-
Contents
- University of North Texas Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii 1. THE TEXAS MILITIA TAKES THE FIELD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Frontier Forces Dwindle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Revamped Texas Militia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ranger Battalion Expires: April 1838 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Indian Actions: April–May 1838 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 “Nothing Will Be Gained By War”: May 1838 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Frontier Indian Skirmishes: May–July 1838 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Buildup of Córdova’s Rebellion: July–August 1838 . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Karnes’Arroyo Seco Fight: August 10, 1838 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Rusk’s Militia Mobilizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 2. EAST TEXANS CALLED TO “CHASTIZE THE INDIANS” . . . . . 37 Development of Douglass’ Third Militia Brigade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 General Dyer Mobilizes Fourth Militia Brigade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Montague’s Rangers Take Scalps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Rusk Strengthens Third Brigade: October 1, 1838 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 The Killough Massacre: October 5, 1838 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Surveyors’ Fight: October 8, 1838 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 3. THE KICKAPOO WAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Mabbitt’s Rangers Ambushed: October 12, 1838 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Battle at Kickapoo Village: October 16, 1838 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 4. TO THE BORDER AND BEYOND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Captain Cage’s Fight on the Leon: October 20, 1838 . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Development of Third Militia Brigade Battalions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Bonnell Sends Rangers to Houston County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Central Texas Depredations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Rusk’s Caddo Campaign: November–December 1838 . . . . . . . . . . 98 5. CAMPAIGNS OF THE RED RIVER RIFLEMEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Scheme to Raid Nacogdoches Uncovered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Captain Stout’s Work in the Settlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Montague’s Second Regiment of Riflemen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Contents Volume 2 President Lamar Creates Frontier Regiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Rusk/Dyer Winter Expedition to the Three Forks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 6. MORGAN MASSACRE AND BRYANT’S DEFEAT . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Morgan Massacre: January 1, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Milam Guards Ordered Out to Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Attack on John Marlin Household: January 14, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Captain Bryant’s Defeat: January 16, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 7. MOORE’S COMANCHE RAID AND THE BATTLE OF BRUSHY CREEK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Campbell Massacre: January 23, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Frontier Regiment’s New Officers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Red River Rangers of Early 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Colonel Moore’s Comanche Battle: February 15, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . 158 Comanche Vengeance: Coleman Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Battle of Brushy Creek: February 25, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 8. THE CÓRDOVA AND FLORES FIGHTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Ben McCulloch’s Peach Creek Fight: March 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Lamar Calls For More Volunteers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Córdova Fight at Mill Creek: March 29, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Rangers Attacked on the Guadalupe: March 30, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Prisoner Execution in Seguin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Caldwell’s Pursuit of Córdova . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 Major Jones’ Gunmen Stationed at Austin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Rice/Flores Fight at the San Gabriel: May 17, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 9. BIRD’S CREEK FIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Walters Ordered Away From Cherokees’ Saline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Rangers Take Station at Fort Milam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 Captain Bird’s Last Fight: May 26, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Karnes Campaign and Surveyor Skirmishes: June 1839 . . . . . . . . . 227 10. THE CHEROKEE WAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Cherokee Peace Talks: July 9-14, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 First Blood on Battle Creek: July 15, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 Battle of the Neches: July 16, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 The Killing of Chief Bowles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 11. PURSUIT AND REMOVAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281 Expulsion of Texas Indians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 The Webster Massacre: August 27, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 State of the Ranger Service: Fall 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 Removal of the Shawnees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 vii SAVAGE FRONTIER [54.196.27.122] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 22:54 GMT) Texas Military Status: September 30, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 12. COLONEL NEILL’S GUNMEN ON THE OFFENSIVE . . . . . . . . . 305 Captain Howard’s Comanche Fight: October 24, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . 307 John Neill’s First Regiment of Mounted Gunmen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 13. KARNES’ HILL COUNTRY COMANCHE EXPEDITION . . . . . . . 323 Galveston Mounted Gunmen Join Karnes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 Hiatus in San Antonio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 Tracking the Comanche . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 14. “SHORT BUT DECISIVE AFFAIR” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 The Frontier Regiment’s New Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 Burleson’s Northwestern Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 Christmas Cherokee Battle: December 25, 1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347 AFTERWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353 APPENDIX: Texan Casualties of the Frontier Indian Wars, 1835–39 . . . . . . . . . 361 CHAPTER NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395 viii ...