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Texas
| History
The Texas Rangers
at
the Battle of Salado Creekby
Kevin Braeutigam |
Last
month I read a new book entitled, “Saga of a Texas Ranger” by Jeffery Robenalt.
The book is the first volume in what will eventually be a four volume historical
fiction series about sixteen year-old Caleb McAdams who joins the Texas Rangers
at the Battle of Plum Creek after his family is massacred during the Great Comanche
Raid of 1840. As a lover of Texas history, I devour any history book I happen
to come across, but unfortunately a lot of people are unfamiliar with Historical
Fiction and its merits, worth and possible reading enjoyment. When I had an opportunity
to speak with Jeff Robenalt, he shared my opinion.
In fact, Jeff told
me his most difficult task as a junior high school Texas history teacher in Lockhart,
Texas is to capture the attention of his students and to get them interested
in their heritage. According to Jeff, this attitude applies to most adults as
well. That’s where the idea came to him of writing accurate Texas history in the
form of an exciting and interesting story, rather than in a dry set of facts and
dates that many people would set aside without a second glance. |
| Saga
of a Texas Ranger captures the excitement of the past by weaving young Caleb
McAdams into the fabric of real Texas Ranger history. In a review of Jeffery Robenalt’s
book Donaly Brice, noted Texas historian and author of The Great Comanche Raid,
said, “Saga of a Texas Ranger is a vivid portrayal of the challenges and
trials faced by a young Ranger during the infant years of the Republic of Texas.
Jeff Robenalt’s extensive knowledge of Texas history and geography have allowed
him to weave a captivating story of adventure, perseverance, and romance that
will captivate and hold any reader’s imagination.” |
|
Being
a fan of San Antonio history, I
was particularly interested in the Chapters that described Caleb’s participation
in the Battle of Salado Creek, an event that took place near present day
Fort Sam Houston.
The battle came about as the result of the occupation of San
Antonio by 1,200 Mexican soldiers under the command of French mercenary General
Adrian Woll.
At the orders of Mexican dictator Santa Anna, General Woll
crossed the Rio Grande and moved on San
Antonio in retaliation for Texas President Mirabeau Lamar’s ill fated 1842
Santa Fe Expedition to capture New Mexico. General Woll evaded the prying eyes
of Captain Jack Hays and a small detachment of Texas Rangers by leaving the roads
south of San Antonio and making
a cross-country night march through the hills.
While entering the city
at daybreak on September 12, 1842, the Mexicans suffered twenty-four casualties
and took fifty-three prominent Texas citizens prisoner, including the entire district
court which happened to be in session. Captain Hays arrived later that morning,
but with so few Rangers under his command and the town already occupied, his only
recourse was to send his men to arouse the countryside and gather as many volunteers
as possible.
From Gonzales
to Bastrop, from Goliad
to Victoria,
and from all across central Texas individuals and groups of men rode or walked
to the relief of San Antonio. Within
the next few days more than 200 volunteers gathered at Seguin,
every man eager to drive the Mexicans out of the Republic no matter how badly
the odds were stacked against them. When a strong detachment from Gonzales
and the Guadalupe Valley galloped into town behind Matthew Caldwell, “Old Paint”
was immediately elected to the rank of Colonel and given command of the small
Texas army. Jack Hays was selected to lead the forty-two man mounted company,
many of them members of his own Rangers.
By late in the evening of September
17, the Texas volunteers were encamped on the east bank of Salado Creek,
a few miles northeast of San Antonio.
Caldwell could not have selected better defensive ground to make his stand. East
of the creek, the Texas position was protected by a natural embankment and the
dense thickets that grew along the creek bottom. A steep wooded hillside rose
abruptly on the west side of the creek, so the position could only be approached
from the east and northeast across an open prairie with no cover. However, when
Caldwell called a meeting of the men, many of them demanded that he abandon the
position and attack San Antonio
in the morning to drive the Mexicans out of the old mission town. |
| In
Saga of a Texas Ranger, Jeffery Robenalt does an excellent job of capturing
the tension of the moment as Caldwell attempts to convince the volunteers that
attacking San Antonio would be
foolhardy. Caldwell then tells the men of his plan to use Jack Hays and his Texas
Rangers to lure General Woll out of San
Antonio, “If Woll chooses to come after us, he’ll have no choice except to
attack across the open ground to the front of our position. If the Mexicans do
that, gentlemen, we will surely make them pay dearly for bein’ so rash.” |
|
The
following morning, Jack Hays and a few Rangers succeed in getting the Mexican
cavalry to follow them from the Alamo
back to the camp on Salado Creek, and after a brief rest, Caldwell sends them
back out on a scout to see if General Woll has taken the bait. When the Rangers
return from the scout with news of Woll’s approach, they find themselves cutoff
from the creek by the Mexican cavalry. Robenalt describes the action as the Rangers
fight their way through the Mexican horsemen and flee back to the safety of their
own lines. “At less than fifty feet the Rangers in the center of the line opened
fire, and with their Colts and shotguns blazing, blasted a gaping hole in the
tightly packed ranks of Mexican cavalry.”
Early in the afternoon General
Woll arrived at Salado Creek with nearly 600 Mexican infantry, dragoons, and cavalry
and spread them out across the prairie to the east of the Texas positions. Suddenly
two riders galloped past the surprised Mexican soldiers and headed for the safety
of the Texas lines. After reining in and taking a moment to catch their breath,
the riders reported to Colonel Caldwell with a gruesome tale.
The
men had been acting as scouts for a for a detachment of 53 volunteers out of La
Grange under the command of Captain Nicholas Dawson when the main party was
cut off and surrounded by a large contingent of Mexican cavalry and infantry several
miles from Salado Creek. Instead of attacking the unlucky Texans, the Mexicans
stood off and blasted them with artillery for over an hour. After enduring the
terrible punishment for as long as they could, the few remaining Texans raised
a white flag and laid down their arms. The Mexicans moved in and bayoneted all
the wounded and some of the others, taking few prisoners. |
 |
| An obelisk
in front of Fayette
County Courthouse in memory of the Fayette County men who were killed with
Captain Nicholas Mosby Dawson at Salado Creek. |
| The
inscription on the obelisk |
The
inscription on the obelisk
TE photos |
The sorry tale spread
like wildfire along the Texas lines, and most of the irate volunteers demanded
an immediate attack on the Mexicans. Jeffery Robenalt does a great job in capturing
the men’s fury and in dealing with Caldwell’s manner of convincing them to bide
their time and wait for the Mexicans to attack. For the next two hours the Mexicans
stood in their lines and did nothing, and Caldwell was beginning to wonder if
Woll was ever going to attack when the Mexican bugles sounded and the drums began
a steady beat. General Woll had finally fallen into Caldwell’s trap.
Through
the eyes of young Caleb McAdams, the reader is able to visualize the Mexican soldiers
in their colorful uniforms as they slowly advance across the prairie as if on
parade. “The Mexican drummers began to beat the command to advance, and their
troops stepped off in unison, lowered bayonets glistening in the sun. On they
marched, relentlessly closing to within three hundred yards, then less than two
hundred yards. Sweat poured freely into Caleb’s eyes, as Hawken to his shoulder
and finger on the trigger; he wondered whether Colonel Caldwell would ever give
the command to fire.”
With the beginning of the battle, Robenalt breathes
life into the dry pages of history as he paints a panoramic view of the sights,
sounds, and smells of the battlefield. “At one hundred yards Caldwell bellowed
the command to open fire, and the Texans’ rifles roared with one voice, belching
out a thick cloud of gun smoke and hurling a deadly sheet of well-aimed lead directly
into the advancing lines of infantry. The devastating fusillade tore gaping holes
in the Mexican line even unseated some of the trailing horsemen.”
The
reader can almost feel the fear in young Caleb as he frantically reloads his Hawken
long rifle in the face of the glistening Mexican’s bayonets, joining in with the
other Rangers and volunteers to bring down a withering hail of fire on the advancing
enemy. “Caleb quickly reloaded, caught up in the frenzy of killing now, and drew
a bead on a dragoon. His target was hit in the head by another Texan before he
could squeeze the trigger, so Caleb simply shifted the muzzle of his Hawken slightly
to the right and killed the Mexican advancing beside the man he had been aiming
at.”
The Mexican soldiers continued their brave advance until it became
obvious that the attack was doomed to failure. Robenalt relates, “Volley after
blistering volley exploded from the Texans’ long rifles and huge gaps opened in
the Mexican ranks. Soldiers fell left and right, most of them hit in the head
or the chest, and after a few more ragged volleys from the disheartened attackers,
General Woll was forced to signal for a withdrawal. The Mexicans staggered back
across the prairie, carrying their wounded with them, but they were forced to
leave many of the dead where they lay.”
Toward sunset General Woll reassembled
his bloodied troops and reluctantly began a long slow retreat back to San
Antonio, his wagons loaded with forty-four dead and one hundred fifty wounded.
Sixty Mexican bodies still littered the broad prairie in front of Salado Creek.
Unbelievably, only one Texan was killed during the raging battle.
The
Mexican troops evacuated San Antonio
on September 20. Two hundred Mexican families also headed for Laredo
under General Woll’s protection, their carts and wagons piled high with plunder
and driving five hundred cattle. Caldwell held a vote and the volunteers voted
to pursue the enemy south, but little came of the pursuit in spite of the efforts
of Jack Hays and the Texas Rangers. General Woll made good his escape, reaching
the Rio Grande on October 1.
Be sure and read Jeffery Robenalt’s Saga of
a Texas Ranger. What better way to enjoy a rousing tale and also get an accurate
account of the Battle of Salado Creek and many other exciting events in the history
of the Texas Rangers from 1840 until the dawn of the Mexican American War in 1846.
© Kevin Braeutigam
They
Shoe Horse, Don't They? December 17, 2010 Column |
Jeffery Robenalt was born and raised in Tiffin, Ohio. He served in Vietnam
as a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps and later served as a Platoon
Leader and Executive Officer with the 101st Airborne Division. He has a BS in
Sociology from Troy University, a BA in History from New York University, and
a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Texas Tech University. After earning his law degree,
Mr. Robenalt was an Attorney for the State of Texas for ten years. Mr. Robenalt
currently resides with his wife Lizabeth and daughter Emily in Lockhart, Texas
where he teaches Texas history at Lockhart Junior High School.
BOOKS
-
Saga of a Texas Ranger is Mr. Robenalt's first novel, however, the second
volume in the saga, Star Over Texas, will soon be ready for publication.
www.sagaofatexasranger.com
Order Now > |
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