In 1837, the Republic of Texas was barely a year old, and its frontier was a violent, lawless edge of the American continent. To combat the relentless raids of hostile tribes and bandits, the newly formed Texas Rangers rode out of forts like Fort Smith and Fort Colorado, armed with single-shot rifles and facing an enemy that could unleash a storm of arrows from horseback.
The Comanche were the most feared force on the plains. Having migrated south from the Rockies and mastered the use of horses, they had become a formidable war machine. Their raids were so ferocious that they stalled settlement west of Austin and San Antonio for decades.
One such mission in late 1837 saw Lieutenant A.B. Van Benthuysen and a force of 18 Rangers tracking a Comanche raiding party that had stolen horses from settlements on the Colorado River. After weeks of pursuit, they finally made contact on the Trinity River, only to find themselves facing roughly 150 mounted Comanche warriors.
The Rangers took cover in a thicket of trees, but the Comanche surrounded them, raining down arrows for over two hours. The Rangers were outnumbered eight to one, and their single-shot weapons could not match the volume of enemy fire. Four Rangers were killed in the initial fighting, and the situation grew desperate.
The Comanche then set a ring of fire around the wooded area, attempting to smoke the Rangers out or burn them alive. With no other option, Van Benthuysen ordered a headlong charge on foot against the mounted enemy. The violent charge lasted ten minutes and cost six more Ranger lives, but it drove the Comanche back long enough for the survivors to escape on foot.
After 58 days, only eight of the original 18 Rangers straggled back into Fort Smith. It would be years before the Rangers learned how to effectively fight mounted Comanche forces in open territory.
At Fort Colorado in late March 1837, a different kind of encounter unfolded. Rangers on guard duty spotted a campfire a few miles west of the fort, an unusual sight in such hostile territory. Shadowy figures danced in the flickering light, and the Rangers concluded it was a bold Comanche camp.
Fifteen Rangers volunteered to attack, led by Second Lieutenant Wren. They crawled for hours through brush and tall grass, finally reaching a position in view of the camp at dawn. The Comanche were asleep, seemingly recovering from a night of revelry.
The Rangers split their forces for a two-pronged attack. As the first warrior stirred and began to sing his morning song, the element of surprise was lost. A rifle ball from Ranger Joe Weeks killed the man, but the rest of the camp sprang to life and retreated to a nearby ravine.
A vicious battle ensued. The Rangers made repeated charges, and one young private, Philip Martin, was killed by a bullet to the head. The Comanche eventually slipped away, leaving their horse herd and belongings behind. The Rangers claimed the spoils, but the body of the first warrior they had killed was nowhere to be found.
In 1838, a farmer named Mr. Neil was brutally cut down by a Comanche raiding party near his farm. Unaware of his father’s death, his son Clayborn Neal was accompanying a small group of Rangers on a resupply mission to a nearby fort.
The party, including three Rangers and another volunteer named John Hughes, was ambushed near a section of post oak trees. Arrows filled the air, and the Comanche war cry drowned out all other sound. The Rangers fired their single-shot rifles, but it was not enough. Within minutes, all five Texans were dead, killed by the same warriors who had slain the elder Neal hours earlier.
At Fort Smith, Captain Daniel Monroe waited for the overdue party. When a scouting party found the men, all were dead. Two were in the wagon, and three were scattered between the wagon and the timberline. Monroe, his supplies dwindling and his horse herd depleted, was forced to abandon Fort Smith and move his men to Fort Fisher.
In his report to Senator Sterling Robinson, Monroe wrote, "All the news I have for you is of the worst sort. Without more assistance, we are nothing but a drug to the government and no assistance to the people."
In January 1836, near Hornsby’s Bend outside Austin, a group of Rangers was settling into camp when a young woman crawled over the riverbank. She was bruised, tattered, and weeping. Her name was Mrs. Hibbons.
She told the Rangers that a few days prior, a Comanche raiding party had attacked her family while they traveled to their homestead. Her husband and brother were killed, and she and her two children were taken captive. When her infant would not quiet, a warrior snatched the child from her arms and killed it. She had escaped with her remaining son but left him behind in the Comanche camp.
The Rangers, including a young Noah Smithwick, immediately took to the trail. They found the Comanche camp the next morning and attacked. In the chaos, the Hibbons boy was wrapped in a buffalo robe and placed on a mule. Two Rangers pursued him, mistaking him for a fleeing warrior.
One Ranger, Conrad Rohrer, aimed at the boy’s back and pulled the trigger. The gun misfired. He tried again, and it misfired again. On his third attempt, his comrade recognized the boy and pulled Rohrer’s arm just as the shot went off, the bullet sailing over the child’s head.
The boy was returned to his mother. Smithwick later wrote of the scene, noting the "suspicious moisture in many an eye, long since a stranger to tears."
In August 1844, four Rangers were ambushed while resting in Nueces Canyon. Rufus Perry was struck by three arrows, and Kit Acklin took a bullet to the torso and an arrow to the mouth. Despite his wounds, Acklin pulled his revolver and killed a warrior with a shot to the head.
The two other Rangers, James Dunn and John Curlin, had been swimming in the creek and watched the fight unfold from the riverbank. They insisted that charging in would have been foolhardy. With a Comanche force of several hundred warriors approaching, Dunn and Curlin decided to ride for San Antonio to get reinforcements, leaving the wounded Perry and Acklin behind.
Acklin carried Perry to a large plot of driftwood and hid him there before crawling off to hide himself. The Comanche walked directly over Perry’s position but did not discover him. After the warriors passed, Perry crawled to the river, washed the blood from his eyes, and began a six-day trek to San Antonio on foot.
Acklin also survived, appearing on the outskirts of San Antonio just two hours after Perry arrived. Both men were nursed back to health and eventually rejoined the Rangers. Dunn was formally censured by Captain Jack Hayes for his conduct, though he was still considered one of the most daring men in the company.
The battles between the Texas Rangers and the Comanche would continue for decades, shaping the history of the frontier. The Rangers would eventually adopt new weapons and tactics, but the early years were marked by brutal losses and hard-won lessons.