1840 — Aug 12, Battle, TX militia catch-up with Comanche raiders; attack ~Plum Creek TX-25-40
–>80 Sizer. Texas Disasters: Wind, Flood, and Fire. 2005, p. 34.[1]
— 80 TX Historical Commission. Texas Historic Sites atlas. “Details for Battle of Plum Creek.”
— 80 Wikipedia. “Battle of Plum Creek.” 11-7-2017 edit.[2]
–~40 (and one white). Brazos. Life of Robert Hall. 1898, in McKeehan.
—<40 Huston. Report of General Huston[3] to Sec. of War, Plum Creek, Aug 12, in McKeehan.
— 25 Linn, John J. Reminiscences of Fifty Years in Texas. 1883. In McKeehan.[4]
— 13 Hamilton P. Bee in Anderson, The Conquest of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing… p.189.
–“Several” Hämäläinen. The Comanche Empire. 2005, p. 216.
Narrative Information
Anderson: “After burning Linnville,[5] the party turned northwest, hoping to carry their plunder safely into the hill county. The Anglo-Texans, slowly recovering from the shock, gathered volunteers throughout the interior, coming together from Victoria, Gonzales, Bastrop, and Austin. Many of the same men who had precipitated the Indian war responded,[6] including Burleson and Felix Huston. Near Bastrop, two hundred troops assembled and selected Huston to lead them. They expected to meet the Indian force along Plum Creek, an exit route with good water for stock. Almost immediately news arrived that the Indians were five miles below and coming fast. While the Indians vastly outnumbered the Texans, the raid had netted at least two thousand horses and mules, and many of the Indians, overburdened with loot from the Linnville warehouses, hung back to protect the stolen and heavily laden stock.[7]
“As the Comanches came into sight, General Huston ordered his force of roughly two hundred men to dismount and await an expected charge. Instead, the Indians flanked the Texas troops by moving southward and westward. The ranger forces, annoyed at the incompetence and caution of Huston, remounted and pursued. The Comanches — with slow, loaded-down animals — were forced to make a stand near Casa Blanc, where a grove of trees protected them. ‘They lined the timber and almost literally covered the prairie,’ one of the rangers later reported….Out front were the chiefs, sporting ‘huge helmets of buffalo or elk-horns–armed with glistening shields with bow and quivers, with guns and lances and mounted on fleet chargers.’
“The rangers, carrying long rifles and possibly a few newly introduced Colt revolvers, were better armed. They also fought as units, dividing themselves into two columns and charging the flanks of the Indians. They Comanches soon yielded. A running fight across the Texas hills ensued for over an hour, the Texans seemingly gaining the upper hand but never overrunning the main body of Indians. Ultimately the Indian force reached a boggy area near present-day San Marcos. Here the Comanches broke up, with small bands collecting what they could and fleeing west into the hills. They had left a path of destruction that ever after was called the ‘Great Comanche Raid.’
“The Texas forces, while hardly victorious, celebrated the event as the ‘Victory at Plum Creek.’….Hundreds of mules and horses, some still packing goods, fell into the hands of Huston’s troops, but the Indians nevertheless carried off the majority of what they had taken in their raiding.
“In the hours that followed–somewhat euphoric, as the adrenalin from the fight subsided–General Huston first claimed that his men had dispatched forty Comanches. The numbers escalated as the Texans compared stories. Soon, the casualty figure was sixty, and finally eighty. In reality, the Comanches had carried off the majority of their wounded and dead, so these figures are nothing but inflated estimates. Hamilton P. Bee, no friend of Huston, later quietly reported to the secretary of war: ‘I heard more men say there were 13 killed than 25….General Huston of course makes it out a second Waterloo.’” (Anderson, Gary Clayton. The Conquest of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing in the Promised Land, 1820-1875. 2005. pp. 188-189.)
Huston in McKeehan: “I arrived here yesterday evening and found Captain Caldwell encamped on Plum Creek with about one hundred men. This morning I was requested to take command, which I did with the consent of the men. I organized them into companies, under command of Captains Caldwell, Bird and Ward, About six o’clock the spies reported that the Indians were approaching Plum Creek. I crossed above the trail about three miles and passed down on the west side; on arriving near the trail I was joined by Colonel Burleson with about one hundred men, under the command of Colonel Jones, Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace and Major Hardeman. I immediately formed into two lines, the right commanded by Colonel Anderson and the left commanded by Captain Caldwell, with a reserve commanded by Major Hardeman, with Captain Ward’s company.
“On advancing near the Indians they formed for action, with a front of woods on their right (which they occupied), their lines nearly a quarter of a mile into the prairie. I dismounted my men and a handsome fire was opened–the Indian chiefs cavorting around in splendid style, in front and flank, finely mounted, and dressed in all the splendor of Comanche warfare. At this time several Indians fell from their horses, and we had three or four of our men wounded. I ordered Colonel Burleson, with the right wing, to move around the point of woods, and Captain Caldwell, with the left wing, to charge into the woods; which movements were executed in gallant style.
“The Indians did not stand the charge, and fled at all points. From that time there was a warm and spirited pursuit for fifteen miles, the Indians scattered, mostly abandoning their horses and taking to the thickets. Nothing could exceed the animation of the men, and the cool and steady manner in which they would dismount and deliver their fire.
“Upwards of forty Indians were killed, two prisoners (a squaw and child) taken–we have taken upwards of two hundred horses and mules, and many of them heavily packed with the plunder of Linnville and the lower country. There is still a large number of good horses and mules which are not gathered up.
“Of the captives taken by the Indians below we have only been able to retake one–Mrs. Watts of Linnville, who was wounded by the Indians with an arrow when they fled. Mrs. Crosby was speared and we understand that all the others were killed.
“We have lost one killed and seven wounded, one mortally. I cannot speak too highly of the Colorado, Guadalupe and Lavaca militia, assembled so hastily together and without organization. I was assisted by Major Izod, Colonel Bell, Captain Howard and Captain Nell, as volunteer aids, all of whom rendered essential service. Colonel Burleson acted with that cool, deliberate and prompt courage and conduct which he has so often and gallantly displayed in almost every Indian and Mexican battle since the war commenced. Captain Caldwell, also a tried Indian fighter, led on his wing to the charge with a bold front and a cheerful heart. Colonel Jones, Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace, Major Hardeman, and each of the captains commanding companies, acted with the utmost courage and firmness.” (McKeehan, W. L. “General Huston’s Report, Battle of Plum Creek, 12 August 1840,” in Sons of Dewitt Colony Texas, ©1997-2013.)
Sizer: After a large force of Comanche (over 400 warriors led by Buffalo Hump)[8] attack on Victoria and other small Gulf coast settlements (in retaliation for the deaths of approximately 35 of their peace envoy and their family members in San Antonio on March 19), they steer a supply train of plunder and horses back to Comancheria land where a Republic of Texas militia force catches up. “…Buffalo Hump strapped the loot onto the backs of dozens of mules. With heavily laden animals, many prisoners, and three thousand horses, he headed back to the Llano Estacado…his burdens forced him to move slowly. He as trailed by legendary frontier captains… whom later became Texas Rangers.
“The captains and their men stampeded the great horse herd. The Comanche dispersed to try to control the animals rather than deploy for war. Horses and heavily laden mules piled up in a boggy stretch along the Colorado….Hand-to-hand combat, from horseback–lance against bowie knife, arrow against rifle–went on for fifteen miles. More than eighty Comanche were slain….” (Sizer. Texas Disasters: Wind, Flood, and Fire. 2005, p. 34.)
Texas Historical Commission, Marker Text: “The harsh anti-Indian policies of President Mirabeau B. Lamar and Mexican efforts to weaken the Republic of Texas stirred Indian hostilities. Hatred increased after the Council House Fight in San Antonio, March 19, 1840, where 12 Comanche chief were killed. After regrouping and making plans for revenge, 600 Comanches and Kiowas, including women and children, moved across central Texas in early August. They raided Victoria and Linnville (120 mi. SE), a prosperous seaport. About 200 Texans met at Good’s Crossing on Plum Creek under Major-General Felix Huston[9] (1800-1857) to stop the Indians. Adorned with their plunder from Linnville, the war party stretched for miles across the prairie. The Battle of Plum Creek, August 12, 1840, began on Comanche Flats (5.5 mi. SE) and proceeded to Kelley springs (2.5 mi. SW), with skirmishes as far as present San Marcos and Kyle. Mathew Caldwell (1798-1842), for whom Caldwell County was named, was injured in the Council House fight but took part in this battle. Volunteers under Edward Burleson (1793-1851) included 13 Tonkawa Indians, marked as Texan allies by white armbands. Texan casualties were light while the Indians lost over 80 chiefs and warriors. This battle ended the Comanche penetration of settled portions of Texas.” (Texas Historical Commission. Texas Historic Sites atlas. “Details for Battle of Plum Creek (Atlas Number 5055009783).” Historical Marker.)
Texas State Historical Association: “The battle of Plum Creek was an aftermath of the Council House Fight, in which many of the Comanche Indian chiefs, their women, and warriors were killed….” (Texas State Historical Association. “Plum Creek, Battle of.” Handbook of Texas Online, uploaded 6-15-2010; modified 3-18-2016.)
Sources
Anderson, Gary Clayton. The Conquest of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing in the Promised Land, 1820-1875. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005. Google digital preview accessed 11-21-2017 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=KKGt7CMROmgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Hämäläinen, Pekka. The Comanche Empire. Yale University Press, 2008. Google digitized. Accessed 11-21-2017 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=Jd4Km3Y8oAwC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
McKeehan, Wallace L. “General Huston’s Report, Battle of Plum Creek, 12 August 1840,” in Sons of Dewitt Colony Texas, ©1997-2013. Accessed 11-20-2017 at: http://www.sonsofdewittcolony.org//plumcreek.htm#hustonreport
McKeehan, Wallace L. “The Battle of Plum Creek from Life of Robert Hall” by ‘Brazos’ 1898. Sons of Dewitt Colony Texas, ©1997-2013. Accessed 11-21-2017 at: http://www.sonsofdewittcolony.org//plumcreek.htm#hustonreport
Roell, Craig H. “Linville Raid of 1840.” Handbook of Texas Online, uploaded 6-15-2010; modified 4-15-2016. Texas State Historical Association. Accessed 11-20-2017 at: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/btl01
Sizer, Mona D. Texas Disasters: Wind, Flood, and Fire. Lanham: A Republic of Texas Press Book, 2005.
Texas Historical Commission. Texas Historic Sites atlas. “Details for Battle of Plum Creek (Atlas Number 5055009783).” Historical Marker. Accessed 11-21-2017 at: https://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/Details/5055009783
Texas State Historical Association. “Plum Creek, Battle of.” Handbook of Texas Online, uploaded 6-15-2010; modified 3-18-2016.
Wikipedia. “Battle of Plum Creek.” 11-7-2017 edit. Accessed 11-21-2017 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Plum_Creek
[1] See Anderson and McKeehan in order to understand our decision to use a range of 25-40, and not use 80 deaths.
[2] The footnote at the end of the sentence which notes “The Texans reported killing 80 Comanches…” is a link to Roell’s “Linnville Raid of 1840” which we cite. There is no mention of fatalities on either side. We also went to Roell’s “Plum Creek, Battle of,” which is referenced, and, again, find no reference to fatalities on either side. We draw attention to McKeehan’s website which includes excerpts from the writings of participants in this engagement. The two we draw from both note opinions that about 40 Comanche were killed. Thus we do not use 80 as the tally.
[3] Major General Felix Huston of Republic of Texas militia.
[4] Wrote that “some 25 dead [were left] dead on the field.” Earlier noted: “It is thought some of the Indians were killed and thrown into the creek to conceal the bodies.”
[5] See my narrative on the Aug 6-7 Comanche rain on Victoria and vicinity (concluding with Linnville).
[6] See my narrative on the March 19, 1840 “Council House Fight” in San Antonio when approximately 35 Comanche peace envoys were killed.
[7] It might also be noted that there were several hundred Comanche women and children in the group in the forefront.
[8] Also along was a similar-sized contingent of family members — mostly women and children.
[9] We point out that Huston reported 40 Comanche deaths.