More about the McCoys

This post has gotten out of order. It should had been posted after the first McCoy post.


MCCOY. Daniel, Green, Jesse, John "Devil/Padre", John, Joseph, Prospect, Samuel. [In addition to diverse sources, the following was compiled in large part by analysis of articles in the History of Gonzales County Texas by Linda Alford and Jackie Paschal and data supplied by May Thompson Yoss]

Like many DeWitt Colonists including founders Green DeWitt and James Kerr and the author's five related Burket, Kent and Zumwalt families, the McCoy families were pioneers in the Missouri Territory of Upper Louisiana while it was still or had just been released from Spain. The McCoys begin with John and Martha Humphrey McCoy who had children Daniel, Samuel, John McCoy Sr., Catherine, Sarah, Hester, Margaret, Joseph Hill and James. Daniel McCoy (b. aft 1762, bef 1774 in VA or KY; d. 1844; m. Rachel Zumwalt in 1797 in HarrisonCo, KY, daughter of Johann Henrich and Mary Catherine Hiatt Zumwalt), along with brothers John McCoy Sr. (b. abt 1771 PA?; d. 30 Aug 1836 VictoriaCo, TX) and Joseph Hill McCoy, came to the Missouri Territory in 1797 with Daniel's father-in-law Henry Zumwalt and related Zumwalt pioneers from Kentucky. Daniel and Rachel Zumwalt had children John (b. abt 1754), Frances, Sarah, Nancy, Mahala, Margaret, Joseph and Elizabeth.

Texian pioneer Frank W. Johnson History of Texas and Texans, who was from the same area of Missouri and knew Green DeWitt well relates:

"about the middle or latter part of the fall [1826] three families, the Messrs. McCoy, arrived and encamped near Mr. Heddy's [between Harrisburg and San Felipe de Austin]. They, like myself, were from Missouri. We soon formed an acquaintance and, as we were from the same state, formed a sort of brotherhood. They, however, intended going to DeWitt's colony, and had only stopped for the season, believing that provisions could be more readily procured in Austin's than DeWitt's colony. The winter proved to be a mild and dry one, until the latter part and early spring, when we had frequent and heavy rains, which made the streams high and the roads almost impassable........ In the spring of this year, 1827, being invited and solicited by the Messrs. McCoy to accompany them to DeWitt's colony, and, being desirous to see more of the country, though still subject to chill and fever, I accepted the invitation. Our first day's travel brought us to San Bernard, some fifteen miles distant from San Felipe de Austin, and on what is known as the Atascosito road. From thence we proceeded to the Colorado, which stream we crossed above the road. The weather, though cloudy, with an occasional shower, was quite pleasant, and we pursued our journey without accident or incident until within some ten miles of DeWitt's station on the La Baca. Though the day had been fair it became cloudy at nightfall. We had built a large log fire and got our suppers; soon after we discovered a portentous cloud in the northwest, and occasional peals of thunder---it had been lightening in the north for some time before we heard the thunder. The cloud formed rapidly, and soon darkened the heavens, and sent---down torrents of rain, So heavy was the rain that it not only wet us to the skin, notwithstanding we were wrapped in our blankets, but extinguished our fire. After an hour or two the rain ceased and the clouds broke up. The storm was accompanied by a heavy blow from the north and was quite cold. After the rainstorm the wind continued to blow fiercely, but we rekindled the fire and dired our clothing and blankets, and spent the remainder of the night quite confortably. While enjoying the fire and drying, I observed to the elder McCoy that I thought that the drenching I had received would either kill or cure me; to this he replied that I need be under no apprehensions of ill consequences. In this opinion he was right. I improved in health and strength from that day forward." Johnson continues description of their arrival at DeWitt's station on the La Baca River.

Six McCoy's received land grants in the DeWitt Colony. Land records indicate a John McCoy Sr. (John "Devil/Padre" McCoy) arrived married 9 Mar 1827 with family of 4, Joseph McCoy arrived married 29 Jan 1829 with family of 7 (son of John McCoy Sr., by census he was in the colony in 1828), another John McCoy (believed son of John McCoy Sr.) arrived married 9 Mar 1827 with family of 4, Jesse McCoy (son of John McCoy Sr.) arrived single 9 Mar 1827, Samuel McCoy (son of John McCoy Sr.) arrived single 4 Jan 1829, Daniel McCoy arrived married 20 Mar 1830 and Joseph McCoy Jr. arrived single 20 Mar 1830. Grants to father John Sr. and sons Joseph and Jesse were next to each other southeast of the Gonzales town tract on the east bank of the Guadalupe River near the current Gonzales-DeWittCo line while those to putative brothers, John and Samuel McCoy, were further south on the east bank in current DeWittCo. The grant to Daniel McCoy was on Peach Creek between Gonzales and the FayetteCo line while that to Joseph McCoy Jr. was further east in current FayetteCo northeast of current Waelder. Relation to the John "Padre" McCoy clan of Joseph McCoy Jr. and Daniel McCoy, who list the same arrival date in land grant records, is unclear, but they are thought to be a father and son pair, brother and nephew of John "Padre" McCoy, respectively.

John McCoy Sr., son of John and Martha Humphrey McCoy, arrived with wife Martha and children Daniel and Louisa in 1827 and are listed in the 1828 census of the colony. They were among the first settlers of the DeWitt Colony at Old Station on the Lavaca. John McCoy, known as "Devil" or "Padre" McCoy Indians and Mexicans, respectively, was apparently the head of the McCoy clan and an accomplished Indian fighter as were other McCoys serving under both Daniel Boone and son Capt. Nathan Boone in Missouri. John and Martha McCoy Sr. had children Joseph Hill, John Jr., James, Thomas, Jesse, Timothy, Samuel, Daniel and Louisa. Sons Jesse (b. 1804 in MO) and Joseph Hill (b. abt 1791 in KY) came to TX with their father in 1827 and are also listed in the 1828 census. The single John McCoy listed in the 1828 census from PA is believed also to be a son, John McCoy Jr. (b. abt 1794 in KY; d. BlancoCo, TX). Son Samuel McCoy (b. 1806 in MO) arrived later in 1829. Son James McCoy (b. 1796 in KY; m. Matilda?) also came to Texas and died at Goliad in 1836 while serving in Capt. Pettus' Company of San Antonio Grays. Daniel McCoy (b. 1813 LincolnCo, MO) married an Elizabeth and sister Louisa McCoy (b. 1816 LincolnCo, MO) married Thomas M. Mathews.

John McCoy, age 33, from Pennsylvania with a wife in the USA, was listed in the 1828 census of the colony. A John McCoy listed in DeWitt Colony land records as having arrived married in 1827 with family of 4 received a sitio land grant on the east bank of the Guadalupe River on Queens and McCoy Creek in current DeWittCo, south of the cluster of grants to the John "Padre" McCoy relations (Joseph, Jesse and Samuel). These John McCoys are believed to be one and the same and the son of John "Padre" and Martha Dunbar McCoy Sr. A John McCoy participated in the Battle of San Jacinto in Capt. Hayden Arnold's 1st Infantry Company, 2nd Regiment of Volunteers. Dixon and Kemp in Heroes of San Jacinto described him as born in Missouri in 1794 having emigrated to Texas with wife, two sons and a daughter in 1828. He enlisted in the Republican Army on 6 Mar 1836 for 6 months. In 1871 he was living in BlancoCo, receiving a pension and died there. This John McCoy married Elizabeth Ann Castleman 15 Mar 1830. Probably this is the John McCoy family of the 1850 census of CaldwellCo: McCOY: John 55 m KY; Elizabeth 50 f TN; Rimber 19 m TX; John 12 m TX; Green 10 m TX.

Jesse McCoy, son of John and Martha Dunbar McCoy, was a member of the Gonzales Alamo Relief Force and died in the Alamo in 1836. A letter from Empresario Green DeWitt to Jefe-Politico of Bexar in 1829 suggests that Jesse played an important emissary or intelligence role early in the colony's history in its relationship with Indians.

"His Excellency, Ramon Musquiz, Chief of the Department of Texas, May 8th, 1829. Dear Sir, On last evening a man by the name of Jesa McCoy who is a resident of this colony who has been with the Comanche Indians for several weeks passed arrived here, and gave me the following information; the principal chief of the Tawaccanes, and the principal chief of the Wacoes, called upon the head chief of the Comanches and solicited from him to join them the Wacoes and Tawaccanes in a general war against the Mexicans and the American settlements---Saying at the same time that the Mexicans had taken from them a Caveard and the Americans had killed some of there men, and therefore they have declared war against both; he further states that the Comanches entirely refused to join in the war fare; saying that they were now at perfect peace with the people of this country and wished to remain so. I believe my informant to be a man of truth and that what he has stated my be relied on. God and Liberty. Gonzales, 8th May, 1829 Green DeWitt. (From The Austin Papers, E.C. Barker, ed.)

Joseph Hill and Catherine Clark McCoy. Joseph McCoy, oldest child born about 1791 of John "Padre" and Martha Dunbar McCoy came with his father's family to Texas. Althought land records say Joseph arrived 26 Jan 1829 with his wife Catherine, daughter of Major Christopher Clark of Kentucky, and five children, probably: Prospect Clark, Green, Elizabeth, Christopher and Joseph L. (or possibly an infant born in MO which died--Joseph L. was born 1 Nov 1827 at Old Station on the Lavaca), the family of 7 is listed with children Prospect, Green, Elizabeth, Christopher and a male infant in the 1828 census of the colony. Two other children were born in Texas, Richard Texas M. on 22 Dec 1830 on Peach Creek, and Lowrey Sylvestor McCoy on 12 Feb 1835 on Sandies Creek. Prospect Clark, Green and Joseph McCoy married daughters of Zachariah and Rosanna Chinault Davis. Prospect married Elizabeth Ann Davis August 18, 1840, Green married Susan, and Joseph L. married Eliza in 1848. Daughter Elizabeth wed Christopher Williams in WashingtonCo and later Archibald Gibson in GonzalesCo. Richard Texas married Matilda Caroline "Carrie" Crane, and Lowrey S. married Ann Elizabeth Little. Christopher, a lifelong bachelor, lived with his widowed mother Catherine after their father's death in June 1836 near Neches or Washington-on-the-Brazos on the Brazos River where he became ill during the Runaway Scrape. Widow Catherine and family are listed in the 1850 census of GonzalesCo, Peach Creek District: 12-12, McCoy, Caterine, 53, f, $13,284, Ky; McCoy, Cristepher, 28, m, Mo; McCoy, Texas, 18, m, Texas; McCoy, Laury C., 14, f, Texas.

Prospect Clark McCoy (2 Jan 1816 St. Charles or LincolnCo, Missouri) was thirteen when the family arrived in Texas. During the Texas Revolution, with other members of his family, he contributed to the cause of freedom serving with Captain Albert Martin's Company of John H. Moore's Regiment. To his marriage to Elizabeth Ann Davis were born eleven children among them three sets of twins.

The children were: Jesse M., Elizabeth L., Mary M., Zachariah Davis, Prospect C. Jr., Constanna Katherine, Rosanna, Emaline, Adaline, Vianna and Lavinia. His eldest son Jesse M. was named for his great uncle, a brother of Joseph, who fell at the Alamo, married first Jane Shelton Bivin January 9, 1867 in Guadalupe County, Texas and second in Kansas while on a trail drive in the late 1870's Lucretia L. Contplin. His eldest daughter Elizabeth L. married George W. Lookingbill. Mary M. McCoy, the second daughter, became the wife of Edward T. Pearson November 2, 1859 and after bearing three children died May 16, 1869. Zachariah Davis McCoy, the second son and fourth child, married Mollie Dees and died but a week after their nuptials were celebrated. The story came down that he swam the river to obtain the marriage license, became ill and died February 20, 1869. Prospect C. Jr. died at age seventeen. Constanna Katherine wed first William Pinckney Moore and second following a divorce C.B. "Bon" Burris. Her twin Rosanna married E. Fred Morris and in 1886 went with their family to Harvey County, Oregon. Emaline (1853) died at age eleven about the same time as her brother Prospect Jr. Her twin sister Adaline wed W.H. Little October 14,1872. Vianna "Fannie" (May 19, 1856-July 25, 1886) married Benjamin L. Lynch October 4, 1875 and died eleven years later. Her twin sister, Lavinia, was found dead in the family yard when she was only fourteen.

The family of Prospect McCoy lived near old Sandies Chapel. They and most of their children, some of their grandchildren, his mother Catherine, two of his paternal uncles and Rosa Chinault Davis, mother of Elizabeth Ann, were all buried in Sandies Chapel Cemetery. To the Edward T. Pearsons were born three children: Elizabeth Ann "Bettie" married James Robert Gordon, a Confederate veteran; Fillmore M. "Phillip" became the husband of Rachel T. Smith, an orphan girl Phil's uncle Jesse befriended and brought home to Texas from one of his trail drives; and Zachariah C. Pearson who died when not quite a year old. Linda Ivy Alford (Adapted from The History of Gonzales County, Texas by permission of the Gonzales County Historical Commission)

Green McCoy was the "boy from Gonzales" described in the 13 men and boy volunteers under Capt. George B. Erath who intercepted a group of about a hundred Indian raiders on the way to a nearby settlement known as Erath's Fight on 7 Jan 1837 at Elm Creek in current MilamCo. Other participants were Lishley, Robert Childers, Frank Childers and soldiers McLochlan, Lee R. Davis, David Clark, Empson Thompson, Jack Gross, Jack Houston. Other boys were Lewis Moore, Morris Moore and John Folks. David Clark, a brother of Green McCoy's mother, Catherine, that came to TX with the McCoys from LincolnCo, MO, was killed in the fight. Green McCoy was also in Ben McCulloch's company that responded to a night raid by Indians on the town of Gonzales in 1841. The troop comprised of Arthur Swift, James H. Callahan, Wilson Randle, Eli T. Hankins, Clement Hinds, Archibald Gipson, W.A. Hall, Henry E. McCulloch, James Roberts, Jeremiah Roberts, Thomas R. Nichols, William Tumlinson, William P. Kincannon, Alsey R. Miller and William Morrison, pursued up the Guadalupe to near the headwaters and killed all but 8 of the raiders.

Samuel McCoy. Samuel McCoy was born in 1806 in Lincoln County, Missouri and on 19 Feb 1832 married Mahala Zumwalt who was born in 1814 in St. Charles, Missouri. Before going to Texas, the McCoy and Zumwalt men had served together in Daniel Boone's Mounted Rangers. They served under his son, Captain Nathan Boone, in Lincoln County, Missouri where in April, 1814 James McCoy was killed by Indians one and one-half miles north of Riggs Ford. Samuel McCoy was a son of John "Padre" McCoy, so called by the Mexicans because he was head of the McCoy family who went with DeWitt to Gonzales March 9, 1827. Originally Samuel did not go to Texas with the family. According to land records, he arrived in Gonzales January 4, 1829 and received his one-fourth league of land on the east bank of the Guadalupe River just north of current Hochheim 9 Jul 1831. Samuel also had four lots in the inner town of Gonzales: Block 7, Lots 4 and 5, deed dated December 28,1833 and two outer town lots, Tier 1, Lots 15 and 16 east of Water Street, deed dated September 28, 1835.

Wife Mahala Zumwalt was the daughter of Adam Zumwalt. She and Samuel McCoy had two children: Hester Ann (b. 19 Sep 1832) (photo) and Adam Zumwalt McCoy (b. abt 1837). (See Red Adam Zumwalt Family Bible). Samuel died intestate after October 7, 1836 [10 Sep 1837] and before March 12, 1838. Adam Zumwalt applied for guardianship of his grandchildren, Hester Ann and Adam Z., at the request of his daughter Mahala, widow of Samuel McCoy. On August 25, 1838 Mahala McCoy married Henry R. Crawford. They had one son, Felix Grundy Crawford. On April 30, 1841 Henry Crawford applied for guardianship of Hester Ann and Adam Zumwalt McCoy. Adam Zumwalt was released from his guardianship September 29, 1841. Mahala died before March, 1845 whereupon Eli Mitchell petitioned for guardianship of the Samuel McCoy heirs. Bond was granted May 16, 1845 but in May, 1853 Eli had to bring suit against Henry Crawford to gain control of the Samuel McCoy estate. Eli Mitchell resigned his guardianship of the Samuel McCoy heirs December 27, 1853 in favor of Robert J. Carr of Caldwell County, husband of Hester Ann McCoy. On December 28, 1853 Henry Crawford as guardian of his son, Felix Crawford, and Robert Carr as guardian for his wife, Hester Ann, and Adam Z. McCoy, petitioned the court for the partition and distribution of the McCoy estate. At the time of his death Samuel McCoy had three-fourths league of land situated on the waters of Peach Creek in Gonzales County and two lots east of Water Street on East Avenue in the outer Town of Gonzales, Tier 1, Lots 15-16, deed dated September 28,1835. These two lots were bought at public auction by Eli Mitchell February 27, 1855 for the sum of $315.50. The three-fourths league of land was divided: 1366 acres to Hester Ann Carr, 1366 acres to Adam McCoy, 765 acres to Felix Crawford, son of Mahala McCoy Crawford. The Samuel McCoy estate was finally settled in 1855. Jackie C. Paschal (Adapted from The History of Gonzales County, Texas by permission of the Gonzales County Historical Commission)

Daniel McCoy was among the band of Gonzales volunteers under Dr. James H.C. Miller who responded to a Comanche depredation in 1835 on a French and Mexican pack train on its way to Mexico. Daniel McCoy with Mathew Caldwell and Ezekial Williams were sent forward to determine the bands position when from behind Daniel was grasped by the tails of his long coat by an Indian from the bushes. According to author John Henry Brown ..."but 'Old Dan' as he was called, threw his arms backward and slipped from the garment without stopping, exclaiming, 'Take it, d--n you!'" The relationship of Daniel McCoy to the John McCoy's of DeWitt Colony and whether this is the same Daniel McCoy receiving title to the sitio east of the Gonzales town tract on the Sandy Fork of Peach Creek is not completely clear. The fact that Daniel and Joseph McCoy Jr. list identical arrival dates in DeWitt land records suggest that they may have been related. The reference to "Old Dan" suggests that he might have been up in age in 1835. Daniel McCoy (b. bef 1774), son of John and Martha Humphrey McCoy, brother of John "Padre" McCoy Sr., would have been at least 61 years old and maybe older at the time. Daniel and Rachel Zumwalt McCoy had children John Lewis (b. 1798), Frances (Fanny), Sarah (Sally), Nancy, Mahala, Margaret (Peggy), Joseph (b. 1811) and Elizabeth (Betsy). Daughter Margaret (b. 1809-1812) married first Ambrose Tinney in 1828 in St. CharlesCo, MO.  According to descendant Tory Crook, this is Ambrose Fenney.   Margaret McCoy and Ambrose Tinney had children John, Griffin (b.  23 Sep 1834), Addison B. (b. abt 1837) and Jacob (b. abt 1840). John (b. 14 Mar 1830 in MO) and a son who died before the 1850 census arrived with the Ambrose Tinney family.  The marriage record of 30 Oct 1828 of an Ambrose "Tena" and Peggy McCoy is in St. CharlesCo, MO records.  Ambrose Tinney died before 1845 and Margaret McCoy Tinney later married Alexander Morris in 1848 in GonzalesCo, TX, but later divorced.  They had children George Washington, Isabel and Alexander Jr. The 1850 census of CaldwellCo lists household: MORRIS: Alexander 28 m PA; Margaret 35 f MO; TINNEY, John 20 m MO; Griffin 17 m MO; Austin 13 m TX; Jacob 10 m TX; MORRIS: George W. 2 m TX; Isabella 6/12 f TX

The Texas Declaration of Independence

The Texas Declaration of Independence
(March 2, 1836)

The Texas Declaration of Independence was produced, literally, overnight. Its urgency was paramount, because while it was being prepared, the Alamo in San Antonio was under seige by Santa Anna's army of Mexico. Immediately upon the assemblage of the Convention of 1836 on March 1, a committee of five of its delegates were appointed to draft the document. The committee, consisting of George C. Childress, Edward Conrad, James Gaines, Bailey Hardeman, and Collin McKinney, prepared the declaration in record time. It was briefly reviewed, then adopted by the delegates of the convention the following day.
As seen from the transcription below, the document parallels somewhat that of the United States, signed almost sixty years earlier. It contains statements on the function and responsibility of government, followed by a list of grievances. Finally, it concludes by declaring Texas a free and independent republic.
The full text of the document is as follows:

---

The Unanimous Declaration of Independence made by the Delegates of the People of Texas in General Convention at the town of Washington on the 2nd day of March 1836.

When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression.
When the Federal Republican Constitution of their country, which they have sworn to support, no longer has a substantial existence, and the whole nature of their government has been forcibly changed, without their consent, from a restricted federative republic, composed of sovereign states, to a consolidated central military despotism, in which every interest is disregarded but that of the army and the priesthood, both the eternal enemies of civil liberty, the everready minions of power, and the usual instruments of tyrants.
When, long after the spirit of the constitution has departed, moderation is at length so far lost by those in power, that even the semblance of freedom is removed, and the forms themselves of the constitution discontinued, and so far from their petitions and remonstrances being regarded, the agents who bear them are thrown into dungeons, and mercenary armies sent forth to force a new government upon them at the point of the bayonet.
When, in consequence of such acts of malfeasance and abdication on the part of the government, anarchy prevails, and civil society is dissolved into its original elements. In such a crisis, the first law of nature, the right of self-preservation, the inherent and inalienable rights of the people to appeal to first principles, and take their political affairs into their own hands in extreme cases, enjoins it as a right towards themselves, and a sacred obligation to their posterity, to abolish such government, and create another in its stead, calculated to rescue them from impending dangers, and to secure their future welfare and happiness.
Nations, as well as individuals, are amenable for their acts to the public opinion of mankind. A statement of a part of our grievances is therefore submitted to an impartial world, in justification of the hazardous but unavoidable step now taken, of severing our political connection with the Mexican people, and assuming an independent attitude among the nations of the earth.
The Mexican government, by its colonization laws, invited and induced the Anglo-American population of Texas to colonize its wilderness under the pledged faith of a written constitution, that they should continue to enjoy that constitutional liberty and republican government to which they had been habituated in the land of their birth, the United States of America.
In this expectation they have been cruelly disappointed, inasmuch as the Mexican nation has acquiesced in the late changes made in the government by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who having overturned the constitution of his country, now offers us the cruel alternative, either to abandon our homes, acquired by so many privations, or submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny, the combined despotism of the sword and the priesthood.
It has sacrificed our welfare to the state of Coahuila, by which our interests have been continually depressed through a jealous and partial course of legislation, carried on at a far distant seat of government, by a hostile majority, in an unknown tongue, and this too, notwithstanding we have petitioned in the humblest terms for the establishment of a separate state government, and have, in accordance with the provisions of the national constitution, presented to the general Congress a republican constitution, which was, without just cause, contemptuously rejected.
It incarcerated in a dungeon, for a long time, one of our citizens, for no other cause but a zealous endeavor to procure the acceptance of our constitution, and the establishment of a state government.
It has failed and refused to secure, on a firm basis, the right of trial by jury, that palladium of civil liberty, and only safe guarantee for the life, liberty, and property of the citizen.
It has failed to establish any public system of education, although possessed of almost boundless resources, (the public domain,) and although it is an axiom in political science, that unless a people are educated and enlightened, it is idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty, or the capacity for self government.
It has suffered the military commandants, stationed among us, to exercise arbitrary acts of oppression and tyrrany, thus trampling upon the most sacred rights of the citizens, and rendering the military superior to the civil power.
It has dissolved, by force of arms, the state Congress of Coahuila and Texas, and obliged our representatives to fly for their lives from the seat of government, thus depriving us of the fundamental political right of representation.
It has demanded the surrender of a number of our citizens, and ordered military detachments to seize and carry them into the Interior for trial, in contempt of the civil authorities, and in defiance of the laws and the constitution.
It has made piratical attacks upon our commerce, by commissioning foreign desperadoes, and authorizing them to seize our vessels, and convey the property of our citizens to far distant ports for confiscation.
It denies us the right of worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own conscience, by the support of a national religion, calculated to promote the temporal interest of its human functionaries, rather than the glory of the true and living God.
It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defence, the rightful property of freemen, and formidable only to tyrannical governments.
It has invaded our country both by sea and by land, with intent to lay waste our territory, and drive us from our homes; and has now a large mercenary army advancing, to carry on against us a war of extermination.
It has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with the tomahawk and scalping knife, to massacre the inhabitants of our defenseless frontiers.
It hath been, during the whole time of our connection with it, the contemptible sport and victim of successive military revolutions, and hath continually exhibited every characteristic of a weak, corrupt, and tyrranical government.
These, and other grievances, were patiently borne by the people of Texas, untill they reached that point at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. We then took up arms in defence of the national constitution. We appealed to our Mexican brethren for assistance. Our appeal has been made in vain. Though months have elapsed, no sympathetic response has yet been heard from the Interior. We are, therefore, forced to the melancholy conclusion, that the Mexican people have acquiesced in the destruction of their liberty, and the substitution therfor of a military government; that they are unfit to be free, and incapable of self government.
The necessity of self-preservation, therefore, now decrees our eternal political separation.
We, therefore, the delegates with plenary powers of the people of Texas, in solemn convention assembled, appealing to a candid world for the necessities of our condition, do hereby resolve and declare, that our political connection with the Mexican nation has forever ended, and that the people of Texas do now constitute a free, Sovereign, and independent republic, and are fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations; and, conscious of the rectitude of our intentions, we fearlessly and confidently commit the issue to the decision of the Supreme arbiter of the destinies of nations.

	Richard Ellis, President of the Convention and Delegate from Red River.
	Charles B. Stewart Tho. Barnett John S. D. Byrom Francis Ruis J. Antonio Navarro Jesse B. Badgett Wm D. Lacy William Menifee Jn. Fisher Matthew Caldwell William Motley Lorenzo de Zavala Stephen H. Everett George W. Smyth Elijah Stapp Claiborne West Wm. B. Scates M. B. Menard A. B. Hardin J. W. Burton Thos. J. Gazley R. M. Coleman Sterling C. Robertson	James Collinsworth Edwin Waller Asa Brigham Geo. C. Childress Bailey Hardeman Rob. Potter Thomas Jefferson Rusk Chas. S. Taylor John S. Roberts Robert Hamilton Collin McKinney Albert H. Latimer James Power Sam Houston David Thomas Edwd. Conrad Martin Parmer Edwin O. Legrand Stephen W. Blount Jms. Gaines Wm. Clark, Jr. Sydney O. Pennington Wm. Carrol Crawford Jno. Turner
	Benj. Briggs Goodrich G. W. Barnett James G. Swisher Jesse Grimes S. Rhoads Fisher John W. Moore John W. Bower Saml. A. Maverick (from Bejar) Sam P. Carson A. Briscoe J. B. Woods H. S. Kimble, Secretary

From Reminiscences of Fifty Years in Texas by John J. Linn 1883

We of Victoria were startled by the apparition presented by the sudden appearance of six hundred mounted Comanches in the immediate outskirts of the village. The first supposition was that they were Lipans, who occasionally paid us friendly visits, but soon the intelligence came that the Indians had killed Mr. McNuner a mile north of town, and Dr. Gray, and also had wounded a boy. By these unmistakable tokens we were made aware of the fact that we were about surrounded by overwhelming numbers of these implacable enemies of the human race. The men of Victoria, some 50 in number, collected such arms as they could, but the folly of attempting anything against such numbers, and on foot, were apparent to all. The Indians were engaged in gathering up horses, as we could plainly see. Some Mexican traders were in Victoria at the time, and had about five hundred head of horses on the prairie in the immediate vicinity of town. All these the Comanches captured, besides a great many belonging to the citizens of the place.

A Mr. Crosby, who lived a mile below town, had come in in the morning, leaving his wife and little child at home. The Indians took Mrs. Crosby and the child prisoners. It was thought according to custom, that, having satisfied themselves with plunder, the Indians would retire toward their usual haunts before a force could be assembled to attack them. With this object in view about 50 of the best men in Victoria were mounted and dispatched to the settlement near Cuero Creek in DeWitt County, to get reinforcements and meet the Indians on their return. The Indians retired to Spring Creek near the mouth, in the timber, and so passed the Comanche encampment unobserved, and proceeded on their way. The Indians killed a white man on Spring Creek, named Vartland Richardson, and two Negro men, and took a negro girl prisoners. Contrary to all expectation, and at variance with their usual custom, the Indians did not retreat, but threatened the town again the next day. They dispersed themselves over the whole country and almost surrounded the town.

Four men returning from Jackson County encountered the savages a mile or two out of town. Pinknay Caldwell, who was riding a mule, made no effort to escape and was lanced to death on the spot. Another of the four, a Mexican, was overhauled and killed. Joseph Rodgers and the late Jesse O. Wheeler put spurs to their horses and won the race for life by the veriest good fortune; so close was Captain Wheeler pursued that his enemy did not draw rein until he had entered the streets of the town. The Indians burned a house on the outskirts of the town. The panic-stricken citizens all collected at the public square, and all were speculating with agonizing suspense upon the fate that would probably befall us. But fortunately for us, as it was fatal for others, the Indians passed Victoria and proceeded toward the bay, literally sweeping the whole country of horse stock as they went. They camped for the night on the Benavides Ranch, on the Placido Creek, distance 12 miles from Linnville. They intercepted two wagoners here, one of whom concealed himself in the high grass and saved his life by fleeing to Victoria under cover of the darkness. The other was killed, and in such close proximity to his hidden friend that he could hear him begging for his life. One of the wagons was loaded with two hogsheads of bacon. These the Comanches opened, but not fancying the contents, where fresh meat was so plentiful, unfastened the oxen that were attached to the wagon, and left it and the cargo untouched.

Mr. W. G. Ewing, a merchant of Linnville, en route to Victoria, passed these wagons on the roadside and saw the campfires of the Comanches on the creek close at hand, not dreaming of the gauntlet that he was unconsciously running. He imagined the Indian camp was some large Mexican train of wagons going to Linnville for goods. On reaching Victoria the next morning he was much surprised at the revelations that greeted his ears, and considerably troubled at the thought that six hundred hostile Indians interposed between himself and his home. His sister, Mrs. H. O. Watts was in Linnville. In three miles of Linville the Comanches killed two Negro men whom they found cutting hay. They immediately proceeded to surround the town and to pillage the stores and houses. The people took refuge on a lighter in the bay, and were soon aboard a schooner lying at anchor and safe from the Indians. Major Watts (H. O. Watts, the collector of customs) and Mr. O'Neill were killed and Mrs. Watts taken a prisoner. While the Indians were cutting up fantastic antics before high heaven in Linnville, the refugees on the schooner were the spectators, and witnessed with whatever feelings they could command the wanton destruction of their property.

Judge John Hays, however, became so exasperated that he vowed he would have one shot at the red devils anyway. So, grabbing a gun, the judge jumped overboard---the water was not over three or four feet deep---and waded to the shore, where, gun in hand, he stood upon the beach anxiously waiting for a Comanche to come within range of his gun. But the Indians imagined the judge was a 'big medicine' or something of the sort, and so steered clear of the awful fate in store for him who should invite the judge's fire. Finally the earnest petitions of his friends on the boat availed and the judge returned to them. Now, upon examining the old 'fusee' which threatened so lately to consummate such slaughter, it was discovered that the piece was not loaded! In my warehouse were several cases of hats and umbrellas belonging to Mr. James Robinson, a merchant of San Antonio. These the Indians made free with, and went dashing about the blazing village, amid their screeching squaws and little Injuns like demons in a drunken saturnalia, with Robinson's hats and Robinson's umbrellas bobbing about on every side like tipsy young balloons. In the afternoon the Comanches began to retire. They crossed the bayou near the old road, and there encamped for the night.

The Victoria men had now returned with some reinforcement from the Cuero settlement. On the morning of the 7th these fell in with a company of 120 men, commanded by Captain Zumaldt, of Lavaca County, and the whole encountered the Indians 12 miles east of Victoria, on a creek called the Mercado, where some skirmishing was indulged in, the whites losing one man, Mordeci. A few of the Indians used guns, the primitive bow and arrow being the arm mainly relied on. It is thought some of the Indians were killed and thrown into the creek to conceal the bodies. Some of Captain Zumaldt's men were anxious to charge them; and, when the disparity of arms is considered, the result must have been the rout of the Indians and their subsequent capture and annihilation. While this skirmish was in progress the Indians had scouts out in all directions; some of them crossed the Arenosa and killed Mr. Bell, taking his horse and equipment. In the afternoon the Indians called in their scouting parties by making a black smoke, and proceeded to the Casa Blanca, a branch of the Garcitas, where they encamped for the night. Zumaldt's men also went into camp, not far distant from the Indians, and despatched runners to Victoria for ammunition and provisions.

The wily Indians silently folded their tents in the night and stole away. Zumaldt saw no more of them until he ran into their rear as, they were crossing Plum Creek, and taking position in the post oak point beyond, on what was destined to be a fatal battle ground for them. Felix Huston, Ben McCulloch, and others had gathered a force of some four hundred volunteers, and the Indians should have been annihilated. Ewing came up with his sister, Mrs. Watts, just as an Indian boy had discharged, as he imagined, an arrow into her body. Fortunately she wore a steel corset, and the arrow, striking one of the broad bands of this, did her but little injury. Less fortunate was Mr. Crosby, who reached the side of his wife just in time to soothe with endearing offices her last moments. Despairing of effecting an escape with the prisoners, these inhuman monsters had resolved to kill them. The infant of Mrs. Crosby had been killed near Linnville and thrown on the roadside. The Indians were defeated in the engagement that ensued, and left some 25 dead on the field. But encumbered with plunder as they were, and principally armed with bows and arrows, they should have been entirely destroyed.

Several hundred head of horses and mules were recaptured, as were also immense quantities of dry goods. 'To the victors belong the spoils, and the Colorado men appropriated everything to themselves. Ewing recognized many of his goods in the captured property, but identification did him no good. Captain J. O. Wheeler, though 150 of the recaptured horses bore his brand, obtained with the greatest difficulty a horse to ride home. Mrs. Watts---later Mrs. Fretwell---states that she was taken under the protection of an old chief who placed her in charge of an ancient squaw. She relates that the Indians brought her a book from which to read to them the "laws of Texas," and upon her prompt compliance they laughed immoderately. When they started from Linnville they strapped her securely upon the back of a mule to prevent her falling off or attempting an escape. Such was the battle of Plum Creek.

The Battle of Plum Creek from Life of Robert Hall by "Brazos" 1898

The Battle of Plum Creek from Life of Robert Hall by "Brazos" 1898: The greatest battle that we ever had with the Comanches was the battle of Plum Creek. The generals of the little Texas army in this short campaign exhibited military ability of the very highest order, while the soldiers exposed themselves with reckless daring and charged at the word of command like Grecian heroes. Every man did his duty. The Comanches were greatly superior to us in number, but the battle was a crushing defeat, and was the end of the long reign of terror of these terrible red devils in Texas.

About five hundred Comanches, well armed and mounted on their best horses, slipped over the border and suddenly appeared in the vicinity of Victoria. They plundered and sacked the little town of Linnville and robbed every store and every house of everything valuable. Their dash into this part of the country was a complete surprise. As the long column marched across the prairies it presented a ludicrous sight. The naked warriors had tried to dress themselves in the clothing they had stolen. Many of them put on cloth coats and buttoned them behind. Most of them had on stolen shoes and hats. They spread the calico over their horses, and tied hundreds of yards of ribbon in their horses' manes and to their tails. These Indians had been preparing for this raid for a long time. They all had new white shields, and many of the warriors had long tails to their headgear.

We got the news at Gonzales that a strong column of Comanches had passed into the lower country, and we at once got into the saddle and marched to the rescue of our friends. We camped at Isham Good's first, and, not hearing any news, we were about to return home, when Ben McCulloch rode into camp. Goat Jones was with him. They reported that the Indians had plundered the lower country, and were returning on the same trail. Capt. Caldwell asked me to take a good man and scout to the front and see if I could see anything of the Indians. I took John Baker, and we rode all night. About daylight we came in sight of the Indians, about seven miles from our camp. We rode back and reported.

During my absence Gen. Felix Huston had been elected to the command of the army, and Ed Burleson had joined us with about one hundred men, including some fifteen Tonkaways. Gen. Huston asked me to take five picked men and ride to the front and select a good position to make the attack. I came in sight of them. They were on the prairie, and the column looked to be seven miles long. Here I witnessed a horrible sight. A captain and one man rode in among the Indians. The captain escaped, but I saw the Indians kill the private. I ordered my men to keep at a safe distance and pick off an Indian as the opportunity presented.

We skirmished with them for about two miles, when our army came up in fine and opened fire. It looked as if we were taking desperate chances, for I am sure that we only had 202 men, but every man was a veteran. Gen. Huston deserves great credit for the courage he displayed in this battle. He rode right with the fine, and never flinched under the most galling fire. At the first volley the Indians became demoralized, and it was easy to see that we had them beat just as we rode against them I received a bullet in the thigh. It made a terrible wound, and the blood ran until it sloshed out of my boots. I was compelled to dismount, or rather I fell off of my horse. After a moment I felt better and made an effort to rejoin the line of battle. I met an Indian, and was just in the act of shooting him when he threw up his hands and shouted "Tonkaway!"

While on the skirmish fine, an Indian dashed at Mr. Smitzer with a lance. I fired right in the Indian's face and knocked him off his horse, but I did not kill him. However, I got the fine hat he had stolen. While I was scrambling about, trying to staunch the blood that was flowing from my leg, I came across a great big fat negro woman, who was hiding in the grass. She no sooner saw me than she exclaimed: "Bless God, here is a white man once more." Her little child was hiding in the grass just like a frightened animal. If it had been big enough it would have run from me like a deer. Not far from the old Negro I found the body of Mrs. Crosby. There were two arrows in her body. They had passed clear through her. She was just gasping in death. She had been a prisoner, and the red devils had killed her when they saw they were defeated.

A little further on I found Mrs. Watts. They had shot an arrow at her breast, but her steel corset saved her life. It had entered her body, but Isham Good and I fastened a big pocket knife on the arrow and pulled it out. She possessed great fortitude, for she never flinched, though we could hear the breastbone crack when the arrow came out. She turned over on her side and bled a great deal, but she soon recovered. She was the wife of a custom house officer, and I think her maiden name was Ewing. She asked for poor Mrs. Crosby and told us that the Indians whipped the poor woman frequently and called her a "peon," because she could not read. They had stolen several books, and when in camp at night they would gather around Mrs. Watts and ask her to explain the pictures and read to them. Mrs. Watts' husband had been killed when the Indians sacked Linnville. She afterwards married Dr. Fretwell, and resided in Port Lavaca.

It has always been a mystery to me why the Indians became so terribly demoralized in this battle. It was fought on the open prairie, and they could easily see that they greatly outnumbered us. It is rather strange that they did not make a stand. It was one of the prettiest sights I ever saw in my life. The warriors flourished their white shields, and the young chiefs galloped about the field with the long tails streaming from their hats and hundreds of vari-colored ribbons floating in the air, exhibiting great bravado. Some of them dashed courageously very close to us, and two or three of them lost their lives in this foolhardy display of valor. Our boys charged with a yell and did not fire until they got close to the enemy. The Indians were panic stricken, and fled at once. The Texans followed them over the prairies for fifteen or twenty miles.

That night, around the camp-fire, many strange stories were told. One of the strangest was of an old black chief, whose head looked as if it had been nearly blown off. He gripped the horn of his saddle with his hands, and dozens of the boys declared that they struck him on the head with the butt of their muskets as they passed him. No blow could make him release his hold. Though dead and stiff, he remained on his war-horse. There was a good deal of talk of it at the time. I had almost forgotten the incident when I read the story of the headless rider of Woerth. This occurred during the Franco-German war. Newspaper readers will remember that a French colonel had his head shot off with a cannon ball, but he did not fall from his horse. The furious animal galloped about over the field during the whole battle, carrying on his back the headless colonel. Scientists talked and wrote about the affair and offered some sort of an explanation. I think they sald that the muscles in death became so rigid that no earthly power could cause them to relax. This must have been the case with the old Indian, for dozens of truthful men declared that he was as dead as a door nail, but that he still clung to his horse. The horse ran off in the woods with him, and his body was never found.

From the best information I could gather I think the boys killed about forty of the Comanches. We lost not a man, but seven were wounded: Robert Hall, Henry McCulloch, Arch Gibson, Columbus DeWitt, Dr. Smitzer, and two others, whose names I don't remember. The Tonkaways brought in the dead body of a Comanche warrior, and they built a big fire not far from where I was lying. My wound had begun to pain me considerably, and I did not pay much attention to them for some time. After awhile they began to sing and dance, and I thought that I detected the odor of burning flesh. I raised up and looked around, and, sure enough, our allies were cooking the Comanche warrior. They cut him into slices and broiled him on sticks. Curiously enough the eating of the flesh acted upon them as liquor does upon other men. After a few mouthfuls they began to act as if they were very drunk, and I don't think there was much pretense or sham about it. They danced, raved, howled and sang, and invited me to get up and eat a slice of Comanche. They said it would make me brave. I was very hungry, but not sufficiently so to become a cannibal. The Tonkaways were wild over the victory, and they did not cease their celebration until sunrise.

The boys captured the war chiefs cap. It was a peculiar affair, made of the finest of furs, and it had a tail attached to it at least thirty feet long. Several other fine caps were picked up on the field. About fifteen miles from Plum Creek the soldiers heard a child crying in a thicket. All were afraid that the noise was some ruse of the Indians to induce the Texans into an ambush, but finally one fool fellow declared that he would go in and see what it was. He found a little child, a boy, lying on the leaves by itself. The soldier brought it out, and it proved to be a child of the head chief of the Comanches. They brought it to camp, and old judge Bellinger adopted it. The little Indian did not live but three or four months.We captured the Indian pack train. The mules were loaded with household furniture, wearing apparel, and general merchandise. There were five hundred of these pack mules. The government had just received a supply of stores at Linnville, and the Indians had captured these. We hardly knew what to do with all this stuff, and we finally concluded to divide it among ourselves. Some days after I reached home the boys sent me a pack mule and a pack. In the pack there was a pillow and a bolster of home-made cloth and considerable dry goods. There were also coverlets, sheets, quilts, and clothing. If I had known who the stuff belonged to I would have, of course, returned it.

After some days my friends got an old buggy and hitched an old horse to it and made an effort to get me home. At the crossing of the San Marcos the old horse balked and refused to pull the vehicle up the hill. That made me mad, and I got out of the buggy and walked on home. I was tired and hungry, and I wanted to see Polly and get something to eat and have her dress my wound. Polly was glad to see me, for she thought I was dead. Old man King had gone home, and, from some cause, he had carried my shoes. He told Polly I would be home in a few days, but during the evening she found my shoes, full of blood, and she began to scream and upbraid her father. He then had to tell her the truth, but he insisted that I was only slightly wounded. Polly did not believe him, but when she saw me walking home she ran to meet me and declared that she never intended to let me go to fight Indians any more. This battle was fought on the 12th of August, 1840.

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Battle of Plum Creek

Miscellaneous Reports of Raid on Linnville and Plum Creek from Lavaca River Men under Capt. "Black" Adam Zumwalt.

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Known Texan Participants in The Battle of Plum Creek 12 August 1840 (From Brice, The Great Comanche Raid, diverse rosters and eyewitness reports; DeWitt Colonists are in bold italics)

Ackland, Christopher "Kit" Anderson Baker, John Baylor, R.E.B. Beatty, Edward Beitel, Joseph Belknap, James T Bell Bellinger, Judge Edmund Bennet, Miles S. Berry, Andrew Jackson Berry, James Berry, John Bate Berry, Joseph Billingsley, Jesse Bird, James Bird, Jonathan Birdwell, William Bostick, Sion Record Braches, Charles Brown, Dr. Caleb S. Brown, Dr. David F. Brown, John Hawkins Brown, John Henry Burleson, Edward Burleson. Jonathan Burleson, Joseph Jr. Burnam, Jesse Burnam, William Owen Caldwell, Mathew Carter, William J. S. Chalk, Whitfield Clopton, William Cocke, James D. Cordell, Owen N. Cox, Rev. Thomas J. Cushney, William H. Darlington, John W. Darst, David S. H. Day, Milford Dees, Gordon DeWees, William B. DeWitt, C. Columbus DeWolf Duty, William Earnest, Felix B. Fentress, Dr. James Friar, Daniel Boone Galbreath, Thomas Gipson, Archibald

Gipson, James Good, Isham Jones Gorman, James P. Grover, George W. Hall, Robert Hankins, Eli Skaggs Hardeman, Owen B. Hardeman, Thomas M. Hardeman, William P. Harvey, John Haynes, Charles Hays, John C. "Jack" Herron, John Harvey Highsmith, Benjamin F. Hill, A. W. Hornsby, Joe Howard, George Thomas Humphreys, Jacob J. Husbands Huston, Felix Izod, James Jenkins, John Holland Jones Henry Lawrence, Joseph Lee, Nelson Litton, Addison Litton, Frank M. Litton, John McCoy, John McCulloch, Benjamin McCulloch, Henry E. McCulloch, Samuel Magill, James P. Magill, William Harrison Martin, James F. Miller, Alsey S. Mills, James L. Moon, William W. Morrell, Rev. Z. N. Moss, James Murphree, David Neill, Andrew Neill, George Nichols, James W. Nichols, John Nichols, Thomas Ogsbury, Charles A. Oury, William Sanders Patton, James

Perry, Cicero Rufus  Pilgrim, Thomas J. Placido Porter, Elijah R. Randall, Barney Randle, Wilson Redfield. Henry Prentice Reid, Samuel Hutchinson Rice, James O. Roberts, Alexander "Buck" Rodarmel, Lemuel M. Rogers, Henry Rogers, John A. Jr. Rogers, John A. Sr. Rogers, Samuel C. A. Scarborough, William L. Shaw, Josiah Short, Thomas W. Smith, Ezekiel Smith, French Smith, James N. Smith, John L. Sowell, Andrew Sowell, John Stapp, Darwin M. Stapp, Oliver H. Stem, Isaac Phillip Sweitzer, Dr. Alonzo B. Sylvester, James A Taylor, Creed Thompson, Barry Thurmond, Alfred S. Wagner Wallace, Joseph Washington Elliot Wallace, William A. A. Waller, Judge Edwin Ward, Lafayette Wheeler, Jesse O. White, David N. White, John C. White, John M. White, Newton White, Peter White, Sam Addison White, Simon C. Wilburn, Caleb Winchel, Henry C. Wright, Charles 13 Tonkawa Warriors

General Huston's Report, Battle of Plum Creek, 12 August 1840.

On Plum Creek, Aug. 12, 1840
To Hon. T. B. Archer, Secretary of War

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.

To conclude, I believe we have given the Comanches a lesson which they will long remember; near four hundred of their brave warriors have been defeated by half their number, and I hope and trust that this will be the last of their depredations on our frontier. On tomorrow I contemplate embodying as many men as can, and if we have a sufficient number of good horses, pursue the Indians in the hopes that we may overtake them before they reach the mountains. Colonel Moore joined us this evening with about one hundred and seventy men; horses very hard ridden. I have the honor to be your most obedient servant.
FELIX HUSTON, Major-General T.M.

Description of The Council House Fight, Mary A. Maverick, 1896.

Description of The Council House Fight, Mary A. Maverick, 1896. [Photo: Mary A. Maverick and children]. A DAY OF HORRORS. On Tuesday, 19th of March, 1840, "dia de San Jose" sixty-five Comanches came into town to make a treaty of peace. They brought with them, and reluctantly gave up, Matilda Lockhart, whom they had captured with her younger sister in December 1838, after killing two other children of her family. The Indian chiefs and men met in council at the Court House, with our city and military authorities. The calaboose or jail then occupied the corner formed by the east line of Main Plaza and the north line of Calabosa (now Market) Street, and the Court House was north of and adjoining the hall. The Court House yard, back of the Court House, was what is now the city market on Market Street. The Court House and jail were of stone, one story, flat roofed, and floored with dirt. Captain Tom Howard's Company was at first in the Court House yard, where the Indian women and boys came and remained during the pow-wow. The young Indians amused themselves shooting arrows at pieces of money put up by some of the Americans; and Mrs. Higginbotham and myself amused ourselves looking through the picket fence at them. This was the third time these Indians had come for a talk, pretending to seek peace, and trying to get ransom money for their American and Mexican captives. Their proposition now was that they should be paid a great price for Matilda Lockhart, and a Mexican they had just given up, and that traders be sent with paint, powder, flannel, blankets and such other articles as they should name, to ransom the other captives. This course had once before been asked and carried out, but the smallpox breaking out, the Indians killed the traders and kept the goods---believing the traders had made the smallpox to kill them. Now the Americans, mindful of the treachery of the Comanches, answered them as follows:

"We will according to a former agreement, keep four or five of your chiefs, whilst the others of your people go to your nation and bring all the captives, and then we will pay all you ask for them. Meanwhile, these chiefs we hold we will treat as brothers and 'not one hair of their heads shall be injured.' This we have determined, and, if you try to fight, our soldiers will shoot you down."

This being interpreted, the Comanches instantly, with one accord raised a terrific war-whoop, drew their arrows, and commenced firing with deadly effect, at the same time making efforts to break out of the council hall. The order "fire" was given by Captain Howard (photo), and the soldiers fired into the midst of the crowd, the first volley killing several Indians and two of our own people. All soon rushed out into the public square, the civilians to procure arms, the Indians to flee, and the soldiers in pursuit. The Indians generally made for the river-they ran up Soledad, east on Commerce Street and for the bend, now known as Bowen's, southeast, below the square. Citizens and soldiers pursued and overtook them at all points, shot some swimming in the river, had desperate fights in the streets and hand to hand encounters after firearms had been exhausted. Some Indians took refuge in stone houses and fastened the doors. Not one of the sixty-five Indians escaped-thirty-three were killed and thirty-two were taken prisoners. Six Americans and one Mexican were killed and ten Americans wounded. Our killed were Julian Hood, the sheriff, Judge Thompson, advocate from South Carolina, G. W. Cayce from the Brazos, one officer and two soldiers whose names I did not learn, nor that of the Mexican. The wounded were Lieutenant Thompson, brother of the Judge, Captain Tom Howard, Captain Mat Caldwell, citizen volunteer from Gonzales, Judge Robinson, Mr. Morgan, deputy sheriff, Mr. Higginbotham and two soldiers. Others were slightly wounded.

When the deafening war whoop sounded in the Court room, it was so loud, so shrill and so inexpressibly horrible and suddenly raised, that we women looking through the fence at the women's and boy's marksmanship for a moment could not comprehend its purport. The Indians however knew the first note and instantly shot their arrows into the bodies of Judge Thompson and the other gentleman near by, instantly killing Judge Thompson. We fled into Mrs. Higginbotham's house and I, across the street to my Commerce Street door. Two Indians ran past me on the street and one reached my door as I got in. He turned to raise his hand to push it just as I beat down the heavy bar; then he ran on. I ran in the north room and saw my husband and brother Andrew sitting calmly at a table inspecting some plats of surveys-they had heard nothing. I soon gave them the alarm, and hurried on to look for my boys. Mr. Maverick and Andrew seized their arms, always ready, Mr. Maverick rushed into the street, and Andrew into the back yard where I was shouting at the top of my voice "Here are Indians!" "Here are Indians" Three Indians had gotten in through the gate on Soledad street and were making direct for the river! One had paused near Jinny Anderson, our cook, who stood bravely in front of the children, mine and hers, with a great rock lifted in both hands above her head, and I heard her cry out to the Indian "If you don't go 'way from here I'll mash your head with this rock!" The Indian seemed regretful that he hadn't time to dispatch Jinny and her brood, but his time was short, and pausing but a moment, he dashed down the bank into the river and struck out for the opposite shore. As the Indian hurried down the bank and into the river Andrew shot and killed him, and shot another as he gained and rose on the opposite bank, then he ran off up Soledad street looking for more Indians. I housed my little ones, and then looked out of the Soledad Street door. Near by was stretched an Indian, wounded and dying. A large man, journey-apprentice to Mr. Higginbotham, came up just then and aimed a pistol at the Indian's head. I called out: "Oh, don't, he is dying," and the big American laughed and said: "To please you, I won't, but it would put him out of his misery." Then I saw two others lying dead near by.

Captain Lysander Wells, about this time, passed by riding north on Soledad Street. He was elegantly dressed and mounted on a gaily caparisoned Mexican horse with silver mounted saddle and bridle-which outfit he had secured to take back to his native state, on a visit to his mother. As he reached the Verimendi House, an Indian who had escaped detection, sprang up behind him, clasped Wells' arms in his and tried to catch hold of the bridle reins. Wells was fearless and active. They struggled for some time, bent back and forward, swayed from side to side, till at last Wells held the Indian's wrists with his left hand, drew his pistol from the holster, partly turned, and fired into the Indian's body-a moment more and the Indian rolled off and dropped dead to the ground. Wells then put spurs to his horse which had stood almost still during the struggle, dashed up the street and did good service in the pursuit. I had become so fascinated by this struggle that I had gone into the street almost breathless, and wholly unconscious of where I was, till recalled by the voice of Lieutenant Chavallier who said: "Are you crazy? Go in or you will be killed." I went in but without feeling any fear, though the street was almost deserted and my husband and brother both gone in the fight. I then looked out on Commerce street and saw four or five dead Indians. I was just twenty-two then, and was endowed with a fair share of curiosity. Not till dark did all our men get back, and I was grateful to God, indeed, to see my husband and brother back alive and not wounded.

Captain Mat Caldwell, or "Old Paint," as he was familiarly called, our guest from Gonzales, was an old and famous Indian fighter. He had gone from our house to the Council Hall unarmed. But when the fight began, he wrenched a gun from an Indian and killed him with it, and beat another to death with the butt end of the gun. He was shot through the right leg, wounded as he thought by the first volley of the soldiers. After breaking the gun, he then fought with rocks, with his back to the Court House wall. Young G. W. Cayce had called on us that morning, bringing an introductory letter from his father to Mr. Maverick, and placing some papers in his charge. He was a very pleasant and handsome young man and it was reported, came to marry Gertrudes Navarro, Mrs. Dr. Alsbury's sister. He left our house when I did, I going to Mrs. Higginbotham's and he to the Council Hall. He stood in the front door of the Court House, was shot and instantly killed at the beginning of the fight, and fell by the side of Captain Caldwell. The brother of this young man afterwards told me he had left home with premonition of his death being very near. Captain Caldwell was assisted back to our house and Dr. Weideman came and cut off his boot and found the bullet had gone entirely through the leg, and lodged in the boot, where it was discovered. The wound, though not dangerous, was very painful, but the doughty Captain recovered rapidly and in a few days walked about with the aid of a stick.

After the captain had been cared for, I ran across to Mrs. Higginbotham's. Mr. Higginbotham, who was as peaceful as a Quaker to all appearances, had been in the fight and had received a slight wound. They could not go into their back yard, because two Indians had taken refuge in their kitchen, and refused to come out or surrender as prisoners when the interpreter had summoned them. A number of young men took counsel together that night, and agreed upon a plan. Anton Lockmar and another got on the roof, and, about two hours after midnight dropped a candlewick ball soaked in turpentine, and blazing, through a hole in the roof upon one Indian's head and so hurt him and frightened them both that they opened the door and rushed out to their death. An axe split open the head of one of the Indians before he was well out of the door, and the other was killed before he had gone many steps thus the last of the sixty-five were taken. The Indian women dressed and fought like the men, and could not be told apart. As I have said thirty-three were killed and thirty-two taken prisoners. Many of them were repeatedly summoned to surrender, but numbers refused and were killed. All had a chance to surrender, and every one who offered or agreed to give up was taken prisoner and protected.

What a day of horrors! And the night was as bad which followed. Lieutenant Thompson, who had been shot through the lungs, was taken to Madam Santita's house, on Soledad Street, just opposite us, and that night he vomited blood and cried and groaned all night. I shall never forget his gasping for breath and his agonizing cries. Dr. Weideman sat by and watched him, or only left to see the other sufferers, nearby; no one thought he would live till day, but he did, and got to be well and strong again, and in a few weeks walked out. The captive Indians were all put in the calaboose for a few days and while they were there our forces entered into a twelve days truce with them---the captives acting for their Nation. And, in accordance with the stipulations of the treaty, one of the captives, an Indian woman, widow of a chief, was released on the 20th, the day after the fight. She was given a horse and provisions and sent to her Nation to tell her people of the fight and its result. She was charged to tell them, in accordance with the truce, to bring in all their captives, known to be fifteen Americans and several Mexicans, and exchange them for the thirty-two Indians held. She seemed eager to effect this, and promised. to do her best. She said she would travel day and night, and could go and return within five days. The other prisoners thought she could in five days return with the captives from the tribe. The Americans said "very well we give twelve days truce and if you do not get back by Thursday night of the 28th, these prisoners shall be killed, for we will know you have killed our captive friends and relatives."

(Left: 1837 watercolor of the Alamo by Mary Adams Maverick, wife of Samuel Maverick).   In April, as I shall mention again, we were informed by a boy, named B. L. Webster, that when the squaw reached her tribe and told of the disaster, all the Comanches howled, and cut themselves with knives, and killed horses, for several days. And they took all the American captives, thirteen in number, and roasted and butchered them to death with horrible cruelties; that he and a little girl named Putman, five years old, had been spared because they had previously been adopted into the tribe. Our people did not, however, retaliate upon the captives in our hands. The captive Indians were all put into the calaboose, corner Market Street and the public square and adjoining the courthouse, where all the people in San Antonio went to see them. The Indians expected to be killed, and they did not understand nor trust the kindness which was shown them and the great pity manifested toward them. They were first removed to San Jose Mission, where a company of soldiers was stationed, and afterwards taken to Camp "Cook," named after W. G. Cook, at the head of the river, and strictly guarded for a time. But afterwards the strictness was relaxed, and they gradually all, except a few, who were exchanged, escaped and returned to their tribe. They were kindly treated and two or three of them were taken into families as domestics, and were taught some little, but they too, at last, silently stole away to their ancient freedom. 

Mary A. Adams Maverick (1818-1898) was the wife of Samuel Maverick who moved to Texas from Alabama in March 1835  and eventually settled in San Antonio.  Fortunately she kept notes of her experiences and in 1896 with the help of a son organized and edited her papers into memoirs primarily for the benefit of descendants.  In 1921 a granddaughter, Rena Maverick Green further edited and organized the papers into Memoirs of Mary A. Maverick.  The memoirs have been reprinted in several forms both in Samuel Maverick Texan, 1803-1878:   A Collection of Letters, Journals and Memoirs edited Rena Maverick Green (1952) and as Memoirs of Mary A. Maverick.  The original papers are available to the  public in the Maverick Family Papers, Eugene C. Barker Texas History Collection, Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

Council House Fight

Report of the Council House Fight, 19 March 1840 by Commissioner McLeod. Increasing resistance of Republic of Texas minutemen to Comanche theft, vandalism and depredation in the Republic led to a proposal of Comanche chiefs for a lasting peace. The Chiefs and Republic of Texas officials, Col. Hugh McLeod and William S. Fisher agreed to a meeting in San Antonio in which 13 known kidnap victims held by Comanches would be released. For security, two companies of Col. Fisher's Regulars were placed at the site. The Comanches arrived with only hostage Matilda Lockhart who had been captured in 1838 (see Putman-Lockhart Kidnappings). They were asked why the others were not brought in as had been agreed upon. The leading chief of the Comanches replied that Matilda Lockhart was their only prisoner and that the others were scattered among other tribes. This was disputed by Matilda Lockhart. She quietly informed Colonel Karnes and the commissioners that the other prisoners were left in the Indian camp and were planned to be used for ransom payments. The chiefs were told by Colonel Karnes and should be kept as prisoners until all the commissioners that they had violated their pledge and that they the women and children held by them were brought in, according to agreement; that they might send their young men to the tribe for the other captives and as soon as they were delivered, his juncture Captain Howard they would be liberated. At posted sentinels at the doors and drew up his men across the room. Commissioner McLeod reported the event as follows:

"We told the Indian chiefs that the soldiers they saw were their guards, and descended from the platform. The chiefs immediately followed. One sprang to the back door and attempted to pass the sentinel who presented his musket, when the chief drew his knife and stabbed him. A rush was made to the door. Captain Howard collared one of them and received a severe stab from him in the side. He ordered the sentinel to fire upon him, which he immediately did, and the Indian fell dead. They then all drew their knives and bows and evidently resolved to fight to the last. Colonel Fisher ordered his men to fire if they did not desist. The Indians rushed on, attacking us desperately, and a general order to fire became necessary. After a short but desperate struggle every one of the twelve chiefs and captains in the council lay dead upon the floor, but not until, in the hand to hand struggle, they had wounded a number of persons. The indoor being finished, Captain Howard's company was formed in front to prevent retreat in that direction, but in consequence of his wound he was relieved by Captain Gillen, who commanded the Company until the close of the action. Captain Redd whose company was formed in the rear of the building, was attacked in the yard by the warriors who fought like wild beasts. The Indians took refuge in some stone buildings from which they kept up a galling fire with bows and arrows and a few rifles. Their arrows, wherever they struck one of our men, were driven to the feathers. A small number of Indians escaped across the river, but they were pursued by Major Lysander Wells with a few mounted men, and all killed. The only one of the warriors in the council house who escaped was a renegade Mexican. He was among those who slipped away unobserved. A single warrior took refuge in a stone building refusing every overture sent him by squaws and succeeded in killing and wounding several until after nightfall when a bag of rags soaked in turpentine and ignited, was dropped through the smoke escape in the roof onto his head. Thus in a flame of fire he sprang through the door and was riddled with bullets. In such an action---so unexpected, so sudden and terrible---it was impossible at times to distinguish between the sexes and three squaws were killed. The short struggle was fruitful in blood. Our losses were, killed: Judge Hood, San Antonio; Judge Thompson, Houston; a Mr. Carey of Matagorda County; Lieutenant W. Al. Dunilington, first infantry; privates Kaminske and Whitney, and a Mexican. The wounded were: Captain George F. Howard, Lieutenant Edward A. Thompson, Private Kelley, Captain Mathew Caldwell, Judge James W. Robinson, and Messrs. Morgan, Carson and Higginbotham. The Indian loss was thirty chiefs and warriors, three squaws and two children killed. Prisoners taken included twenty-seven women and children and two old men. Over a hundred horses and a large quantity of buffalo robes and peltries remained for the victors. By request of the prisoners an old squaw was released, mounted, provisioned and allowed to go to her people and say to them that the prisoners would be released whenever the Texas prisoners held by the Indians were brought in. A short time afterwards, a party of Comanches displayed a white flag on a hill some distance from town, evidently afraid to come nearer. When a flag was sent out, it was found that they had brought in several white children to exchange for the imprisoned Indians. The exchange was made and the Indians hurried back to their camps."