Texas Ranger John B. Jones and the Frontier Battalion, 1874-1881

14. Stately as a Queen

221 STATELY AS A QUEEN 14 ALTHOUGH IT HAD BEEN PROCLAIMED that the problem of raiding Indians had been diminished by the state troops, companies continued to scout for their presence. Usually all they found was evidence of the Indians’ presence in an area, but occasionally there was a confrontation, sometimes with unexpected results. On January 1, 1879, Lieutenant George Arrington, the new Company C commander, along with seventeen men and fifteen days’ rations and six pack mules, left the camp near Fort Griffin to investigate the report of Indians along the Pease River. Four inches of snow and sleet fell on the Rangers on the 4th, and they had to walk their horses to keep the blood flowing in their own feet. Camping briefly in a canyon, they cut down cottonwood trees to feed their horses. The cold, wind, and heavy snow slowed their progress, and they finally had to turn back to a nearby ranch where one of their horses froze to death. On January 14, the weather cleared sufficiently for the scout to resume. The next day they ran across fresh signs of about fifteen ponies. Accompanied by one Ranger and a guide, Arrington rode ahead of his group about a mile or two. The party to the rear spotted an Indian on foot running for a pile of boulders, and thinking that more 222 TEXAS RANGER JOHN B. JONES AND THE FRONTIER BATTALION, 1874–1881 Indians may be hidden there, Sergeant W. C. Bradley ordered his men to charge the rocks. With pistol in hand, Bradley confronted the sole Indian, later identified as a Kiowa named Gun Boys, who was brandishing a carbine. The Ranger shot him twice in the heart and the arm, and gunfire from other Rangers made sure he was finished. Then another Indian was spotted, and the Rangers on horseback raced after him, but the Indian escaped. Arrington returned to his men, reporting that he had spotted a nearby Indian camp. Stealthily, the scout approached a small valley containing fourteen tepees, with about 150 to 200 horses grazing nearby. A scene of peacefulness presented itself, Indian women and children unaware of the violence that had just occurred or of the Rangers’ quiet approach. The Rangers’ plan was for Bradley to take seven Rangers to attack the camp, while Arrington and men went after the horses. However, as they approached, Indians on horseback began yelling “Heap Texas! Heap Texas!” and tried to round up the horses. Indians in the camp began running amidst much confusion. The Rangers held their fire as they advanced closer to the camp, but as they were about to charge, six soldiers of the Tenth United States Cavalry rode up on horses bareback and called on the Texans to hold their fire. The camp was protected by regular soldiers who had escorted the Indians there to hunt. The carbine carried by the Indian who was killed was returned to the soldier who had loaned it to him. Disappointed, Arrington and his men retraced their route, arriving back at their camp on the 21st, their trek having extended about 300 miles. As one of the Rangers expressed it, “We suffered considerably, yet we have but one regret, and that is that we did not catch more of those Indians before we got to the camp.”1 ThearmywasupsetwiththekillingoftheIndian,reportedlyshotfour times and scalped. Captain John A. Wilcox, commander of the Fourth United States Cavalry, wrote Steele complaining that the Indians had not committed any depredations and that the attack by the Rangers was unprovoked. “On the contrary, I think they [the Indians] have evinced more than usual forbearance,” he proclaimed. After the attack, the Indians , described as despondent, were induced to return to the reservation at Stately as a Queen 223 Fort Sill in the Indian Territory.2 This did not prevent Governor Roberts from writing the army in February: I have the honor to inform you that there are now over one thousand Indians within the State of Texas, said to have come from Fort Sill Reservation , with permission to hunt in Texas. They are now roving about in small bands on the upper waters of the Brazos, Wichita & Pease Rivers . They are depredating on the property of the citizens of that sparsely settled region and our citizens are apprehending serious damage from them . . . I deem it my duty to call your attention to these facts and to request that...