar to white settlers.
Starting point is 00:09:26 A war against the Texans would almost surely mean devastation for the tribe, but the Mexican document was damning information. It promised all the tribes that if they united against the Texans, they could slaughter them at will and take their lands afterward. When this information was made public, it raised a howl in Texas. It didn't matter what the Cherokees' response to the proposal was. The proposal itself was horrifying enough. And that was all the excuse President Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar needed to force every Native tribe out of Texas, beginning with the Cherokee. In 1839, Secretary of War Albert Sidney Johnston
Starting point is 00:10:06 massed his army on the borders of Cherokee lands while Texas agents met with Chief Bowles. The agents offered money to compensate the tribe for the improvements they'd made on the land, but not the land itself. Bowles said he knew his people could not win a fight, but he wanted to stay long enough to harvest the crops they currently had in the ground. The Texas government refused.
Starting point is 00:10:30 It wanted the Cherokees gone now. Chief Bowles had been offered a bad deal and was faced with immediate removal, so he advised his people to fight, even though he knew how it would end. For two days, the Cherokees fought the Texas Army, and the outcome was predictable. The Cherokees were crushed, their villages were burned, and Chief Bowles, who was 83 years old and had led his people from Tennessee to Texas in 1820, was killed. By the end of July, the Texans had pushed almost every tribe out of East Texas. The Cherokees, Delawares, Shawnees, Cadouins, Kickapoos, Creeks, Muscogees, and Seminoles.
Starting point is 00:11:15 Some stragglers went south to Mexico, but most were driven north to what was called Indian territory at the time, and what we call Oklahoma today. After the takeover of East Texas was complete, the Texas government looked to the west. San Antonio was the westernmost settlement and it would be the setting for the third of the five major events in San Antonio told at regular times to bring people to worship. But when they boomed across town at unexpected times, mothers grabbed their children and ran for shelter. Men grabbed their rifles and ran for their horses. Those bells meant the Comanches were coming. On January 9, 1840, the bells tolled
Starting point is 00:12:15 and the town prepared. The residents of San Antonio braced for an attack, but they quickly realized the Comanches who were approaching the town were not a war party. They were a peace commission. Three chiefs rode up to the gates to discuss the possibility of a treaty. They met with Colonel Henry Carnes, and Carnes gave them one major stipulation. A treaty could not be discussed unless the Comanches returned all the white prisoners believed to be in their hands. The chiefs left with their instructions. Two months later, on March 19th, more than 60 Comanches arrived at the gates of San Antonio to meet with two commissioners appointed by President Lamar. To the Comanches, a council
Starting point is 00:13:03 was sacred, so they brought their wives and children with no fear they'd be harmed. The family set up their lodges outside the town while the men went inside to discuss an agreement. Twelve Comanche chiefs, dressed in their finest attire, were escorted to an old Spanish government building called Casa Reales. Waiting outside to guard the proceedings were three companies of soldiers from the Texas Regular Army. The situation might have looked civil from the outside, but tension was building the moment the Comanches set foot in San Antonio. The Texans had said no treaty would be possible unless all the white captives were returned. The Comanches had brought just one
Starting point is 00:13:46 white captive with them, a 16-year-old girl named Matilda Lockhart. Matilda had been captured nearly two years earlier. A little over one year earlier, her father Andrew had been in the very village where she was held prisoner. Andrew's company of rangers had attacked the village, and he rushed through the camp, desperate to find her, but to no avail. She had screamed for him, but her cries of help could not be heard over the battle. He left, frustrated and dejected. Now his daughter had been returned, but what should have been a joyous occasion was anything but. The Texans could barely contain their fury, and it was not because the Comanches had only brought one prisoner. The rage that was building inside the Texans came from the appearance of Matilda.
Starting point is 00:14:35 She had been abused and violated for two years. She had scars, sores, and bruises from head to toe. Her nose had almost been burned away. But despite her treatment, she was still a smart girl. She had picked up some of the Comanche language, and she told the white women who cared for her after her return that there were at least 15 more captives in her village. So when the 12 chiefs sat down with the Texas delegation, the meeting might have appeared civil on the surface, but something dark was bubbling beneath it. The Comanches had not returned all their captives as Carnes had instructed, so things started badly and only got worse. If any deal was to be made, the Texans had three conditions.
Starting point is 00:15:24 First, the Comanches had to stay west of an imaginary line through central Texas. Second, they could not approach any white settlements or communities. Third, they could not attack any white settlers on any vacant lands anywhere in Texas. The Texans' definition of vacant surely didn't match that of the Comanches, but that was beside the point. On the Comanche side, they had a strategy of their own. These were two strong, proud, and violent groups of people, and the Comanches knew they had bargaining power as well.
Starting point is 00:16:00 Based on long years of experience sitting down to councils with Europeans and other groups, the Comanches believed the Texans wanted to buy peace. If that was the case, then they were certainly not going to hand over all their prisoners at once. They would ransom their captives one at a time, and Matilda was the first. It didn't take long for the Comanches to realize their strategy wouldn't work with the Texans. Outside the council house, as it became known in later years, Comanche women and children played in the courtyard while the chiefs began the negotiation. Inside, the Texans demanded to know why the Comanches had not returned all the white captives. The spokesman for the chiefs admitted that there were more prisoners and that they
Starting point is 00:16:51 could probably be ransomed, but the chiefs in the room had no control over the Comanches who held the other prisoners. This concept of tribal organization, probably more than any other factor, caused the breakdown and mistrust of Americans for Native tribes and the tribes for Americans. Native American tribes did not have one ruler who could negotiate on behalf of everyone. Tribes were made up of bands. The chief of a band could speak for his band, but not the other bands. Over and over and over again in the history of the West, Americans made treaties with one band
Starting point is 00:17:32 of a tribe and assumed the treaty was with the entire tribe. That assumption proved costly nearly every time. The Texans were already enraged when the Comanche spokesman began to lay out the price he wanted for the ransom of Matilda Lockhart. Colonel Fisher of the Texas Army ordered a group of soldiers into the meeting room. They lined the walls and guarded the door. Colonel Cook, who was the senior officer in the meeting, told the interpreter to explain to the chiefs that they were all now prisoners until every one of the white captives had been returned. The interpreter turned pale. He'd been a former captive himself, and he was terrified to translate the message. He said the Comanches would fight to the death before they would surrender. But Cook was adamant. He forced the man to deliver the message.
Starting point is 00:18:24 The interpreter finally spoke the words the man to deliver the message. The interpreter finally spoke the words and then ran from the room. The chiefs leapt to their feet and drew their weapons. They screamed their war cries and attacked. One stabbed the soldier in the doorway. Another stabbed Ranger Captain Tom Howard in the side before the chief was shot to death. Someone shouted for the soldiers to fire. The room exploded in smoke and musket balls. It was a shrieking mass of fighting. Ranger Captain Matthew Caldwell was an unarmed observer until he was hit in the leg. He grabbed
Starting point is 00:19:00 a musket away from a chief and shot him with it. Then he clubbed another chief to death. But several chiefs broke out of the building. They rushed into the courtyard and shouted to their women and children. The women and children immediately turned on the citizens who had come to stare at the Comanches. The soldiers who were stationed outside the meeting fired at people in the courtyard, killing Comanches and spectators alike. The courtyard became a swarming melee that spilled into the streets of San Antonio. The Comanches attacked anyone they saw as they tried to battle their way out of the town.
Starting point is 00:19:37 Soldiers and rangers and any citizen with a gun converged on the area around the council house. The fight went street to street and house to house. When the killing finally ended, 33 Comanche men, women, and children were dead. 32 had been captured. The Texans then took one of the captives, a woman who'd been the wife of one of the chiefs, and put her on a horse.
Starting point is 00:20:04 They told her, From where the sun now stands, you have 12 days to spread the word of the council house fight to the Comanche Nation. The Texans wanted all the prisoners returned that Matilda Lockhart had talked about. When the woman arrived at her camp many miles west of San Antonio, she was almost inconsolable with grief. She told the members of her band what had happened, and they too became overwhelmed. All but one of their chiefs was dead. Families had been torn apart. They were confused and grief-stricken. But the sadness soon gave way to fury. The Comanches butchered nearly all their white captives in retaliation.
Starting point is 00:20:45 They raided homesteads and settlements for weeks, striking out anywhere and everywhere in their vengeance. The Texas Army couldn't stop them, and the Rangers had little success. But eventually, the attacks subsided. Ranger scouts reported that the Comanches had withdrawn from their camps in Central Texas. They had gone far to the northwest to hunt buffalo. Everyone hoped the Comanches' thirst for blood had finally been quenched, but it had only begun. This wasn't the end of the storm. This was the calm before the storm. It was the tide suddenly rolling back out to sea before a great tsunami sweeps over the land. The Comanches withdrew into lands where no white man had been. They gathered their strength,
Starting point is 00:21:33 they made their medicine, and then they unleashed the greatest war in their history upon the unsuspecting Texans. The End in terror of the Comanche. As the last remaining chief of his band of the Comanche tribe, he'd led his people deep into the heartland of the Comancheria after the massacre in San Antonio. They regrouped and licked their wounds in safety. Buffalo Hump sent word to the other bands that he would lead a great war party against the Texans, but other bands would not come. The Antelope were too far removed from the Troubles in their homeland on the dry, arid plains of the Llano Estacado. The northern bands were settling down and making peace with the Cheyenne
Starting point is 00:22:37 and Arapaho in Arkansas. The irony was probably not lost on Buffalo Hump. Many of the bands would not join his war because all the well-known chiefs of his band were gone. In time, Buffalo Hump's name would stand alone above them all, but he would have to earn his place at the top on his own. Throughout the summer of 1840, warriors sat around council fires deep into the night as the stars circled overhead. They planned strategy and talked of glory. The women and old men prepared food and weapons for the war. Buffalo Hump gathered all the warriors who would fight with him. They numbered at least 400, and this would be an extended campaign, so the families would come too. The caravan that would sweep down from the Comanche homeland totaled at least a thousand people.
Starting point is 00:23:33 The Comanches fortified their medicine. They danced and offered prayers to the great spirits, and on August 1, 1840, they began to move. Buffalo Humps Force rode down from the Edwards Plateau northwest of San Antonio. They were careful to go around the white settlements near the town. There were rangers and soldiers in San Antonio, and it was a place of bad medicine after the council house fight. On the night of August 4th, the Comanche host slipped past San Antonio undetected. They rode by the light of the moon, a thousand strong, completely unnoticed by the Texans.
Starting point is 00:24:14 They were 60 miles southeast of San Antonio, between San Antonio and Gonzales, before their trail was spotted. A wide patch of torn up ground and the prints of a thousand unshod ponies wasn't hard to find. As Captain Ben McCullough studied the ground, he knew every white settlement in the area was in serious trouble. He sent riders in all directions to sound the alarm and raise the militias. This area of Texas was still very much the frontier.
Starting point is 00:24:43 Homesteads and towns were spaced miles apart. McCullough judged he had found the trail two days after the Comanches had passed. It was August 6th, and he hastily recruited men wherever he could find them as he followed the trail. But who knew how much devastation the Comanches had already wrought in the meantime. the Comanches had already wrought in the meantime.
Starting point is 00:25:10 As McCullough traveled south in pursuit of the war party, Buffalo Hump and his warriors swooped down on Victoria. They ransacked farms on the outskirts of town, killing whites and slaves alike. They circled the town like a whirling storm, seizing cattle and horses. The people inside the town barricaded themselves in their homes and buildings. The Comanches kept the town surrounded day and night.
Starting point is 00:25:45 The next day, August 7th, Buffalo Hump persuaded some of the warriors to go into town to go house to house to wipe out the citizens and burn their homes. As the warriors galloped down the streets, the people of Victoria threw open their windows and ran up onto their roofs. They fired down on the Comanches from all angles, and the warriors quickly lost interest in a house-to-house fight. They retreated out of town, but not before stampeding 2,000 mules and horses. but not before stampeding 2,000 mules and horses. The war party finally moved on from Victoria, leaving 15 dead in its wake. But that was just a preview of what was to come. Now the real ravaging started.
Starting point is 00:26:28 The Comanches flowed over the Guadalupe River and down Peach Creek. Buffalo Humps spread his warriors in a great semicircle as they advanced, like a huge sickle slicing through some of the oldest parts of Texas. They burned homes and settlements. They slaughtered nearly everyone in their path. They stole horses and amassed an incredible herd as they rode. Meanwhile, Captain McCullough and his scanty force of 24 rangers were doing the grim work of burying the dead in the wake of the war party. Captain Adam Zumwalt and his ranger troop joined McCullough's men as militiamen streamed in from everywhere, but their number was still too small to engage the massive Comanche host. Other ranger parties, acting on their own as there was no way to communicate
Starting point is 00:27:14 with each other at the time, started gathering on the Comanche flanks. They couldn't coordinate with each other yet, but they stayed close and waited for the right time to strike. Behind the war party, McCullough and his growing troops stayed in cautious pursuit. One day later, on August 8th, the Comanche army descended on the tiny port town of Linville on Lavaca Bay. They killed six people and began to ransack the buildings.
Starting point is 00:27:44 The citizens ran to the shore and escaped into the bay in small boats. The town had few residents, and within minutes, it was utterly abandoned. The Comanches spent the day looting the buildings, and when they arrived at John Lynn's warehouse, they discovered a bonanza. The warehouse was packed with two years' worth of goods, rolls of red cloth, stovepipe hats, umbrellas, and assorted goods for ladies. The Comanches destroyed most of the goods, but others they put to sport. Warriors galloped up and down the streets wearing stovepipe hats and trailing streamers of red cloth. The Comanche women loaded huge quantities of treasure
Starting point is 00:28:26 onto mules for the trip home. As the day passed, the Comanches burned the town and slaughtered the livestock while the residents watched helplessly from their boats in the bed. The Great Comanche Raid was a triumph. Buffalo Hump had done what no other chief had done before. He'd led a war party hundreds of miles from its homeland on the Comancheria all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. They'd looted and burned and killed with almost total impunity, and now it was time to return home. But Buffalo Hump discovered a problem he had not expected. He'd cemented himself as a Comanche legend for leading the Great Raid, but he had not counted on the spoils of war. The Comanches now had a horse herd that numbered at least 3,000. They had mules loaded with stolen goods of every kind. Normally,
Starting point is 00:29:19 after a raid, the Comanches would ride hard and fast back to their sanctuary to avoid capture, the Comanches would ride hard and fast back to their sanctuary to avoid capture. But that was impossible now, and there was no way Buffalo Hump could order his people to give up all their trophies. Such a command would surely lead to mutiny. But despite the bounty of unexpected loot, Buffalo Hump still had a chance to lead his people home by a safe route. If he had chosen a trail that led south of San Antonio before turning north toward Comanche lands, he would have avoided nearly all of the white settlements and the militiamen who were gathering behind him. But he didn't. He chose to march north along the Colorado River on a path that would take the Comanches right between San
Starting point is 00:30:02 Antonio and Austin. The party formed up in a great column and began the trek north. The warriors were strung out along the enormous herd to guard the horses, and the entire body moved at a painfully slow pace. It raised towering clouds of dust as well, clouds that were easily spotted and tracked by Ben McCullough and his rangers. Captain John Tumlinson and his ranger company linked up with McCullough and Zumwalt on the road to Victoria. The force made it to Victoria on August 8th, as the Comanches were destroying Linville. In Victoria, their numbers swelled to more than a hundred. They finally stopped riding at around midnight, and they were back in the
Starting point is 00:30:51 saddle again early on the 9th. That day, they made contact with Buffalo Hump's rear guard. One man was killed, and the ranger force fell back. The rangers had just one horse each, and they'd been traveling for days with little rest. They still didn't have the numbers to confront the war party, but by August 10th, the ranger captains realized the column of Comanches was now following a northwest course along the Colorado River. Once McCullough understood their route, he didn't need a map to plot his strategy. The rangers knew every stream and hill in the area. They knew the Comanches would have to cross a tributary of the San Marcos River called Big Prairie
Starting point is 00:31:35 near a waterway named Plum Creek. McCullough ordered a small group of men to stay on the trail of the Comanches and harass them if possible. group of men to stay on the trail of the Comanches and harass them if possible. He sent riders in all directions to instruct every able-bodied man to meet him at Plum Creek. He dashed up the Colorado River, outrunning the slow-moving Comanche column. As dusk fell on the 10th, every Texan old enough to ride a horse and fire a gun set out from Gonzales, Victoria, Lavaca, Cuero, and every other village in the area. One by one, ranger companies converged on Plum Creek. By August 11th, all the famous captains were there with their men, McCullough, Tomlinson, Matthew Caldwell, John Moore, Edward Burleson, and Bigfoot Wallace.
Starting point is 00:32:28 Volunteers were riding in from every nearby settlement, and the Texans' numbers were growing rapidly. That morning, Texas Army General Felix Houston and a column of soldiers made it to Plum Creek. Houston took over command of the irregular force and began preparing to meet the Comanche party. Trailing the war party, a small group of rangers kept up constant pressure on the Comanches. Mile after mile as the great column trudged north, the rangers sniped at them from the flanks. One by one, the rangers' horses died from exhaustion, but the rangers kept up the harassment. By the morning of August 12, 1840, the Comanche force approached Big Prairie and Plum Creek with clouds of dust marking their advance.
Starting point is 00:33:16 The same morning, 14 Tonkawa warriors arrived at General Houston's camp. Their chests were heaving as they gasped for breath. rural Houston's camp. Their chests were heaving as they gasped for breath. Having no horses, they had just run 30 miles to join the Texans and fight against their hated enemies, the Comanches. Houston ordered them to tie white rags around their arms so they could be identified, and then gave them the most dangerous mission of the operation. They were to scout the Comanche column on foot and bring back reports. The Tonkawa scouts were invaluable. They gave accurate descriptions of the Comanches' approach and allowed the Texans to prepare for battle.
Starting point is 00:33:57 Now, volunteers and Texas Rangers and regular Army soldiers formed two parallel lines along the Big Prairie River and rode out to meet the Comanches. Among the volunteers was John Holland Jenkins, one of the few literate men in the group, and who recorded the events of that day many years later. The men were silent as they waited for the outriders of the Comanche war party. As the first warriors came into sight, they gave the Texans a show they would never forget. The warriors performed tricks and stunts on horseback that no Texan could equal, and the sight was even more memorable because many of the warriors were still dressed in costumes stolen from Linville. They tied red ribbons in their horses' manes, and some had open umbrellas, which clashed with their traditional headdresses. These outriders were meant to stall a potential Texan attack as the main body of the Comanches drew closer.
Starting point is 00:34:55 The Ranger captains knew that now was the time to strike, before the full force of warriors was in action. But General Houston hesitated. Then one warrior rode out in front of the others and shouted insults at the Texans. A shot rang out from the Texans' line, and the warrior dropped dead from his horse. Captain Matthew Caldwell yelled at General Houston, now general, charge them.
Starting point is 00:35:21 Houston gave the order. The Texans fired their rifles in a thunderous roar and spurred their horses toward the Comanches. They crashed into the outriders and slammed into the main body of the column. The Comanche horse herd stampeded, and in an instant, the entire scene became a swirling mass of hysteria. The rear of the column could not stop its momentum and pressed forward into the riot. Frightened animals scattered in every direction. Warriors were knocked from their horses and trampled underfoot. The Texans rode along the edges and kept up a continual barrage of fire. The battle then turned into a panicked retreat. The Comanches threw off their stolen cargo and galloped away from the scene.
Starting point is 00:36:08 They began killing the prisoners they'd captured along the way. But for all intents and purposes, the battle was over. After the engagement, the Texans faded away from the battlefield. They returned to their settlements or their homesteads or their areas of patrol. The Tonkawa Scouts built a bonfire and danced and sang of their great victory long into the night. In the wake of the battle at Plum Creek, President Lamar and the Texas Congress ordered a retaliatory strike against the Comanches. They sent Captain John H. Moore back into the heartland of the Comanches on a punitive expedition. Nearly two years earlier, Moore and his rangers had been
Starting point is 00:36:59 forced to walk home after they'd botched a surprise attack on a village. They would not make the same mistake twice. In October 1840, Apache scouts led Moore's men to a village along the Colorado River deep in Comanche territory. This time, the rangers stampeded the Comanches' horses so they could not escape. The rangers attacked on horseback and caught the village by surprise. They killed 130 villagers and captured 500 Comanche horses. The results were bloody and decisive. The Comanches made no more raids on white settlers in 1840. The Battle of Plum Creek was significant for one more reason. It was the first major action for a young Tennessean who had come to Texas three years earlier to be a surveyor. His career took a turn after the battle.
Starting point is 00:37:57 And soon, every man who served with and fought against the small Tennessean would recognize his fiery intensity and unrivaled courage in war. He would become the first permanent Ranger captain and earn the nickname Brave Too Much from an admiring Apache chief. He was John Coffey Hayes, and he was the first truly legendary Ranger captain. When we next visit the Texas Rangers, we'll pick up with his story. Next time on the Legends of the Old West podcast, we're going to begin the story of one of the most 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.
Starting point is 00:39:04 I'm your writer, host 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 and Instagram. Thanks for listening. Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada mangeant ou même en écoutant ce balado, alors vous connaissez et aimez l'excitation du magasinage. Mais avez-vous ce frisson d'obtenir le meilleur deal? Les membres de Rakuten, eux, oui. Ils magasinent les marques qu'ils aiment et font d'importantes 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 et Expedia, et même cumuler les ventes et les remises en argent. C'est facile à utiliser et vous obtenez vos remises par PayPal ou par chèque.
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