1840 — Oct 24, TX volunteers ambush Comanche camp, Red Fork Col. River, TX –110-140
–>140 Anderson The Conquest of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing in the Promised Land…. 2005, 190.
— 140 Hämäläinen. The Comanche Empire. 2008, p. 216.
— 140 Mendoza and Grear (Eds.). Texans and War: New Interpretations…, p. 28.
— 130 Texas State Library and Archives Commission. “The Comanche War.” 6-27-2017 mod.
— 110 Texas Sentinel. “Battle With The Comanches.” 11-14-1840. Reproduced in TSLAC.
Narrative Information
Anderson: “In the aftermath of Plum Creek, cries came from many quarters to squelch the ‘Indian Menace’ once and for all….Secretary of War[1] Archer immediately appealed to the congress for funds. Unfortunately, Lamar [President of Texas] had nothing in the treasury….
“It remained for the volunteer rangers to carry extermination to the Indians. This was business for Colonel John Moore, who agreed with the animated Huston[2] and quietly organized his volunteer rangers, who now uttered words of revenge. Moore waited several months, collecting information on the whereabouts of the Comanches. Moore had cultivated the Lipan Apaches still in Texas, a handful of Indians who often worked as spies and scouts. Chief Castro, their leader, agreed to join Moore with some seventeen others. The Lipan Apaches, like their ranger brethren, rode for booty and revenge. They mostly were at war with the Comanches.
“Moore, who (unlike Huston) seldom publicized his exploits or even reported them to government officials, recruited his men from the saloons and settlements in and about Austin and Bastrop. The Austin papers helped by revealing his plan to invade Comanche land. The men who joined Moore knew his vindictive spirit and his willingness to engage the Indians, even many hundred at a time. They also knew his reputation for successfully bringing back goods and livestock, which paid handsomely for the venture. This was a critical attraction, for the republic’s offer to pay salaries to militia troops was as hollow as was its treasury.
“Under terms, then, that guaranteed nothing other than hardship and possible plunder, Moore and his med headed up the Brazos River in early October. They chose their time to ride knowing that Indians in villages never expected a winter attack. Turning west at the old Waco town along the central Brazos, they passed through the Lampasas River valley and finally struck the Colorado way out on the plains. Then a fierce norther — a snowstorm driven by high winds — descended upon them. Moore refused to turn back, even after one ranger died of exposure. Suddenly, on the night of October 23, the Lipan scouts returned, having found a large Comanche village nestled along the south bank of the Colorado. Moore’s rangers quietly stashed their supplies and moved undetected to within two hundred yards of the encampment. Just as dawn broke, the ninety Texans and the seventeen Lipan Apaches fell on the village and tore it apart.
“The Comanche village sat at the foot of a bluff, making it ideal for a winter location but difficult (indeed, impossible) to escape from. As the Comanches came out of their tepees, many were gunned down at point-blank range, the rangers firing their rifles first and then turning to pistols, mostly single-shot weapons that worked well at close range. According to Moore, ‘the bodies of {Indian} men, women and children were to be seen on every hand wounded, dying and dead.’ The carnage even expanded to the banks of the river, where unarmed Indians tried to swim across. Moore ordered his cavalry to shoot them in the back.
“In roughly twenty minutes, Moore’s troops killed 140 Comanches, taking 35 captives, mostly small children. But the total numbers may have been twice that, since many had perished in the cold waters of the Colorado as they tried to swim to safety. Further, the rangers then burned everything in the camp, including tepees and food. Starvation faced the survivors. As an indication of the extent of the slaughter, Moore had but two wounded rangers, both of whom recovered. Moore’s actions constituted a massacre of the highest order. To pay the rangers, Moore collected more than five hundred horses — worth easily $15,000, of $150 per man (nearly a year’s wages) — and many bundles of pelts and food, which he later sold to the highest bidders in Austin….” (Anderson The Conquest of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing in the Promised Land…. 2005, pp. 189-191.)
Britten in Mendoza and Grear: “Texas authorities organized a second campaign in October[3] under the leadership of John H. Moore. The second Moore expedition consisted of approximately one hundred Texas volunteers and many of the same Lipans who had participated in the winter campaign of 1839…After a long pursuit up the Colorado, Lipan scouts located the Comanche encampment of the river’s Red Fork — about three hundred miles northwest of Austin. In a brief battle that took place on October 24, Moore’s men routed the Comanches, killing 140 and capturing 34. The Texans burned everything in the camp, including tipis and food, and recovered as many as five hundred horses, pelts, as well as some of the remaining plunder from the Linville raid, which they divided among themselves. Their remarkable success at the ‘Battle of the Comanche Village’ (Moore’s force suffered only two casualties) apparently stimulated a series of new campaigns directed against the Comanches later that spring, as Texas Ranger companies rode out in pursuit of glory and plunder.”[4] (Britten, Thomas A. “The Indian Wars of Texas: A Lipan Apache Perspective,” pp. 17-37 in Mendoza and Grear, p. 28.)
Hämäläinen: “In October, Texas volunteers ambushed a Comanche rancheria north of the Colorado River, killed 140 men, women, and children, and seized 500 horses.” (Hämäläinen. The Comanche Empire. 2008, p. 216.)
Moore: “Other expeditions were made during 1840 into Indian territories of Texas, the most notable of which was made by Colonel John Henry Moore with ninety-off volunteers. On the Red Fork of the Colorado River, his forces attacked a Comanche village at dawn on October 24. The Texans charged the unsuspecting village from all sides and opened fire. Come of the Comanches managed to cross the river and flee for cover. Men, women, and children were slaughtered and pursuit was carried out by mounted volunteers for four miles.” (Moore p. 355.)
Texas State Library and Archives Commission: “In October 1840, Colonel John H. Moore led a force into Comanche territory and attacked their village on the Red Fork of the Colorado River. Moore’s troops killed about 130 warriors and took 34 prisoners. With this devastating loss, the Comanches moved away from the Texas frontier and turned their raiding attentions to Mexico.”[5] (Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, TX. Native American Relations in Texas. “The Comanche War.” 6-27-2017 modification.)
Newspaper
Nov 14: “Col. John H. Moore, of the Fayette volunteers returned to this place [Austin], on Saturday last [Nov 7], from an expedition up the Colorado river. He had 90 men under his command, and 12 Lapan Indians. They penetrated about 300 miles into the Comanche country, where they fell in with a party of Comanche Indians, (a portion of the same who made the attack on Linnville,) upon the Red Fork of the Colorado river, and killed 110, and captured 35 women and children. The old chief Mochochochomochonch was among the slain. He wore a silver medal presented to some Indian by Madison while President of the United States.
“Col. Moore charged upon the encampment at day light–the surprise was sudden, and the loss almost total on the part of the Indians. They were encamped in a bend of the river, with very high and precipitous banks on the opposite side; 49 were killed in the first charge which were left upon the field. It was impossible to ascertain precisely the amount which were killed in the water, but it must have been considerable as the bank of the river was so precipitous that it was impossible for them to ascent it, except in one place; that was immediately taken possession of by our troops, and it is not believed that a single one made their escape. We had but two men very slightly wounded. Col. Moore and his troops took possession of the Indian encampment and found an immense quantity of Indian property, and captured 500 horses.
“One man Garrett Harrell died in the campaign….
“This is the severest chastisement which the Comanches have ever received. They have never before been pursued so far into their own country. They were now encamped 300 miles from the settlements, and considered themselves perfectly safe….” (Texas Sentinel, Austin. “Battle With The Comanches.” 11-14-1840. In Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, TX.)
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
Britten, Thomas A. “The Indian Wars of Texas: A Lipan Apache Perspective,” pp. 17-37 in Alexander Mendoza and Charles David Grear (Eds.), Texans and War: New Interpretations of the State’s Military History. Texas A&M University Press, 2012. Google digital preview accessed 11-21-2017 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=v5zybQXmUFYC&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
Moore, Stephen L. Rangers, Riflemen, and Indian Wars in Texas (Volume II of Savage Frontier, 1838-1839). Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, 2006. Google digital preview accessed 11-21-2017 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkVcE6mJlgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Texas Sentinel, Austin. “Battle With The Comanches.” 11-14-1840. Reproduced in Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, TX. Native American Relations in Texas. “The Comanche War.” 6-27-2017 modification. Accessed 11-21-2017 at: https://www.tsl.texas.gov/exhibits/indian/war/page2.html
[1] Republic of Texas.
[2] “General” who led militia at Plum Creek engagement.
[3] First being the Plum Creek attack in August.
[4] Cites: Anna Muckelroy, “The Indian Policy of Texas,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 26 (Oct. 1922): 145; Hoig, Tribal Wars of the Southern Plains, 161; Mayhall, Indian Wars of Texas, 39-40; Anderson, Conquest of Texas, 190-191; Brown, Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, 83-84.
[5] Only source cited is the Texas Sentinel newspaper which notes 110 killed and 35 women and children captured.