Summer of the Savage

Henry McCulloch

On June 2, 1861, Confederate Colonel Henry McCulloch trotted slowly into what was once a Federal Indian Reservation. Along with Major Edward Burleson, he arrived to hold council with the reservation’s Native Americans. The place appeared deserted. Because of the oncoming Civil War, the reservation’s Federal troops withdrew north into Kansas. Prior to leaving, they told their charges they would be massacred by the Confederates. In response, many reservation Indians fled their homes for the plains beyond. McCulloch assured Caddo, Anadarko and Tonkawa tribal leaders they would not be attacked as long as they remained peaceful. The Comanches and Kiowas, however, were not receptive toward any such assurances.

Since 1859, Fort Cobb, located in the Southwest Indian Territory, was the new home for Native Americans that formerly resided in Texas. Outraged over mounting Comanche raids, frontier settlers pushed Texas lawmakers to forcibly move all Native Americans north of the Red River. In addition to providing food and provisions, Fort Cobb’s Federal garrison was supposed to keep the Indians north of the Red River; they failed with the Comanches and their allies, the Kiowas. To make matters worse, unscrupulous traders cheated the Indians out of promised provisions, supplying them instead with rotten meat and rotgut whiskey. Scales for grain distribution were fixed to under supply the Indians and overcharge the Federal government. The Civil War brought new problems; Federal troops evacuated the Indian Territory completely, leaving North Texas wide open. Emboldened by the departure of Federal troops, hostile Indians began raiding Texas with a vengeance.

On January 30, 1861, the Texas state legislature formed a Committee of Public Safety to oversee the removal of Federal troops from Texas. The committee appointed Henry E. McCulloch, brother of famed Texas Ranger Benjamin McCulloch, to form a mounted regiment of volunteers to replace the departing Federals. The 1st Regiment, Texas Mounted Riflemen became the first Texas regiment to be mustered into Confederate service. Henry McCulloch was elected colonel, Thomas Frost lieutenant colonel, and Edward Burleson major. The 1st was charged with the protection of North Texas along a line running from the Red River to present day Kerrville, an area of roughly 30, 000 square miles. For shelter, the regiment’s companies occupied abandoned Federal forts. Captain Sidney Green Davidson described Fort Chadbourne as a “pretty post” with comfortable quarters, but the “dullest place in the world.” If there were not enough quarters, they constructed them from materials left by the Federals. Otherwise, tents of various shapes and sizes were issued. Each man was issued the frontier Texas version of a sleeping bag, a sleeping sack or burlap bag filled with straw. Because of the lack of trees, firewood had to be hauled in by wagon from East Texas. Water was available, but loaded with bacteria during the hot summer months, leading to numerous outbreaks of illness at the forts. Food consisted of worm-ridden hardtack, coarse cornmeal, over salted pork, and mushy pickles. Vinegar was issued to fight scurvy. Anything approaching fresh had to be hunted.

Defending North Texas, with just a single regiment, was practically impossible against the highly mobile Comanches; McCulloch devised a system of patrols to scout and engage the Indians on a continuous basis. Nevertheless, numerous bodies of ranchers, farmers and their families began turning up - scalped and covered with arrows like a pin cushion. At his ranch near Jacksboro, William Youngblood was killed and scalped while splitting rails. His neighbors went in pursuit of Youngblood’s killers; they killed two and retrieved Youngblood’s scalp to be buried alongside his body. Though effective, the constant patrols wore down the horses, leading to a severe shortage of fresh mounts. Grass was scarce on the open prairie, adding further to the horses’ misery. Very few were available for purchase; the Comanches had stolen most of them.

When the Comanches were encountered, 1st Texas troopers charged and gave chase for miles over dry, open prairie, risking a tumble from a prairie dog hole or a rattlesnake’s bite. On July 29, Captain James “Buck” Barry’s thirty-two man company encountered seventy Comanche warriors near the Clear Fork of the Brazos. The Indians were scattered when their leader, donning a Federal uniform jacket, was shot down. Not every patrol was successful; Captain Davidson was shot through the heart while in pursuit of Comanche war party. Lacking shovels, much less coffins, Davidson’s company buried him where he fell, in a shallow grave dug out with hatchets. Near Big Spring, a forty man patrol under Colonel Frost fought in a tight circle surrounded by 150 or more Comanches. During the fight, Trooper William Alexander recounted one of his better shots: “I dismounted, raised my gun sight to 500 yards, took aim, and cut him down.” The fallen warrior was ridding the slain Captain Davidson’s horse.

Abandoned during the war, Fort Cobb was more of a rest stop for raiding hostiles rather than a place of confinement. Severely underfunded, the 1st Texas kept patrolling until April, 1862. Their enlistment periods up, the 1st Texas was mustered out of service. The state-financed Frontier Battalion took its place. Most of the 1st Texas re-enlisted and continued serving the Confederacy in the Trans-Mississippi.