Buffalo Hump's Raid
Empire of the Summer Moon. Chapter 7 - Dream Visions and Apocalypse.
Summer of 1840. The newly Independant Republic of Texas after the American war of Conquest in 1836 has elected Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar President to succeed Sam Houston in 1838. In a 180-degree reversal of policy from his predecessor, President Lamar declares war against Indians in Texas. The war policy is genocide. Lamar wants to expel or “exterminate” all Indians from Texas.
A Comanche Penateka (Honey Eaters) war leader named Buffalo Hump has a vision following the Council House Fight massacre. Buffalo Hump sees Comanches driving Whites into the sea. Buffalo Hump’s vision draws several hundred Kiowas and Penateka warriors, including Chiefs Little Wolf, Isimanica, and Santa Anna. No other Comanche tribes join Buffalo Hump’s raid party.
The Comanche are made of five bands, the Penateka (Honey Eaters) are by this time considered by the other four bands of Comanche as the least significant - which may be partly why none of the other four joined the party - as well as complicated economic interests. The Penatekas are credited with defeating the Lipan Apache and driving them out and fought most of the first battles with Texans.
[1] Determined to defend their land by driving off the encroaching settlers, Buffalo Hump leads the raiding war party over the Blanco River into the settlements of South Texas Coast. The Comanche track past San Antonia and sack the settlement of Victoria, Texas.
[2] Next Comanche attack Linnville, TX. Linnville citizens flee to the ocean onto their boats to escape the Comanche, realizing Buffalo Hump’s vision of driving the whites into the sea.
“They arrived in buckskins and breechclouts. They left wearing stovepipe hats, high leather boots, and expensive pigeon-tailed coats with bright brass buttons worn backward and buttoned up from behind. They had taken the calicoes and bright ribbons from the warehouses and festooned their lances and plaited them into the tails of their horses.” - page 98
Linnville is thoroughly destroyed and never rebuilt.
[3] On return, the Comanche retrace their route toward Victoria with horses and mules loaded down by Linnville warehouse loot.
[4] Capt. John Tumlinson approaches the raiding party with 125 men near Victoria as the Comanche return, but Tumlinson and men are overwhelmed and run off by mounted Comanche warriors after Tumlinson and his men dismount to fight.
[5] General Huston and a force of men attack the Comanche raiders after they cross the Guadalupe River north.
[6] The Whites are losing until they kill a chief, which turns the Comanche fighting spirit aside for a moment.
[7] Legend John Coffee Hays and others seize the initiative to charge the unnerved Comanche warriors. A 15-mile running battle on horseback ensues, killing many Comanche warriors. The Comanche battle strategy is to draw off the Whites and ensure the loaded pack mules, women and children escape with their war booty and majority of the 3K stolen horses.
[8]
“The display of color and equestrian skill made for a dazzling distraction and gave the women and children time to begin herding the stolen livestock toward the northwest to get it out of Huston’s reach. … There we remained for thirty or forty precious minutes, during which time the warriors were engaging us, while their squaws and unarmed men were pressing the immense cavalcade of pack animals and loose horses forward to the mountains of the Rio Blanco and San Marcos.” - page 98-100
[9] Several months after Buffalo Hump’s raid. Bent on revenge, Colonel John Moore leads a force of 12 Lipan Apache and 90 White soldiers to Buffalo Hump’s camp up the Colorado River, 300 miles west of Austin, deep into Comanche territory. There they attack by surprise at night, killing scores of men, women and children burning many alive in their lodges or shooting them as they attempt to cross the Colorado River.
Gwynne, S C. Empire of the Summer Moon : [Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History]. London, Constable, 2011.
Buffalo Humps Raid to the Sea - Battle of Plum Creek | Fort Tours