Carole's FEBRUARY BLOG

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about the Battle of Plum Creek? In 1838, Mirabeau Lamar, the second president of the new nation of Texas, moved the capital from the boggy bayou near Harrisburg (Houston’ choice) to the settlement of Waterloo with its hills, creeks, canyons and Comanche Indians. Edwin Waller laid out new streets in a grid and the village was renamed Austin. President Lamar wanted to exterminate all Indians and expand the new nation to the U.S. West Coast. Houston’s volunteer army, the militia and the men under San Antonio’s Mayor Sam Maverick’s company of Rangers (1) were occupied with fighting the Indians in this battle ending near Plum Creek in central Texas. = new paragraph= This on-going battle with several Indian tribes began in San Antonio, moved to the Gulf Coast town of Linnville where U.S. Custom Houses were located, then back through Victoria and ended along a creek near Lockhart, Texas.= = It was January 9, 1840, three Comanche Chieftains road into San Antonio to talk peace. Col. Henry Karnes, a Ranger commander said that only when captives (2) were returned would there be peace talks, the Indians road away. Two months later 30 tribesmen and 35 women and children returned with goods to trade and only one white captive, Matilda Lockhart. Mrs. Maverick reported that the girl was in a horrible condition, her body badly bruised and her nose burned away. = = Inside the council’s meeting room, the Texans who were negotiating with chiefs demanded the other captives be returned. The peace talks went terribly wrong and the Comanche drew their knives and were killed by the Texans. There were other Indians demonstrating their skills to an audience in the yard. Hearing the commotion inside, they turned their weapons on those gathered to watch and fled. Many whites and all the Indians were killed except one chief’s wife who was given a horse to return with a report of the failed meeting. = = Later seven hundred Comanche, Kiowa and other warriors with women and children rode with vengeance to Linnville on the coast of Lavaca Bay. They plundered the U.S. Custom houses and burned homes while the several hundred village inhabitants escaped in boats or by swimming to be rescued by a cargo ship. The Indians rode off with stolen horses, mules and goods. They were wearing top hats, frock coats and twirling umbrellas. The mob also sacked Victoria, Texas. The militia and Texas Ranger units were in pursuit. The victorious tribes with thousands of horses plus their women and children, were traveling slowly. = = The U.S. Army unit led by General Felix Huston joined the fight. Catching up they formed a line before the Indians, who knew nothing about conventional fighting. The warriors easily skirted around the army’s line. Only when two Rangers, Burleson and Hays, took command of the running horseback fight, did the Indians began to flee. The Plum Creek Battle encompassed 15 miles of fighting. The Texans pursued their enemy on toward Comancheria with the Rangers destroying Indian villages along the way. After this horrendous battle, it was decreed there could be no co-existence with the Indians in Texas. Carole Sikes Ref. Big Wonderful Thing, Texas history by Steve Harrigan. His account of this skirmish appears on pages 201-217. (1) More about the Texas Rangers was in a previous article located in the Archives . (2) Fehrenbach’s Lone Star history (p.457) believes the number of captives in all Indian camps was 200. Steve Harrigan’s Texas History, Big Wonderful Thing reports 13 known captives in the Comanche camps.