Legends of the Old West - TEXAS RANGERS Ep. 1 | "A Captain Rises"

Episode Date: April 28, 2019

After the Texas revolution and the Great Comanche Raid, a Tennessean named John Coffee Hays rises to prominence as the commander of the Texas Rangers. Hays, along with captains Ben McCulloch, Samuel Walker and "Bigfoot" Wallace fights bandits in the Nueces Strip and Comanches on the frontier. The rangers are on the front lines as Mexico sends hundreds of troops into Texas. Texas responds by sending the rangers to Mexico on the disastrous Mier Expedition. 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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Other conditions apply. harman hayes served in the war of 1812 and had great respect for his commanding officer his commanding officer in turn had great respect for his own commanding officer general andrew jackson the two senior officers were old friends and related by marriage. Harmon Hayes was also loosely related to the two men through marriage, and his modest spread at Little Cedar Lake, Tennessee, was just up the road from Andrew Jackson's sprawling estate called the Hermitage. So when Harmon had a boy five years after the War of 1812, there were two fairly obvious choices for who to name the child after. One was Andrew Jackson, of course.

But Harmon chose the other. He chose the name of his immediate superior officer. Harmon's commanding officer was John Coffey. And Harmon's first son became John Coffey Hayes. John Coffey Hayes went on to hold many titles of his own, but above all, he's known as the preeminent captain of a motley crew of fierce fighters who were called on by Texans from the Red River to the Rio Grande for protection. Under his leadership, the ever-evolving group of horsemen,

who were given many labels over the years became known by one name, the Texas Rangers. From Black Barrel Media, this is season five of the Legends of the Old West podcast, presented by the Cowboy Lifestyle Network. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this is the first episode of a five-part series on the Texas Rangers. Long-time listeners will remember that I did two episodes on the Rangers way back in Season 1. These episodes will pick up where those left off. This season, we'll hear about the men who turned the Rangers into a cohesive fighting force, and the events that led the world to know the name Texas Rangers. And now, here's episode one of the Texas Rangers, A Captain Rises.

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Comanche Warchief Buffalo Hump had had a vision. After several years of fighting with the white settlers in Texas, Buffalo Hump had seen a wondrous spectacle and a dream. He had seen something that had never happened before in Comanche history. He saw the Comanche nation marching through the heart of Texas, killing, burning, and stealing all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. And he saw himself leading the expedition. The event became known as the Great Comanche Raid. 400 warriors and their families, numbering as many as 1,000 people,

marched through Texas in August of 1840. Their quest ended with the destruction of the town of Linville on the Gulf Coast. The devastation was so complete, the town was never rebuilt. The devastation was so complete, the town was never rebuilt. Today, a simple stone tablet next to a highway marks the spot where the town once stood. Word of the raid spread quickly, and men from all over the Young Republic raced in to help. A combined force of Texas Rangers and the fledgling Texas Army set an ambush for the Comanches at Plum Creek between San Antonio and Austin. As the Comanche column moved slowly back toward its homeland in northwest Texas,

it rode straight into the trap set by the Texans. The fight that took place that day was probably the strangest sight ever recorded in the West. Comanche warriors, the fiercest fighters on the southern plains, were dressed in costumes stolen from Linville. They wore top hats and brightly colored ribbons and carried ladies' parasols, and they were not prepared for battle. The Texans routed the Comanches, and the survivors raced back to their native lands called the Comancheria. The Battle of Plum Creek was August 12, 1840. The Battle of Plum Creek was August 12, 1840. Among the many Texans who were present that day were two men who would fight side by side for the next eight years and pave the way for the Rangers of the future, Ben McCullough and John Coffey Hayes. Jack Hayes, as he was called, was something of a paradox.

He was a small man, about 5 feet 8 inches tall, and slim, with wavy brown hair. In society, he was polite, courteous, soft-spoken, and modest. But on the battlefield, he was an absolute demon. He thundered forward to meet the enemy and shouted commands in a clear authoritative voice when jack hayes was present there was no doubt who was in charge he left his home in tennessee at 15 and worked as a surveyor in mississippi he brought his survey skills to texas sometime in 1838 and set up shop in San Antonio. Texas had won its independence from Mexico at the Battle of San Jacinto two years earlier, and now General Sam Houston was finishing

his term as the first president of the new republic. That new republic needed good surveyors to scout land grants, and Hayes quickly found himself in high demand. On his survey expeditions, he frequently came in contact with native warriors, and he quickly honed his fighting skills. Between surveys, he enlisted in the ranging companies of Colonel Henry Carnes and immediately impressed all those around him. In his first mission with Carnes, he killed a Comanche and helped stave off an attack while the Rangers were outnumbered 10-1. Before long, Karnes had chosen Hayes to lead the advanced scouting parties for Ranger companies.

And then came the Great Comanche Raid of 1840 and the Battle of Plum Creek. Hayes likely had a small role in the battle, as more experienced Rangers took control, but after two years of solid surveying and fighting on the southwestern frontier, his star was on the rise. Almost exactly five months after the Battle of Plum Creek, Hayes was given command of his first Ranger company. There were probably few decisions made in the early days of the Republic that paid greater dividends than this one. Hayes, with his top lieutenant Ben McCullough,

was about to revolutionize the Rangers, smash the Comanches, and demoralize Mexican bandits. And all this before he led the Rangers to war. Texas was a republic for almost ten years. Those years were full of constant turmoil and change. First, the Texas Constitution said the initial president could only hold office for two years. Each president after that would hold office for three years. Second, the president could not hold office for two consecutive terms. This guaranteed the possibility of complete upheaval in the government every three years, and the possibility became reality. General Sam Houston, the hero who had led Texas to victory over Mexico in 1836, became the Republic's first President the same year.

Coe in 1836, became the Republic's first president the same year. He held office until 1838. One of the constants of Houston's political career was that he wanted to make peace with the Native tribes. When he left office after two years, his vice president, Mirabeau Lamar, took over. Lamar was the exact opposite of Houston. He wanted the native tribes removed or exterminated. During his presidency, he forced the tribes of East Texas off their lands and ordered the Rangers to take the fight to the Comanches and the Kiowas in the West. In these three years, Jack Hayes became a trusted Ranger under Henry Carnes and then was given his own command. As the line of white settlements pushed west

across Texas from the Red River in the north to the Rio Grande in the south, it inevitably pressed up against the boundary of the Comanches' homeland. After Texas won its independence, it claimed all the land from Mexico that had once been the province of Tejas. This opened up millions of acres of land for settlement. The Texans called these acres vacant lands. They were vacant because no white person lived there, and the Comanches who did live there had no system of ownership as it existed in European society. And this was one of the two biggest chasms between European cultures and native cultures, the idea of ownership of land.

The history of European cultures was built on the idea of being able to claim land. Land that was sometimes thousands of miles away and existed only as vague lines on an unfinished map. To the Comanches, this concept was unimaginable. Their hunting grounds included parts of Texas, This concept was unimaginable. Their hunting grounds included parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. It was basically a giant circle on the southern plains. It never would have occurred to them to claim California, for instance. They had never seen it. They had never been there.

They had no use for it. They hunted over a range that was as big as they could hold by force. So when Texas settlements encroached on the traditional hunting grounds of the Comanches and their Kiowa allies, the tribes fought for them. Captain Jack Hays and his rangers would come in contact with the Comanches soon enough, but his first mission was to tame the region southwest of San Antonio, a region with an ominous nickname. After the Texas Revolution, trade routes and smuggling lanes sprang up between Mexico and San Antonio. Legitimate traders were constantly harassed by Mexican bandits.

The region was commonly known as the Nueces Strip, and it became a haven for rustlers, killers, and thieves. It earned the nickname El Desierto Muerto, the Dead Desert. It was a disputed zone between Texas and Mexico. Though Mexico refused to officially recognize Texas, it also claimed that the border between the two nations was the Nueces River. Texas, of course, claimed the border was the next river south, the Rio Grande. So the strip of land between the two rivers was a hotly contested area, and it would ignite a full-scale war in just four years. But for now, it was full of marauders who needed to be dealt with. But for now, it was full of marauders who needed to be dealt with.

Two prominent gangs operated in the area with the protection and support of the Mexican military commander at Laredo. Laredo, on the Rio Grande River, was the staging ground for many of the attacks on merchants, so that's exactly where Jack Hayes went. He was given command of what was called either a spy company or a ranger spy company on January 10, 1841, and he led his scout directly to Laredo. He and his rangers rode into town, surprised the hell out of the Mexican soldiers stationed there, seized some horses, and then herded them out of town. The next day, he came back with the horses and a warning. He said this was just a demonstration. Next time, it'll be worse. The harassment of travelers stops now. It was a fine display, but unfortunately, it did not dissuade the outlaws. Not long after Hayes returned to San Antonio, two traders came to town saying they'd been robbed by bandit captain Agaton Quinonez and his 30 men.

Quinonez and Manuel Leal were the two strongest outlaw chieftains in the Nueces Strip, and it was time for Jack Hayes to make a move against one of them. He recruited 13 men and was joined by a volunteer captain named Antonio Perez and his 12 recruits. The cadre headed straight for Laredo. Ten miles outside of town, they were met by Captain Ignacio Garcia, the military commander who supported the bandits. He had 15 soldiers and 25 outlaws with him. The Mexican force charged and fired, but did little damage. The Rangers returned fire and killed one soldier and wounded another.

Garcia then tried to surround the Texans, but Hayes rushed his men out of danger. They jumped their horses over a ravine and found a safe area in some thick brush. Hayes and most of his men dismounted and left their horses with five rangers. The rest of the company crept through the brush toward Garcia's unsuspecting soldiers. When they were sixty yards from Garcia's men, they rose up out of the brush and fired. They killed two soldiers and wounded several others. The Texans raced back to their horses. They leapt on their mounts and reloaded as they charged at the shocked Mexicans. The Mexicans retreated for several hundred yards and tried to make a stand but failed. They broke and ran. were being used by Captain Garcia and two other men as they galloped away from the scene. Of the remaining men, three were dead, three were severely wounded, several others were injured,

and the rest were taken prisoner. Garcia rode into Laredo telling tales of slaughter at the hands of the Texans. The engagement wasn't exactly a slaughter, but it had the desired effect. Engagement wasn't exactly a slaughter, but it had the desired effect. The alcalde, or mayor, of Laredo hurried out to meet with Hayes and to beg him not to destroy the town. Hayes said he only wanted two things, safe passage for the traders and the two bandit captains. He never got the desperadoes, but someone took care of Quinones for him. The bandit captain was killed two years later, in 1843. Jack Hayes was known to his men as Captain Jack, but in the summer of 1841, he earned

the name by which he was known to his Apache scouts, Brave Too Much. He had done good work against the bandits in the Nueces Strip, and now President Lamar sent him against the Comanches. In June, a raiding party had struck a settlement and made off with some cattle. Hayes raised a force of 13 men and took off after them. He was later joined by more volunteers to bring his total to 24, but after he discovered the Comanche camp in present-day Frio Canyon,

he realized he was still badly outnumbered. Jack was brave. He wasn't stupid. And then he spotted a small group of Comanches leaving the camp. He assumed they were about to raid San Antonio, so he attacked. His men killed all but two of the Comanches leaving the camp. He assumed they were about to raid San Antonio, so he attacked. His men killed all but two of the Comanches, but his group still wasn't big enough to attack the main camp. Hayes returned to San Antonio, recruited some more men, and went back to the canyon. As his larger force approached, the Comanches got spooked. They killed the prisoners they had recently captured

and hurried out of the Canyon Hayes and his men galloped after them the long ragged Pursuit plunged into the hill country west of present-day Kerrville Texas the next two days were a series of running fights at one point Hayes charged a group of Comanches by himself. He had meant to rush in, fire his weapon, and then rush out, but in the heat of battle, his horse got excited and ran right through the middle of the Comanches, carrying Hayes with it. Chief Flacco, the leader of the Apache Scouts, vowed never to be left behind by anyone, so he followed his captain through the group of Comanches. The two men miraculously emerged on the other side without a scratch.

Chief Flacco, not knowing Hay's gallant charge had been an accident, named him Brave Too Much. The act had certainly been unintended and unexpected, but the name was still valid. The Rangers and the Apaches battled the Comanches as the warriors protected the retreat of their women and children. When it was all over, Captain Jack thought his men had probably killed eight to ten Comanches and driven the rest out of the area. Chief Flacco is credited with later saying, me and Blue Wing not afraid to go to hell together. Captain Jack, great brave, not afraid to

go to hell by himself. And Captain Jack was not alone in his success. All over the Texas frontier, ranger companies were smashing into Comanche camps. President Lamar's aggressive policies toward the Comanches were having an effect. The Texans didn't know it at the time, but the southern branch of the Comanches virtually abandoned their lands in Texas and moved their lodges north to the Arkansas River and the Canadian River in Oklahoma. The raids slowed down, briefly, but tensions with Mexico heated up. Dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna, who lost the Battle of San Jacinto that created the Republic of Texas five years earlier, was once again in control, and he wanted Texas back.

1842 became a year of invasions. Sam Houston was elected President of Texas for the second time at the end of 1841, and he immediately faced two challenges, crippling debt and his old nemesis Santa Ana. President Lamar had had great success against the Comanches on the frontier, but he had spent a ton of money to do it. Now, Houston was in desperate need of the Rangers, but he had no money to pay them. And three months after Houston took office, Santa Anna sent his first expedition into Texas to test the young Republic, and in retaliation for one of Lamar's ideas. The back and forth had started in the summer of 1841.

The back and forth had started in the summer of 1841. Lamar sent an expedition west from Austin to open a road to Santa Fe and to explore the possibility of annexing New Mexico. The Texas Congress had voted against the expedition, but Lamar sent it anyway. It started out bad and only got worse. In June 1841, 320 men and a wagon train of supplies left the Austin area and traveled north. They planned to follow the Red River across the Texas Panhandle and let it guide them toward New Mexico. But then they struck the Wichita River and thought it was the Red, and mistakenly followed it for 12 days. Eventually, they learned their error and found the Red River.

They followed it out to the most desolate part of Texas at that time, the homeland of the Comanches, called the Llano Estacado. That's the American pronunciation of the Spanish name that means the Staked Plains. It's dry, flat, and arid. You could travel for days without seeing something worthy of the name tree or a water source. And that's when the expedition's Mexican guides abandoned the effort. Now the Texans were in barren lands with no guides, and the Kiowas attacked them. In early September, after three months of travel, the warriors killed six men.

A few days later, the Kiowas came back and stampeded all the cattle and 83 horses. The guides who had deserted the expedition made it to Taos, New Mexico around the same time as the attacks and they alerted the Mexican authorities. By mid-September, the entire expedition had been captured by Mexican soldiers. The Texans were marched all the way south to Mexico City and then east to Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico. In December 1841, just as Lamar was transferring the presidency to Houston, Texas learned the full extent of the failed expedition. Most of the prisoners were released in April 1842. And if this story sounds familiar, Larry McMurtry, author of the Lonesome Dove novels,

borrowed it for the plot of Dead Man's Walk, the story of the first adventures of Texas Rangers Woodrow Call and Augustus McRae. He combined it with another failed mission you'll hear about shortly. In retaliation for the Santa Fe expedition, Mexican dictator Santa Anna sent 700 soldiers north to San Antonio. In March of 1842, they were spotted by Texas Ranger Ben McCullough and another ranger hid in the brush of southwest Texas and watched as 700 Mexican troops marched toward San Antonio. The rangers were helpless to stop the soldiers or warn the town. Captain Jack Hayes was out in the field with 100 rangers,

but McCullough had no way to contact him or locate him. One day before the sixth anniversary of the fall of the Alamo, the Mexican army marched into San Antonio and captured the town with no resistance. Shortly thereafter, Jack Hayes returned with his rangers and discovered the occupation, but with only 100 men he was badly outnumbered. He stationed his men south of the city and waited for the reinforcements he was certain would arrive once word spread of the incursion. But then the Mexican army abandoned San Antonio as quickly as it had arrived. The soldiers had plundered the town, but apparently

this was not the first step of an all-out invasion. It was retaliation for the Santa Fe expedition, and possibly a test by Santa Ana to see how easy it might be to avenge his loss to the hated Texans. The Mexican troops marched toward the Rio Grande, and Hayes' ranger shadowed them the whole way, but he knew it would be crazy to attack such a large force with his small number. Afterward, Texas howled. The old rivalry had been renewed. Mexico had sent soldiers onto the sovereign soil of the Republic. The Texas Congress called for war, and Sam Houston said,

Hey, not so fast. We're broke. We have no money for a standing army. We are not going to war. Houston promoted Jack Hayes to major and put him in command of the entire southwest portion of Texas. By early September 1842, rumors were swirling of another expedition by Mexican forces. Hayes learned that the rumors were true, and he led his men out to scout the main road from Mexico to San Antonio, and in a very rare slip-up, he was outsmarted by an opponent. 1,500 men under a French soldier of fortune named Adrian Wall crossed the Rio Grande at Laredo and marched toward San Antonio, and now Wohl outmaneuvered Hayes. While Hayes watched the road, Wohl led his troops through

the hills outside of town and slipped behind Hayes while the whole area was covered in a dense fog. Instead of marching straight in from the southwest, Wohl came around from the north and easily captured San Antonio. Hayes returned to town the next day to find he'd been beaten, but he wasn't out of the fight. He sent riders in every direction to sound the alarm that San Antonio had fallen. Veteran Ranger Captain Matthew Caldwell brought a company of volunteers from Sagin. Henry McCullough, younger brother of Ben, added more volunteers to the unit. Over the next four days, the Rangers' numbers swelled to 225,

but that still wasn't a quarter of the size of the Mexican force. The Texans didn't care. They were determined to do battle with the Mexican army this time. Caldwell was elected commander of the Texans by a vote from the troops, and he arranged his men along Salado Creek southwest of San Antonio. He knew he couldn't fight the Mexican army in a traditional battle on open ground, so he chose a spot where his men could fight from cover. Jack Hayes led a decoy squad toward town to entice General Wall to come out and fight, and the general did. Hayes and his men raced back toward their chosen battleground at Salado Creek, and the

Mexican troops began to stream in behind him. All morning, as Wall assembled his troops for an assault on the Texans, the Rangers harassed his flanks. By the afternoon, Wall was ready for an attack. The Mexicans had two cannons, and now they roared to life. They blasted canister and grape shot at the Texans, but the Rangers were barricaded behind ravines and the creek bed, and the cannon shots smashed into the trees over their heads, doing little damage. The center of the Mexican line fired at the Texans. The right and left flanks charged forward. As the soldiers rushed toward the Texans' entrenched lines,

the Rangers rose up and fired straight into them. Volleys of musket fire exploded on both sides of the battlefield. On the left flank, a Mexican unit tried to get around the edge of the Texan defenses. Jack Hayes sent 10 men around the side with double-barrel shotguns. They let the Mexicans get within 30 feet, and then they opened up with all 20 barrels. The explosion of lead tore through the Mexican unit, cutting down every man. On the right flank, General Wall stubbornly continued to send men forward instead of trying to use his cavalry to circle around behind the Texan's lines.

A Mexican unit charged the ravine on the right and was met by a company led by Ewan Cameron. The engagement turned into a vicious hand-to-hand battle. Muskets, pistols, and shotguns were fired at close range, and then knives, sabers, and bayonets clashed and sliced into the men. The Rangers killed 14 men of the Mexican unit. In the main engagement near the creek, the Rangers held their own against superior numbers. But northwest of the creek, they suffered a devastating tragedy. Captain Nicholas Dawson was leading his 53 men from La Grange, Texas toward the battlefield

when they ran straight into two companies of Mexican cavalry who had a cannon. The Mexicans pinned the Texans down in a mesquite thicket and shelled them with cannon fire and volleys from their rifles. 36 Rangers died in the thicket as the sun went down on the battle. As darkness crept in, General Wall pulled back his troops. The battle had essentially been a draw, but it convinced Wall that Texas would not be easy to retake. The Mexican army trudged back across the Rio Grande,

and the second incursion was over. But unlike the first, President Sam Houston could not let this one go unanswered. Less than ten days later, he authorized a retaliatory strike. It would bring four legendary Texas Rangers together for the first time, and it was an unmitigated disaster. Samuel Walker landed at Galveston Island in February 1842, just a couple weeks before Mexico's first expedition to San Antonio. He was born in Maryland in 1817, the same year as Jack Hayes. His father fought in the Revolutionary War, and he craved all the romantic notions of chivalry and adventure. He fought in the Second Seminole War in Florida at the same time Texas was fighting its revolution. By the early 1840s, he looked for adventure elsewhere and turned his sights to the hotbed of Texas.

He joined up with the Rangers, but arrived at Salado Creek in time to bury the fallen men of nicholas dawson's company and not much else but he was in the right place at the right time for the next adventure as president sam houston needed to appease his citizens on october 3rd 1842 less than two weeks after the fight at salado creek houston put brigadier general a General Alexander Somervell in charge of the strike against Mexico. It may have been a Machiavellian move on Houston's part. He knew the Texans didn't have the resources to equip and train an elite fighting force that could genuinely challenge a professional army, but he had to placate his constituents. After two invasions, he had to retaliate against Mexico. So he likely crafted a strategy that he knew wouldn't do much good, but he also hoped it wouldn't do much harm.

The volunteers in San Antonio who answered his call to arms were a tough, rowdy bunch, and Somerville was a weak, indecisive leader. If the expedition fell apart, which it probably would, Houston could claim he had tried, but the blame would fall on Somerville. Houston gave Somerville just one instruction, take Jack Hayes and his rangers. Most of the men who had fought at Salado Creek signed up for the new expedition, including Samuel Walker and another man who would soon become a legend, Samuel Walker and another man who would soon become a legend, William Alexander Anderson Wallace. Wallace was a Virginian by birth, and although he was the same age as Hayes and Walker,

he was a giant compared to those two men. They were of average height and slight build. Wallace was 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 240 pounds. He had enormous hands and long arms and was given the nickname Bigfoot, though ironically not because of the size of his feet. One night, one of Wallace's neighbors discovered food had been stolen from his house. The intruder had left huge footprints that led right to Wallace's door. The neighbor accused Wallace of raiding his pantry and Wallace promptly walked over to the tracks in the mud. The neighbor accused Wallace of raiding his pantry, and Wallace promptly walked over to the tracks in the mud. The tracks were much bigger than his feet, which proved he was innocent. The neighbor apologized, and they later learned the intruder had been a Waco chief named Bigfoot. The nickname was then given to Wallace, and it stuck.

Wallace had a grandfather and four uncles who fought for the Continental Army during the American Revolution, and he himself fought for Texas during its revolution. His older brother Samuel and two of his cousins died in the Goliad Massacre in 1836. He initially settled in the La Grange area and rode with many ranger patrols before moving to Austin in 1839. But city life never appealed to him. He was a frontiersman, through and through. So when it came time to march to Mexico, he was ready for another fight. The bulk of the Somerville expedition left San Antonio November 12, 1842, bound for Laredo. Hayes and his ranger company included our familiar names, Ben and Henry McCullough, Samuel Walker, and Bigfoot Wallace. After three weeks of marching

through brutal weather, the expedition finally reached Laredo, and then it promptly fell apart. Many men elected to return home, and a week later came the big split. The column had wandered downriver from Laredo until it found some boats. The men then floated 60 miles downriver from Laredo to the town of Guerrero. By that point, the expedition had been traveling for a month and most of the men were miserable. Somervell officially disbanded the expedition and ordered the men to return home. But only 189 of the roughly 500 who were still there obeyed the order. The others, displaying the true Texas independent spirit, elected to continue.

Somervell and Hayes decided to turn back, but surprisingly, many of Hayes' rangers decided to stay, at least for a little while. The new expedition selected William Fisher as its commander. Ben McCullough, Henry McCullough, Samuel Walker, Bigfoot Wallace, and their good friend Robert Addison Gillespie all stayed with the company. Ben McCullough and a small unit scouted the town of Muir several miles south. McCullough was alarmed to discover 1,500 Mexican troops were marching on Muir. After the expedition's appearance at Laredo, the secret was clearly out. McCullough immediately recommended that the expedition head for the interior of Texas. Fisher refused. He and many others wanted to stay and fight. The McCullough brothers and Robert Gillespie did not. On Christmas Eve, 1842, they left the

expedition and returned home. It would prove to be one of the smartest decisions of their lives. Samuel Walker, who loved adventure, and Bigfoot Wallace, who wanted revenge for his brother's death at Goliad, stayed behind. On Christmas Day, 261 Texans attacked 3,000 Mexican soldiers at Mir. For being outnumbered more than 10 to 1, the Texans gave the Mexicans an incredible fight. For a day and a half, the battle raged through the streets of Mir. Wallace and Captain Ewan Cameron fought until it was impossible to fight any longer. They were some of the last to give up, and only did so when they were outnumbered 2,500 to 40. After two days of fighting, their surviving Texans surrendered, and now the real pain began.

Texans surrendered, and now the real pain began. Santa Ana was livid, and his mood only grew darker. The Texans who surrendered at Mier were marched to Camargo about 25 miles down the Rio Grande, and then to Matamoros near the Gulf of Mexico, another 100 miles away. From there, they marched to Monterey, 190 miles inland. After Monterey, they marched another 50 miles to Saltillo. By that time, they were starving, ragged, and beyond exhausted. They had marched under guard for six weeks. They didn't think they could take it any longer, so they escaped. On February 11, 1843, Ewan Cameron, Bigfoot Wallace, and Samuel Walker led a jailbreak.

The Texans overpowered their guards and fled into the hills around Saltillo. In the process, they killed five Mexican soldiers. Wallace and a few others remained free for eight days before they surrendered again. They had been eating snakes and grasshoppers and anything else they could find and they had been dying of thirst. When a Mexican patrol found them, they gave up. Only five men made it all the way back to Texas. Seven died of starvation. Three were never seen again. The rest faced the wrath of Santa Anna. He ordered all the survivors executed, but he was convinced to amend the order so that only every tenth man would be killed. Then came the famous drawing of the beans, again immortalized in Larry McMurtry's novel Dead Man's Walk.

A jar was filled with white beans and 17 black beans. Each Texan had to reach inside and pull out a bean. If he grabbed a white bean, he lived. If he pulled a black bean, he died. Bigfoot Wallace and Samuel Walker both drew white beans and lived. Wallace later claimed he had seen the black beans poured in after the white beans, so he assumed they were lying close to the top. When it was his turn, he dug deep in the jar for his bean and pulled out a white one. Ranger Captain Ewan Cameron was not allowed to participate. As the leader of the jailbreak, Santa Anna ordered him to be executed without fail. The remaining 159 Texans were marched to Mexico City, where they were subjected to a year of back-breaking labor as prisoners. They lived on the edge of

starvation, and those who survived the work, the conditions, and the epidemics of sickness were finally released in the spring and summer of 1844. They did not include Samuel Walker. Walker and two companions actually made a successful prison break in July 1843. They somehow worked their way to Tampico on the Gulf Coast and then took a ship to New Orleans. In January 1844, while Bigfoot Wallace still suffered in Mexico City, Samuel Walker traveled from New Orleans to San Antonio, and he carried with him a burning hatred for Mexico. Wallace was released in August 1844,

and after a long, punishing journey, he arrived at Galveston Island in October. He was finally back in Texas, nearly two years after the expedition began. At this point, you might think Mexico was the last place Wallace and Walker would want to go after they narrowly survived the Mir expedition. But you'd be wrong. One year after Wallace was released from prison in Mexico City, But you'd be wrong. One year after Wallace was released from prison in Mexico City, General Zachary Taylor landed at Corpus Christi, Texas with 3,500 American soldiers.

They were bound for Mexico and war. In the summer of 1844, Hayes, Walker, and the Texas Rangers fought a small battle with Comanches, but that little engagement would end up impacting the entire history of the American West. A year later, Texas joined the American Union And America went to war with Mexico The Rangers were at the forefront of nearly every major battle And by the time they were done in Mexico It was said that Mexicans didn't know who they feared more The devil or the Texas Rangers The beginning of the Mexican-American War

Is next time on the Legends of the Old West podcast This season was edited and mixed by Michael Martin of the Mexican-American War is next time on the Legends of the Old West podcast. This season was edited and mixed by Michael Martin at Sneaky Big Studios in Phoenix, Arizona. The theme song Yellow Rose of Texas was arranged and recorded

by the Mighty Orc in Houston, Texas. Much of the music for this show was produced by Rob Valliere in Phoenix. And a very special thank you to Matt Lowry in Ireland for producing color images of these famous Texas Rangers for the first time.

Matt is a world-renowned photographer whose project My Colorful Past breathes new life into old photos. Check out his Facebook page for more of his work. And, as always, thank you for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please give it a rating and a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening. You can check out our website, blackbarrelmedia.com, for more details, and follow us on social media for news of the show. Our Facebook page is Legends of the Old West Podcast,

and our handles on Twitter and Instagram are at Old West Podcast. Thanks again. We'll see you next week.