|
|
| During
the years 1856 to 1858, Comanche raids on the Texas frontier began to escalate
in both number and ferocity, as settlers encroached further into the Comancheria,
plowing under valuable hunting grounds. Ironically, matters came finally to a
boil when four white outlaws disguised as Comanches massacred James B. Cambren
and his two sons, who were plowing a new field on their homestead bordering the
Brazos River in the far northwest corner of Young County. Two additional settlers,
Thomas Mason and his wife Mary, were also slaughtered when they heard the shots
and attempted to come to the aid of the Cambren family. |
| Hardin
Runnels
Wikimedia
Commons |
To make matters worse,
President James Buchanan had recently ordered the bulk of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry,
who had been providing protection to the settlers in West Texas, to withdraw and
ride north to Utah, where they participated in what came to be known as the “Mormon
War.” Ignoring reports that the Young County atrocities were committed by white
men, Texas Governor Hardin Runnels used the murders to fan the fires of
racial hatred and justify his request to the legislature for the establishment
of a battalion of Texas Rangers. The legislature approved the request on January
27, 1858, and Runnels immediately appointed long-time Texas Ranger, Major John
Salmon “Rip” Ford to command the new battalion.
Rip Ford had earned
his nickname during the Mexican war while serving as Jack
Hays’ regimental adjutant and medical officer. As medical officer, Ford was
required to sign the regiment’s death certificates, and he always annotated them
with R.I.P., for rest in peace. Governor Runnels issued explicit orders to Ford
to “…inflict maximum punishment. I impress upon you the necessity of action and
energy. Follow any trail and all trails of hostile or suspected hostiles you may
discover and if possible, overtake and chastise them if unfriendly.” Ford was
to brook no interference from any source, even the remnants of the United States
Army, who might try to enforce the law against trespassing on Indian Territory.
|
| "John
Salmon Ford, Photographed while serving as a Colonel in the Confederate 2nd Texas
Cavalry during the War Between the States. Original photograph circa 1860 to 1865;
accessed 2010-07-31 at the Civil War Preservation Trust website."
-
Wikimedia Commons |
Major
Ford’s fist action was to travel north, gathering volunteers along the way, who
would join him at a temporary base camp near Fort
Belknap. The camp, located at the junction of the Clear Fork of the Brazos
and Hubbard’s Creek in northern Palo Pinto County, was dubbed Camp Runnels. The
veteran Ranger chose his officers carefully. Most, like Edward Burleson, had seen
service in the Mexican American War or were old time Rangers like Allison Nelson,
James H. Tankersly, William Preston, Shapley Ross, and Henry McCulloch. Ford also
asked Shapley Ross’s son, Sul, to lead a troop of Tonkawa and Waco scouts. Sul
Ross was only nineteen, but already experienced in leading men. Every Ranger in
the battalion was armed with at least two Colt revolvers and a long rifle, and
Ford boasted that his men “could shoot 1,500 rounds without the need to reload.”
On April 22, Rip Ford headed his 102 Rangers north from Camp Runnels, along with
several supply wagons and an old army ambulance. Two days later, while crossing
the Prairie Dog Branch of the Red River into Greer County, the force was augmented
by 113 of Sul Ross’s Tonkawa and Waco scouts led by Chief Placido and John Pockmark,
both eager to seek revenge against their hated enemies. After the rendezvous,
the column continued to move north, fording the North Fork of the Red River a
week later and officially entering Indian Territory. Ford later said that he had
never considered not crossing the Red River, since his mission “was to find Indians,
not learn geography.”
Once again the column moved out, this time with
the Tonkawa and Waco warriors
ranging well ahead, but more than week passed before the scouts brought back news
of recent Comanche camps strung out along the Washita River. Continuing to make
his way north, Ford led the expedition along the course of the Washita watershed
until the column reached the False Washita River late in the afternoon of May
11. From a vantage point on a rise above the old road that ran between Fort Smith
and Santa Fe, Ford and Shapley Ross spotted a small band of Comanche hunters chasing
buffalo in the valleys off to the north. Realizing that the main Comanche village
he sought must be nearby, Ford ordered the Rangers to set up a cold camp and to
keep their noise to a minimum.
After nightfall, Ford dispatched his scouts
north with orders to fan out and locate the camp of the hunters he and Shapley
had spotted earlier in the afternoon. The veteran Indian fighter realized that,
in order to maintain the element of surprise, it would be necessary to attack
the small camp and silence the warriors before they had an opportunity to spread
the alarm to the main village. The scouts soon returned with news that the hunting
camp was located in a small valley of the Antelope Hills only a few miles
distant. |
 |
Antelope Hills
Photo by Denny Mingus - Wikimedia Commons |
| The long column of
Rangers and reserve warriors rode out well before sunrise. Placido and his Tonkawa
warriors claimed the privilege of launching the attack on the unsuspecting hunting
camp, and Ford gladly granted their request. The Tonkawas effected complete surprise,
overrunning the small camp in a short, bitter struggle. Most of the women and
children were taken prisoner, but the Comanche braves preferred death to the humiliation
of captivity and not a single warrior escaped. A short time later, as the rising
sun slowly crept over the hills to the east, the Ranger column came into view
of the Comanche village nestled down in a grassy meadow on the north bank of the
Canadian River, near the
mouth of Little Robe Creek. |
 |
| As the Rangers and
reservation warriors sat their horses gawking at the village, a solitary Comanche
was spotted riding south, evidently heading toward the hunting camp recently destroyed
by Placido’s Tonkawa. Screaming their war cries, the scouts lit out in pursuit.
The startled Comanche reined around and galloped for river, splashing across ahead
of his pursuers and bolting into the village to spread the alarm. However, the
warrior’s escape inadvertently revealed the location of a shallow ford that spanned
the treacherous, quicksand-laden waters of the Canadian.
Ford signaled for young Ross to ride ahead and cross with his scouts to secure
the far bank until the Rangers could maneuver into position. When the Rangers
reached the riverbank, Ford led them across the shallow river and quickly formed
a skirmish line facing west toward the village, with the Ross and his warriors
on the right. At Ford’s signal, the line moved slowly forward. |
Map of Canadian River Watershed
Wikimedia Commons |
| The ominous rumble
of drums echoed across the flats along the Canadian,
as an impressively mounted war chief, waving a long feathered lance and wearing
a bonnet of otter fur and eagle feathers, rode out from the center of the village
at the head of a line of warriors, screaming insults at the approaching Rangers
and hated Indian scouts. The Comanche’s chest was covered by a coat of Spanish
chain mail that gleamed in the morning sunlight, and the Tonkawa spoke among themselves
in hushed tones that the mailed warrior was none other than the infamous Pohebits
Quashno, or Iron Shirt. As the magnificently attired Comanche war chief galloped
back and forth in front of the Rangers and scouts, occasionally loosing an arrow
from his short bow, several rifles were discharged in his direction without any
effect. In response, Ford finally gave the order to fire a volley, and the Comanche
was knocked off his horse. As Iron Shirt came to his feet, a second volley put
him down for good. Ford then ordered his men to secure their long rifles, draw
their Colts, and
charge. |
 |
"Comanches of West Texas
in war regalia. Painting by Lino Sánchez y Tapia, circa 1830s. Courtesy of the
Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma."
- Wikimedia Commons |
Many of the warriors
who had formed the battle line behind their vaunted war chief faltered at his
death and fled from the assault. The few Comanches who attempted to hold their
ground were overwhelmed and brutally gunned down, as the Rangers and reservation
warriors galloped through their depleted ranks, Colts
blazing. Ford reined up when he reached the outskirts of the village and watched
as his Rangers and Indian scouts attacked in all directions. Individual Comanche
warriors and their women and children bolted from their teepees and fled toward
the hills to the north and west of the village. Vengeful Rangers chased the warriors
down, killing any man who attempted to stand and fight. Switching the cylinders
on their cap-and-ball revolvers was cumbersome on horseback, but most of the Texans
carried two or more of the rapid-firing Colts,
and the onslaught continued without letup.
A small group of Comanche warriors
gathered to the west of the village on the banks of Little Robe Creek in a desperate
attempt to delay the Rangers while their families escaped into the hills. The
delaying action was briefly successful, and several groups of women and children
were saved, but the valiant effort cost the warriors their lives. None of them
managed to escape the wrathful Rangers. A running battle soon developed in the
hills to the north and west of the village, and the chase continued into the early
afternoon, stretching across the prairie for more than six miles. Eventually,
Ford saw that his men’s horses were near exhaustion and that both powder and ball
were running low, so he ordered the Rangers to return to the village and reform.
It was well they did.
Shapley Ross was one of the last men to return to
the village, and he found Ford once again forming the Rangers and reservation
Indians into a line of battle. “What are you in line of battle for?” he asked
Ford. Ford pointed to the hills north of the village and calmly replied, “Look
at the hills there, and you will see.” Looking down on the village were more than
400 of Chief Peta Nocona’s warriors drawn up in full battle array. The two forces
faced off for nearly and hour; during which time a series of individual combats
took place between the Comanche and Tonkawa.
Ford later commented that “…the mind of the spectator was carried back to the
days of chivalry; the joists and tournaments of knights…the whole performance
was a novel show to civilized man.”
However, after watching his Indians
being bested time and again by the fearsome Comanche, Ford grew tired of the game
and ordered Placido and his Tonkawa
to advance. The veteran Indian fighter hoped to lure the Comanche down out of
the hills, but Peta Nocona refused to take the bait. His impatience growing, Ford
finally ordered the Rangers to advance at the trot. As the Rangers neared the
Comanche line, Ford ordered a charge, and the Rangers galloped toward the Comanche
with drawn Colts. Lieutenant Nelson took that moment to strike the enemies’ left
flank, and the Comanche line was broken. Once again, a running fight developed
that stretched for several miles across the rolling hills north of the Canadian,
but the Comanche short bows were no match for the firepower of the Rangers’ rapid-firing
Colts.
At Peta Nocona’s expert direction, the Comanches continued an orderly
retreat from one covered area to the next, fighting a series of delaying actions
to screen the withdrawal of his village and the survivors of Iron Shirt’s village.
By late afternoon, Ford realized that both his men and their horses were again
near exhaustion, and he called a halt to the fighting, ordering his Rangers and
Indians to return to the village along the Canadian. Two Rangers were killed in
the fierce fighting and five wounded, but they killed 76 Comanche warriors, took
18 women and a few children prisoner, and captured more than 300 horses. That
evening the Rangers looted and burned the village, and in a gruesome feast, the
Tonkawa cooked and ate some of
the hands and feet of the dead Comanche warriors. Early the following morning,
Ford led his men south.
The weary column returned to Camp Runnels on May
21. In his report to the governor, Ford stressed that the expedition had proved
so successful that all Indians in northwest Texas should be similarly pursued
and defeated as soon as possible. Ignoring the role played by the reservation
Indians, the veteran Indian fighter claimed that his 100 Rangers had met and defeated
an enemy force four times their size. Governor Runnels read the report to the
Texas legislature and had it printed in all the newspapers, which made Ford a
widely celebrated hero. However, Runnels refused to allow the veteran Ranger to
continue the mission, when he learned that all authorized funds had been expended,
and he ordered Ford to immediately disband his battalion of Rangers. The onset
of the Civil War prevented any similar actions against the Comanche for the next
several years, and the focus of Governor Runnels would soon switch south to the
Rio Grande.
© Jeffery
Robenalt
"A Glimpse of Texas
Past"
November 4, 2012 Column
jeffrobenalt@yahoo.com
References
> |
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by Jeffery Robenalt - Order Here > |
References
for "Battle of Antelope Hills" |
Cox, Mike (1991)
The Texas Rangers; Eakin Press; Austin, TX; ISBN 0-89015-818-5.
Fehrenbach, T. R. (1974) The Comanches: The Destruction of a People; Knopf
Press; New York, NY; ISBN 0-394-48856-3.
Fehrenbach, T.R. (2000) Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans; Da
Capo Press, NY; ISBN 0306809427. Ford,
Salmon John (1987) Rip Ford’s Texas: Personal Narratives of the West: Edited
by Stephen B. Oates: University of Texas Press; Austin, TX; ISBN 0292770348. McCaslin,
Richard B. (2011) Fighting Stock: John S. “Rip” Ford of Texas (The Texas
Biography Series); Texas Christian University Press; ISBN 0875654215.
http://westernamericana2. blogspot.com/2009/12/battle-of-antelope-hills.html.
http://www.forttours.com/
pages/antelope.asp.
John Salmon Ford from the Handbook of Texas Online. | |
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