Recollections of Early Texas by John Holmes Jenkins

thought dead. Finding him gone, they made Foley call him, but of course no answer came. The cruel wretches then shot and scalped Foley and, when he was found, the bottoms of his feet had been cut off and he must have been made to walk some distance on the raw stumps! The cruelty of those Comanche warriors knew no bounds. The Rev. Ponton himself gave me an account of this race, and its attendant particulars, and I think I can vouch for its truth.
    At Lynnville the Indians burned a few houses, killed a few more citizens, and then went on unmolested. They took two captives, Mrs. Crosby and Mrs. Watts, whose husbands were killed in the fight, and started back on their incoming trail. It is strange, but true, that all this was over before we had heard any of the circumstances. Captain John Tumlinson immediately raised a squad of forty or fifty men, and taking their plain trail came upon them on their wayout—a large force of between four and five hundred Indians. Our captain was nothing daunted, however, and ordered our men to fire a charge at them. He was brave, cool, and deliberate, and I have always believed would have whipped them, if a misunderstanding among the men had not forced him to draw off, with the loss of one man. The Indians charged upon the rear of our force, which was composed of Mexicans, who came near stampeding, and thus brought great confusion into our ranks. Tumlinson then followed along at a distance, receiving recruits constantly.
    By this time, the news having been well ventilated here around Bastrop, General Burleson had raised all the men he possibly could and started out, anxious to intercept them at Plum Creek. Every now and then we met runners, who were sent to bid Burleson to come on. We rode until midnight, then halted to rest our horses. Very early the next morning we were again on the warpath, still meeting runners at regular intervals beseeching us to hurry.
    We fell in with the Guadalupe men in the edge of Big Prairie, near Plum Creek, about two miles from where Lockhart now stands. We were now ordered to dismount, lay aside every weight, examine our arms, and make ready for battle. [Gen. Felix] Huston’s men had gotten in ahead of the Indians, and were lying in a little mot of timber, when they heard the Indians coming, they being seemingly ignorant of our close proximity to them, for they were singing, whistling, yelling, and indeed making every conceivable noise. Here, while awaiting the Indians, we of Burleson’s force joined them. A double-filed line of march was formed, Burleson’s forces from the Colorado marching about one hundred yards to the right of Huston’s men from the Guadalupe, and in sight of the Indians.
    Four men were sent ahead as spies and the rear guard ofthe Indians, consisting of four warriors, turned and rode leisurely back to meet them. Slowly and deliberately they came on, making no sign or move for fight. When within twenty steps of our spies, Colonel Switzer 7 raised his gun and killed one, whereupon the others beat a hasty retreat for their main force. Burleson ordered us to “spur up,” and we rode very fast. We saw confusion in the Indian ranks, which we could not understand. A squad of men seemed to retreat in the face of a pursuing band of Indians. They were evidently divided against themselves or pursuing some other body of men.
    At length, however, we were discovered by the main force of Indians, who immediately formed a line between us and their pack mules, stolen horses, and other plunder, and awaited our attack. When in one hundred and fifty yards of this line, we were ordered to dismount; one man of the double file held both horses, while his comrade shot.
    It was a strange spectacle never to be forgotten, the wild, fantastic band as they stood in battle array, or swept around us with all strategy of Indian warfare. Twenty or thirty warriors, mounted upon splendid horses, tried to ride around us, sixty or eighty yards distant,