Texas Rising

by Stephen L. Moore

  Jack Hays spent two weeks of July recruiting more men for his return expedition. He succeeded in putting together forty-three men—twenty-five rangers and the rest Lipans and Tonkawas under the leadership of Captain Flaco. Six of Hays’s new men were tejanos who had previously served in Captain Antonio Pérez’s ranging company.

  His force departed San Antonio on July 12 and rode to the site of the Comanche camp near the Frio River. They found it abandoned, with only some bodies of murdered prisoners. The rangers doggedly pursued the Comanches for more than a week. “Our horses and men were much starved and worn down by the time we reached the head waters of the Llano,” said Hays. There his scouts discovered fresh trails made by large numbers of Indians. On July 24, his men were spotted by a party of Comanche hunters and the Texans pursued them at full speed. About a mile before they reached the camp of their main body, fifty Comanches turned to engage the rangers.13

  The main body of the tribe retreated while Hays’s men fought a two-hour running battle over six miles of rugged country. During the fight, the Comanches would retreat, form a line, and then prepare for battle. Hays decided at one point to make a solo charge toward them, unload his Colt five-shooter, and then retreat. His horse had other ideas, however. The excited animal would not wheel about and instead charged headlong into the Comanches. Chief Flaco, a close friend to the ranger captain, valiantly joined the charge right into his enemy’s line. Hays calmly shot down one Comanche who halted his horse to fire at him. Flaco and Hays broke through the Indian lines and emerged on the other side miraculously unscathed. After the fight, Flaco was heard to remark: “I will never be left behind by anyone, but Captain Jack is bravo too much.”14

  The battle on the Llano River took a toll on both sides. The Comanches made a strong advance on the rangers. John Slein, a merchant who had joined Hays just a month prior, was killed. Ranger John Trueheart was disabled by a nasty bullet wound in the neck. Another bullet winged Hays in one of his fingers but did not slow him from the fight. He estimated that his force had killed or wounded eight to ten Comanches by the time the fight was terminated. The rangers moved back through the Indian camp, where they saw the eerie remains of a Mexican prisoner who was hanging by his heels, shot and lanced to death. Flaco’s Lipans took departure from the expedition when Captain Hays headed back toward San Antonio with the wounded Trueheart being carried on a litter. He considered his Llano fight to have been productive. “This was the last of the Indian difficulties about San Antonio,” he wrote. “They never made their reappearance, except one or two small thieving parties who were run off without much difficulty.”15

  JACK HAYS RECOVERED QUICKLY from his hand wound.

  His ranger unit increased in size to forty-five men during August in the wake of the Llano River fight, but he trimmed his company back to twenty men during a brief hiatus in action in September. The citizens of San Antonio elected Hays to be the Béxar County surveyor during the summer but his duties as a ranger commander allowed him only to locate five land certificates during the remainder of 1841.16

  Hays wrote few extant reports during the fall of 1841 but it was during this time that one of his most fabled Indian encounters occurred. He was out on a scout with about twenty of his men near the head of the Pedernales River in present Llano County. Captain Hays was scouting ahead of his men, who had made camp on the banks of nearby Crabapple Creek. Hays rode ahead to the vicinity of Enchanted Rock, a gently sloping pinnacle that is the second-largest granite formation in the United States. He was armed only with a Bowie knife, a rifle, and two Colts.17

  Hays suddenly encountered three Comanches on horseback, who began pursuing him. He spurred on his horse in a race for his life. The ranger captain wheeled about to exchange gunfire with the Indians from time to time as the numbers of his pursuers gradually increased. Hays stayed ahead of the Comanches in a chase that stretched more than eight miles. He finally reached Enchanted Rock, where he sprang from his horse to ascend the granite formation. Near the top, he took shelter in an indenture sheltered by loose rocks.

  The Indians gathered near the base of Enchanted Rock, firing shots up at their hated frontier opponent some had come to call “Devil Jack.” Hays was conservative with his ammunition. He only shot down Comanches as they made their way up the hill toward his hiding spot. In between firing his rifle and reloading it, he relied on his pair of Colt five-shooter pistols to remain constantly armed and dangerous. From his vantage point with superior firepower, Ranger Hays reportedly kept his adversaries at bay for upwards of two hours. He is said to have faced an estimated one hundred Comanches during his solo stand.

  The war whoops and cracking of rifles did not go unnoticed on the Texas frontier. Hays’s ranger company finally perceived their overdue leader was in trouble and followed the sounds of the action toward Enchanted Rock. They fought their way through the Indian force, pushing them back long enough for Captain Hays to scramble down from his rocky perch.

  The story of Jack Hays and his solo Indian battle atop Enchanted Rock became even more legendary around campfires during the years that followed. Texans and their Indian foes alike marveled at the bravado of “Devil Jack.” On one occasion when a group of Indians came into San Antonio to make a treaty, several chiefs were overheard talking about and pointing toward Hays.18

  Pointing to his companion, one chief pronounced, “Blue Wing and I, no afraid to go to hell together.”

  Pointing toward Jack Hays, the chief then remarked: “Capitan Jack, great brave. No afraid go to hell by himself.”

  THE TEXAS INDIAN WARS had cooled dramatically by late 1841.

  The Cherokees and Shawnees were largely gone from the republic. The Comanches had suffered heavy losses and appeared less eager to make raids into the Austin and San Antonio area settlements. Massive expeditions of soldiers and militiamen were no longer needed to quell serious uprisings. One well-equipped Texas Ranger company could successfully range vast areas of the frontier to deal with hostile groups.

  The Sixth Congress of the Republic of Texas convened in Austin on November 1, two months after the country’s citizens had voted for their next president. Mirabeau Lamar’s term ended on December 13, 1841, when Sam Houston was inaugurated for his second term as Texas president. He and Vice President Ed Burleson were quick to shut down the vast military forces built up by Lamar. Their secretary of state, Dr. Anson Jones, recommended maintaining only “a few Rangers on the frontiers” to act in strictly a defensive role. He declared that it would be “cheaper and more humane to purchase” the friendship of the Indian tribes than to fight against them.19

  County ranging companies ceased to operate. The Sixth Congress refused to appropriate any more funds to Lamar’s county minutemen system. Without funding, only three authorized county ranging companies were still operating as of January 1842: Captain William Becknell’s Red River County Rangers, Captain John McDonald’s Refugio County company, and Captain Jack Hays’s Béxar County Rangers. The work of Hays and his men did not go unnoticed. An article in the December 8, 1841, issue of the Telegraph and Texas Register bragged that these rangers had “almost completely broken up the old haunts of the Comanches in the vicinity of Béxar.”

  The relative peace in the area allowed Hays to return to his appointed duty of county surveyor during early 1842. His party of six came under fire from a group of Indians while running a property line in February. The Indians did not initiate a full assault, so Hays was content to dash about on his horse and fire periodic shots at them. His aggressive nature, and likely his frontier reputation, kept the Indians at a safe enough distance that his surveying team was able to complete its work.20

  Comanches became a lesser issue for Captain Hays in early 1842. His newest challenge was contending with a force of Mexican Army soldiers who were preparing to march into Texas to restore order in territory once held by Mexico. Rumors had long swirled through the colonies that Mexican troops were preparing to attack but nothing of any consequence had materialize
d in the six years since San Jacinto. Fears became reality when General Mariano Arista issued a statement from Monterrey on January 9. He announced to Texans that it was hopeless for them to continue their independence struggle. He promised protection to all who would remain neutral to Mexico during his planned invasion.

  In San Antonio, the townspeople feared another 1836 Alamo-type episode. They began fortifying their city and pledged money to help pay for Jack Hays’s spies and other volunteers. As Mexican troops marched toward the vicinity of Béxar, Captain Hays found no shortage of men to send out on scouting duties. His ranger unit was well seasoned. Matt Jett, Stephen Jett, John Young, Antonio Coy, Nat Harbert, Archibald Fitzgerald, and Mike Chevallie had served under him during 1841.

  One of his newest rangers was William Alexander Anderson Wallace, a twenty-five-year-old from Virginia. The six-foot-two, 240-pound frontiersman had come to Texas to avenge the loss of his brother and cousin, who had perished in the Goliad Massacre. He became known as “Bigfoot” after his moccasin tracks were once confused with the fourteen-inch imprints of a six-foot-eight Waco Indian who was known as Chief Bigfoot. Bigfoot Wallace had previously fought Comanches in the 1840 Plum Creek battle and had participated in General Tarrant’s 1841 battle at Village Creek.

  Captain Hays sent out his spies to scout for the approaching Mexican forces in late February. Two of his men, Mike Chevallie and James Dunn, were ambushed and captured at the Nueces River by Colonel Calixto Bravo’s troops. A third ranger, Antonio Coy, was captured by Mexican forces while scouting for Hays toward the Rio Grande. Hays sent couriers to warn other settlements and to gather volunteers. By the evening of March 4, he had gathered nearly 110 men in San Antonio. They elected him colonel commanding their force of small companies: Captain Daniel Friar’s Cuero settlement company; Captain James Callahan’s Seguin-area men; and Hays’s own ranging unit, which he placed under the acting command of Captain Duncan Campbell Ogden.21

  The Mexican invasion force, under General Rafael Vásquez, swept into the coastal regions of Texas while Colonel Hays was assembling his forces. The townspeople of Goliad, Victoria, and Refugio surrendered to the Mexican forces who occupied their settlements in early March. By March 5, the 700-man Vásquez force was within six miles of San Antonio. Nine of Hays’s scouts approached the Mexican force and exchanged shots. General Vásquez sent Captain José María Carrasco forward under a white flag of truce to treat with the Texans.

  Vásquez informed the Texans they would be attacked if they did not surrender. Ranger James “Keno” Ellison had Captain Carrasco blindfolded and hauled back to the camp of Jack Hays. Their prisoner informed the Texans that Rangers Chevallie and Dunn were being held prisoner in the Mexican camp. Colonel Hays reluctantly agreed to a truce with the Vásquez force, which outnumbered his San Antonio volunteer force by at least seven-to-one. The Texans took a vote and decided to retreat from town back toward the Salado River.22

  San Antonio was once again in chaos. The locals retreated with the belongings they could quickly haul away, and more than three hundred kegs of gunpowder were thrown into the San Antonio River. Citizens and merchants smoked fine cigars and drank all the liquor they could hold as they destroyed items of value that could benefit the Mexican troops. Flames and explosions lit up the Alamo city as merchants used kegs of gunpowder to blow up their own warehouses. The most inebriated had to be lashed to the artillery oxcarts as they were hauled from town.23

  General Vásquez took San Antonio without a fight. His men proceeded to loot the town of whatever remained. His intention was not so much to possess the town as to make a statement. By March 7, the invaders had withdrawn from town and had started their march back south toward Mexico. Vásquez released his three ranger prisoners en route. The whole Vásquez Invasion was a relatively bloodless affair, but it succeeded in striking as much terror in the hearts of Texas settlers as the Runaway Scrape of 1836. Jack Hays and his scouts trailed the retreating Mexican forces back across the Rio Grande.

  Texas was left in a state of turmoil. Former San Jacinto hero Juan Seguín, the mayor of San Antonio, was accused of aiding the Mexican invasion effort in spite of the fact that he had served under Colonel Hays. His reputation shattered, he resigned his office in April and retreated into Mexico for his own safety.24

  President Houston executed emergency plans to raise troops to defend Texas against another Mexican invasion. He had full confidence in the ability of Jack Hays, whom he authorized to command a corps of rangers to supply intelligence of enemy movements along the southern frontier. Hays increased the size of his own company during the spring months and supervised the activities of a second ranger company under Captain Ephraim Walton McLean. Citizens so feared a second Mexican invasion that few San Antonio–area families returned to town even after the departure of Vásquez.25

  CHIEF YELLOW WOLF TOOK advantage of the crisis created by the Mexican Army.

  The Comanche war chief assembled eighty of his men shortly after the Vásquez Invasion to raid Béxar County settlements. Yellow Wolf’s party succeeded in rounding up horses from the settlers and killing several tejanos. They also attacked two sheepherders, killing a black man and taking ranger James Dunn as their prisoner. The Comanches then retired toward the Guadalupe River with their booty.26

  Jim Nichols, who had recently signed on under Captain Hays to serve as a ranger scout, was still asleep when word reached their camp near the old Mission Concepción. “About sunrise there was sixteen of us in our saddles,” he said. Hays led the pursuit party with two of his Lipan scouts hot on the heels of Chief Yellow Wolf’s raiders. The rangers overtook the Comanches a short distance from Bandera Pass at the Pinta Trail crossing of the Guadalupe River.27

  Hays and his men opened fire on the Comanches as they headed up the opposing bank of the Guadalupe. Several Indians were killed and wounded before Yellow Wolf led his men over the hill. There Hays found that the Comanches had formed into a battle line to trap the Texans.

  “Steady there, boys!” Hays barked. “Dismount and tie those horses. We can whip them—no doubt about that.”

  The ranger captain ventured that they were outnumbered ten-to-one. The Comanches, leading a herd of stolen horses and mules, prepared for the fight. Hays took a quick poll and found his men eager to engage.

  He then urged them forward with the directive, “When you shoot, shoot to hit.”

  The rangers scattered Yellow Wolf’s party with their first volley. Hays led his men back over the riverbank to reload their rifles. The Comanches charged down upon them but the Texans held their ground as they were showered with arrows and musket fire. “We reloaded as quick as possible and charged them in return,” said Jim Nichols. Hays carefully had only half of his men fire at a time so that they could reload while the next half poured lead into their war-whooping adversaries.

  Several rangers were wounded, but they cut down many of the Comanches in return. Yellow Wolf—sporting gaudy headgear and a large, ornamental shield—was shot from his fine black horse. Prisoner James Dunn, who managed to escape after the battle at the Guadalupe, claimed that the Comanches suffered twenty-three killed and three dozen wounded. Yellow Wolf and his survivors retreated, allowing the rangers to round up most of the stolen horses.

  THE VIGILANT RANGER COMPANY of Captain Hays maintained frontier patrols from the San Antonio area during the summer of 1842. His men attacked Mexican marauders and raided small camps of Comanches to recover stolen horses.

  In between actions, his rangers honed their shooting skills by employing Comanche-like techniques. Jim Nichols recorded that Hays drilled his men earnestly on their riding and shooting techniques. They learned to fire their rifles at full gallop at human-size targets and then discharge their pistols effectively at secondary targets. “We drew a ring about the size of a man’s head and soon every man could put both his [pistol] balls in the circle,” Nichols said. The rangers became adept at snatching up a hat, coat, or silver dollar from the ground at full gallop. Then th
ey would “stand up in the saddle, throw ourselves on the side of the horse with only a foot and a hand to be seen, and shoot our pistols under the horse’s neck, rise up, and reverse.”28

  THE UNREST WITH MEXICO continued in 1842.

  During early July, Colonel Antonio Canales marched into Lipantitlán and skirmished with a small group of Texas military personnel. The coastal settlements of South Texas were thereafter ranged by several small companies and Ed Burleson led an expedition out to control the Indians in his region.

  San Antonio remained largely unsettled during the summer due to the existing turmoil. Jack Hays, now twenty-five years old, made a trip to the temporary capital of Houston to meet with President Houston for authorization to raise more rangers. The Texas Congress approved more funds for him and Hays was promoted to major, commanding two companies: his own and a small mounted company under Captain Tony Menchaca. Hays and Menchaca both struggled to recruit their allotted number of men. By early September, Hays had only fifty rangers, one-third of his allowed strength.29

  The Comanche empire, numbering close to twenty thousand people, remained as the principal antagonist for Major Hays in the early 1840s. Four main Comanche divisions operated on the southern plains during this time: the Kotsotekas, the Yamparikas, the Hois, and the Tenewas. Chief Pia Kusa’s Hois remained staunchly opposed to treating with the Texans although his tribe primarily conducted plundering raids across the Rio Grande into Mexico. Another prominent Hois leader was Chief Potsanaquahip, whose Comanche name “male buffalo” was translated by the Texans as “Buffalo Hump.” Another chief of the same name had been killed in John Bird’s 1839 fight, but the Chief Buffalo Hump leader of the 1840s was a blooded veteran. His Hois division of the Comanche had participated in the 1840 Great Comanche Raid and in the subsequent Plum Creek battle. Bands of Hois from Chiefs Pia Kusa and Buffalo Hump would continue to see action with the Hays rangers during the next two years.30