A fascinating thing about history is how one thing leads to another. History is a flow that the beginning does not necessarily know where the end will be. And such is what happened in San Antonio Jan. 9, 1840.
This was the start of what is known as “The Council Fight” which was a series of atrocities by both the Whites and the Comanche Indians. You can read the gory details in the book “Empire of the Summer Moon” by S.C. Gwynne. He tells of the Comanche war era here in Texas.
One upshot of that fight was that Buffalo Hump, a Comanche chief, had a vision where he would lead a raid and drive the white man back into the sea. Buffalo Hump was every inch what we think of as an American Indian. His name is somewhat untranslatable in to gentle English. It took him a while to gather enough warriors and followers to reach a thousand. They got assembled and started on their warpath to raid the settlers.
By Ausgust 6th they reached Victoria where they caused much death and damage, as well as stealing some 3000 horses. By August 8th they reached Linnville. In Linnville Buffalo Hump accomplished his vision. The folks of that little customs post had nowhere to run except to their boats and out into the bay. He literally drove them into the sea. As in all of those raids some were killed some were captured.
One who was killed was Major Watts the customs agent. One that was captured was his wife. The Indians were thwarted because they couldn’t accomplish their customary stripping prisoners naked. Her steel corset befuddled them. So she was just tossed over a horse with the rest of the loot. What a loot it was. There were bolts of colorful cloths, iron items and top hats along with other sundries in the warehouse. After looting and burning they headed home.
The journey home was not uneventful. Several Texans were after these raiders. They caught them at Plum Creek and did battle. The Texans were winning so the Comanche decided to get out of there. They tried to kill the captives but the major’s wife’s corset saved her, their arrows couldn’t penetrate the steel. Comanches escaped so it might be considered a draw. This group of Texans evolved into the Texas Rangers. One of them was John Coffee Hays who became famous as a Ranger.
Buffalo Hump escaped Plum Creek. However Dr. Ferdinand Roemer as described in his book, Roemers Texas, met him seven years later. This was when John O. Muesbach of Fredericksburg and a leader of the German Immigrants that came to Texas through Indianola made what is believed to be the only unbroken Peace Treaty between Indians and U.S. settlers The Indian chiefs were Old Owl, the Political Chief; Santa Anna , the War Chief; and Buffalo Hump. The once warrior of Linnville became a peace maker of Fredericksburg. His Linnville raid was our main encounter in the Comanche wars.
