Free The Men Who War the Star: The Story of the Texas Rangers by Charles M. Robinson III Page A

who had been bundled Indian-fashion and tied to the mule. When the Rangers attacked, the frightened mule had bolted, giving the impression of fleeing.
    The dead Comanche’s scalp was awarded to Smithwick, because the Rangers determined the wound from his shot would have been mortal. He wasn’t necessarily pleased with the honor, but kept the scalp, “thinking it might afford the poor woman, whose family its owner had helped to murder, some satisfaction to see that gory evidence that one of the wretches had paid the penalty of his crime.” 48
    Eventually, Tumlinson’s company reached Brushy Creek and built the blockhouse. Their stay was uneventful. Two months later, they were recalled to the settlements to cover the rear of the army as it retreated eastward after the fall of the Alamo. Nevertheless, their fight on Walnut Creek was a turning point in Texas history, because it opened almost forty years of war with the Comanche nation. 49
    IT IS SOMETIMES said that the only battle that really matters is the last one. Such was the case of Texas. Despite losses at the Alamo, Goliad, and Refugio, the Texans won their independence on the bloody afternoon of April 21, 1836, when a ragtag army under Maj. Gen. Sam Houston overwhelmed Santa Anna’s forces at San Jacinto. Although several Mexican armies were still undefeated and in the field, Santa Anna himself was a prisoner, and initially this did much to discourage the generals from any further campaigning. Santa Anna’s influence was declining, however, and the detention of Texas peace commissioners in Matamoros on the Rio Grande raised suspicions that Mexico was planning another invasion. Gen. Thomas J. Rusk, who assumed command of the army after Houston was wounded at San Jacinto, ordered Capt. Isaac Burton’s Ranger company to scout the area from the Guadalupe River to Refugio near the coastal bend.
    On June 2, Burton learned that a suspicious vessel had put in at Copano Bay. Burton had his twenty-man force in position on the beach by dawn the next day. At 8 A.M. , they signaled the ship to send a boat ashore. The ship’s unsuspecting captain sent five men, who were taken prisoner on landing. Sixteen Rangers rowed out and captured the ship, which proved to be the Watchman, loaded with provisions for the Mexican army.
    Burton wanted to send the ship up the coast to Velasco, but she was held in Copano Bay by contrary winds. During the wait, the Camanche [ sic ] and Fanny Butler, also loaded with freight consigned for the Mexicans, anchored off the bar. On Burton’s orders, the captain of the Watchman decoyed their commanders, and their ships were captured as well. All three ships eventually were taken to Velasco, where they were condemned. Value of the prizes came to $25,000, a substantial amount to support the beleaguered Texas Army. Burton and his Rangers became known as the “Horse Marines.” 50
    If one views the War of Independence purely in terms of the Mexican front, the Rangers might seem peripheral; the only ranging company involved in that campaign was the one from Gonzales, whose members died at the Alamo. The purpose of the Rangers, however, was not to fight Mexico but to defend the frontier. And while a serious Indian threat never really materialized, they remained ready to perform their duty, allowing the army to concentrate on Santa Anna.

PART 2
BIRTH OF A LEGEND

Chapter 3
    Serving the Republic
    May 1836 was deceptively quiet. The immediate Mexican threat was over, and despite sporadic Indian raids in the vicinity of the Brazos settlements, the tribes were relatively peaceful. Yet, the sporadic raids were the early signs of a general uprising brought on in part by the Ranger attacks of the previous year. The death of Chief Canoma at the hands of Burleson’s men had alienated the Caddos. The raid by the Brazos settlers against the Keechi village and Coleman and Moore’s campaigns had brought sporadic retaliatory attacks in the vicinity. One Indian told