Savage Frontier Volume I 1835-1837: Rangers, Riflemen, and Indian Wars in Texas

Prologue

Prologue The Indians of the prairies have no local habitations, and, therefore, we can not hope to conquer them by any number of troops . . . Everything will be gained by peace, but nothing will be gained by war. President Sam Houston’s address to First Congress of Texas, May 5, 1837. As long as we continue to exhibit our mercy without showing our strength, so long will the Indians continue to bloody the tomahawk. President Mirabeau B. Lamar’s inaugural address to Third Congress of Texas, December 9, 1838. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ President Houston’s message before the First Congress of the Republic of Texas stressed that the government should pursue a conciliatory policy towards the Indians to help prevent depredations on Texas settlers. His successor, President Lamar, adopted a far less tolerant Indian policy upon taking leadership of Texas and its frontier forces. From the first rangers employed by Stephen F. Austin in 1823, settlers of Texas had been subjected to Indian hostilities from the earliest days of colonization. Militia districts and periodic ranging companies were employed during the next decade to protect the settlements, largely from attacks by hostile coastal Karankawas. The year 1835 was significant in that it saw a whole new level of fighting between the whites and native Indians. Depredations became more frequent, but more importantly, the settlers became more organized to offensively take the fight to the Indians. The Texas Rangers were formally and legally organized during 1835 and the first true ranger expedition was carried out that summer. Many books have been written on the rangers and the Texas Indian wars, but none have taken a comprehensive look at the pivotal period of 1835-1839. Indian depredations and frontier conflicts reached a climax during this period. Ranging battalions were organized and battle tactics were refined. By late 1839, some Indian tribes had already been driven from the republic. Some of vii viii SAV AGE FRONTIER the brightest Texas Ranger leaders, later fabled for their exploits in the 1840s, cut their teeth in battles during the 1830s. Savage Frontier is the first in-depth study of the Texan leaders, the expeditions and the battles which shaped the frontier systems of future decades. Select fights and a few leaders of the late 1830s have previously received great attention. Other Indian fights, ranger leaders and entire campaigns have received little to no attention in histories of this period. Walter Prescott Webb’s The Texas Rangers, published in 1935, paints a broad picture of this force from its creation through the early 1900s. Webb’s pioneer account gives a compact history of the 1830s rangers. Subsequent works have only delved a little deeper, focusing primarily on the battles for which there is ample documentation available. For this manuscript, numerous military, county and social histories of early Texas were consulted on the early Texas Indian wars in order to bring new details to each battle covered. As often as possible, the events of the 1830s are allowed to be told first-hand through the participants whose stories were captured in newspaper articles, diaries, letters or by early historians. We are fortunate in that some early rangers, such as George Bernard Erath and Noah Smithwick, left vivid memoirs which detail the 1830s ranging service. Such recollections are even more powerful when accurate dates are added via the use of available republic-era documents. Original letters and documents quoted are done so in the language of the original authors. However, I have chosen to correct spelling and add punctuation in many cases for readership. No words are added to such quotes, with any exceptions denoted by [ ] brackets. Some historians may argue against this methodology, but these quotes are more significant when the reader can clearly understand what was being expressed in the writer’s limited grammar and spelling abilities. Setting the record straight on dates and service periods for the various ranger and riflemen companies was accomplished with the cooperation of Donaly Brice and the staff of the Texas State Archives. Over the course of several years, Mr. Brice has furnished copies of numerous muster rolls, company pay rolls and other primary source material. Considerable information was obtained from the Republic of Texas Audited Claims, Public Debt Claims, Pension Papers and Unpaid Debt microfilm series. These files contain the original service papers filled out by the men and their companies during their Prologue ix service period. These documents give insight into the locations of companies, their tenure of service, payroll information, personnel losses, recruitment...