Toughest Sons a Bi****s in Texas History

The fight for Texas did not end in 1836. the battles during the Texas Revolution were a small fraction of what was to come and the struggle for the Lone Star State there was ongoing fight with Mexicans for decades along the southern border Comanches and other groups of Native Americans continuously raided Texas

Settlers then during the Civil War Texas was more vulnerable to attack and the western edge of settlements was pushed back further east now this video will likely touch a nerve with many people I’m not here to discuss the rightness or wrongness of what the American settlers did the morality of their actions

However when considering what the first couple generations of Texas Legends accomplished and endured in order to stabilize the land one conclusion that I came to was they must have been some of the toughest meanest and most aggressive sons of [ __ ] in history I’m literally talking about the survival

Of the fittest here only a group of people weeded out through generations of struggle to have the best combination of toughness aggression experience and intelligence would Prevail in these circumstances these were the people that had sailed across the Atlantic and settled in a new land fought off the British pushed

Westward across the Appalachians hunting and fighting along the way and then ultimately crossed the Sabine River legally or illegally into Texas by this point in time many of these people were prolific marksmen Hunters Fighters and survivalists exhibiting a greater determination and willingness to take risks than the average person

The Spanish Empire that had a vast territory across North and South America could only muster a few widely scattered permanent settlements across Texas they barely managed to control a small fraction of the area in any attempt to expand their territory in the 1700s and the Comanches didn’t

Waste time wiping them off the map a great example of this is the Presidio de San Saba and the 1750s Texas was part of the newly formed nation of Mexico for 13 years and they knew very well how dangerous the Comanches Apaches and other groups of Native Americans were

They were also dealing with multiple attempts at revolutions south of the Rio Grande during this time including the short-lived Republic of the Rio Grande which named the City of Laredo its capital in the end in my view neither Spain nor Mexico put forth their greatest efforts

To secure Texas as they were likely more concerned with known gold and silver mine areas further south to them Texas was merely a buffer and by the beginning of the Texas Revolution Americans vastly outnumbered Mexicans in the territory one thing that set the Comanches apart from Native Americans east of the

Mississippi River is that they were warriors mounted on Horseback all Eastern tribes farmed hunted and fought on foot and occupied a relatively small space originally the Comanches were generally a hunter-gatherer tribe for Wyoming not native to Texas however many Mustang horses from Spain’s empire were let

Loose into the wild over the years and spread across the high plains the Comanches soon put them to use like no one else in those times they became highly skilled at fighting and hunting on Horseback they rated Spanish territory Mexico Texas and other areas over the decades they could strike

From hundreds of miles away and be long gone before anything could be done about it this was one of the primary reasons that Mexico was willing to allow Americans to settle the once sparsely populated territory We Now call Texas the Comanches didn’t just do this to European Invaders inflicting tremendous

Misery on other Native American tribes as well for example the Apaches have been pushed out of West Texas by the Comanches in the early to mid 1700s and were their bitter enemies the first decade after Texas became a republic it was sparsely populated and did not have tremendous resources Mexico

Still had plans to reclaim it and attack multiple times from the south additionally they faced a constant threat from the Comanches to the West though the early Texans were highly skilled with weapons like the Kentucky rifle this gun with its long reload times was not effective in battle the

Natives would wait until they fired their weapons then charge and spear them with a lance before they could reload for every shot they fired the Comanches could shoot several arrows were riding on a moving horse Texans and Americans also had horses but they were not nearly as skilled nor that

Their breeds have the endurance of the Mustangs and the semi-arid Western Terrain by the year 1840 most of the Eastern tribes have been largely wiped out with the last remnants pushed into Oklahoma territory however the Comanche still had Farm control on at least the Western half of Texas

After several were killed in the famous Council house fight in San Antonio the Comanche swept down to the coastal plain from Central Texas raided the town of Victoria and then completely destroyed Linville as I returned to Central Texas with their spoils they were attacking their Lockhart and the Battle of Plum Creek by

A group of young men from nearby towns among them was John Coffey Hayes AKA Jack Hayes in this battle something very important occurred that would begin the process of learning to finally defeat the Comanches in open battle they attacked them on horseback it should be noted that tonkwa Apache

And other groups were very skilled and valuable as Scouts prior to many battles over the years they risked their lives over and over again to the benefit of Texas the Texas Rangers were first organized in 1836 to protect the new Republic from Native American and Mexican threats

600 soldiers have been approved but far fewer than this actually existed at any given point in those times the only thing that the new resource poor Republic provided was ammunition they were a rough informal group in early days and went into the field with few supplies and often hunted for themselves

Fortunately for the Texans there was a plentiful supply of tough young men looking for adventure in those days though little was recorded during the first few years of the Texas Rangers what’s known is that the death rate was very high the effect was darwinian waiting out the week and leaving behind only the

Toughest and smartest Fighters a great leader Rose among them he was known as Jack Hayes a Fearless intelligent man that was cool Under Pressure he was polite and soft-spoken the kind of guy that you might underestimate if you ran into him in a saloon but he was said to

Have a piercing gaze that could penetrate The Souls of those around him he was a superman-like character that seemed to instantly transform into another being the moment it came time to fight he teamed up with other rangers becoming captain and his men knew how to ride horses they crossbred Mustangs with

Arabian varieties resulting in horses that were equal to those of the Comanches they studied the ways of the natives learning to survive while packing light and were prepared to fight 24 hours a day they train themselves to perform various stunts and hit a Target while riding on Horseback transforming into the most

Efficient and effective Warriors in American history they use the element of surprise and the strategies that Hayes developed were very effective helping keep the deaths of his men to a minimum Hayes also memorized all the strategies of the Comanches which allowed him to predict their every move

He was a hard worker mentally tough and never seemed to be bothered by storms bad weather or conditions characteristics that made him a strong leader he instilled confidence in his men and very often they were able to defeat much larger groups of soldiers in battle

An example of this was in the City of Laredo in 1841 against a group of Mexican cavalry through all of this the pistols and rifles of the day limited them to only three shots at the outset of any battle in 1838 an invention by Samuel Colt would change history but the funny thing

Is no one seemed to want it at the time it was a 36 caliber five-chamber pistol in a strange term of events a shipment of these weapons were ordered for the Texas Navy but they were never really used this impractical firearm somehow found its home in the hands of Jack

Hayes in 1843 who immediately recognized its potential they decided to test it out in 1844 at the Battle of Walkers Creek Hayes and 15 men encountered a group of 75 Comanches and were surrounded by them in this battle they stood the ground on Horseback ultimately killing 20 and

Wounding 30 while only having one of their men killed the success of this engagement caused a massive shift in the way battles were fought going forward interestingly enough while the Rangers were discovering the benefits of this five-chambered pistol Samuel Colt had gone bankrupt and his operations had

Shut down however he caught wind of the successes of Jack Hayes and the Rangers he collaborated with Samuel Walker who helped him improve the design the new gun had a larger barrel shot 44 caliber bullets and now had six Chambers the success of the Texas Rangers using this gun in the Mexican-American War

Made the pistol legendary and Samuel Colt a very wealthy man during the Mexican-American war in the mid-1840s Texas Rangers like Jack Hayes Ben McCulloch and Samuel Walker proved to be vital as Scouts during the campaigns into northern Mexico however Zachary Taylor didn’t like the rough and aggressive behavior and wanted

Them gone as soon as possible the Rangers have become efficient and aggressive killing units and didn’t have the patience for the politics of war and many left the area during quieter periods of the conflict in 1847 General Winfield Scott LED an army into the Mexico City area but his

Supply lines were cut off by small bands of Mexicans just as the situation quickly became quite perilous Captain Samuel Walker Texas Ranger entered The Fray he began the process of looting and wiping out gorillas in the area and was very effective Jack Hayes also arrived in central Mexico

He was given the responsibility of leading mounted Warriors to protect the road to Scott’s Army and it was at this time that a fresh shipment of a thousand Samuel Colt revolvers arrived Samuel Walker and his men fought Santa Anna’s Army in October of 1847. the U.S army prevailed but toward the

End of the battle he was killed Captain John rip Ford was also among the fighters in the war and said that when the Rangers entered the capital city they were greeted like rock stars everyone wanted to get a look at the Legends known as Los diabolos tejanos they had conducted themselves in a

Ruthless manner in ways the regular soldiers typically did not and had a zero tolerance policy for any Mexican that tried to mess with them the US Army essentially used them to do their dirty work and then got rid of them as quickly as they could however by the end of the war the

Rangers and the cult revolver became not only National but International Sensations in the late 1850s American settlers began pushing into Comanche territory west of Fort Worth further than anyone had attempted to before in retaliation Comanche raids increase with frequency and intensity with many settlers being tortured and killed in brutal fashion

By this point Jack Hayes and most of the earlier generation of battle-hardened Texas Rangers were long gone the US government then mismanaged the situation terribly the Army had been instructed to follow a passive policy and were told not to cross the Red River into Oklahoma in pursuit of the natives

Two lines of forts were built along the western frontier but the soldiers had no idea how to fight mounted Comanche Warriors it seemed as though all of the knowledge gained in the 1840s had been completely forgotten however there was one great warrior left that had been trained by and fought

Alongside Jack Hayes his name was John rip Ford the governor of Texas called upon him to help take care of the problem going against the passive policies of the federal government Ford trained his men in the aggressive old ways and also recruited several native Scouts they then rode north of the Red River

And crushed a group of Comanches led by Iron jacket who was said to be Invincible in the Battle of Antelope Hills in 1860 the brutality of raids caused many settlers to pack up and head back further east an event then occurred that may have significantly changed the course of history

Charles Goodnight led a scouting Expedition and discovered a large Camp of raiding Comanches led by payday nakona a Rising Star by the name of Saul Ross who had fought with John rip Ford at the Battle of Antelope Hills would then lead a larger group to confront them

In this battle they killed Peyton nacona but to their surprise discovered a woman with blue eyes living in the Comanche camp it turns out this was a woman named Cynthia Ann Parker the wife of PETA nakona who had been captured by the Comanches many years before

During this battle her two sons one of them a 12 year old named quanna managed to escape on Horseback she would never see them again but mourn them the rest of her days life or quanta was much more difficult after the loss of his parents but he

Grew to be tall and strong a natural leader this transformation into a great warrior took place during the Civil War years U.S army soldiers vacated the line of forts along the edge of Comanche territory during the Civil War the best Texas men and resources were focused elsewhere and the Western

Frontier became even more vulnerable to attack the losses in the 1840s and again in the late 1850s had weakened the Comanche Empire considerably but the Civil War gave them time to strengthen and regroup during this period they raided the agricultural tribes of Oklahoma territory repeatedly additionally there was tremendous infighting between other groups

And the relative sense Oklahoma territory may have been bloodier than the Civil War itself during this time conditions were so bad that a large refugee camp formed in Kansas with thousands of natives from multiple tribes in 1864 as the Civil War dragged on and the Western frontier of Texas was being

Pushed back to the east General Carlton in New Mexico was becoming increasingly irritated by Comanche and kyowa raids he sent Colonel Kit Carson an experienced fighter to deal with the problem he traveled with his man to the Canadian river valley of what is now the Texas Panhandle

An area that very few American or european men had ever laid eyes upon he left with a group of 400 men that included several native Scouts they brought with them equipment that would prove valuable to their survival to howitzers basically like a mini cannon or a shotgun on steroids They traveled to an abandoned trading post known as Adobe walls where they encountered nearly 2 000 Comanche and Kiowa they fired the howitzers which caused the other side to pause and go back to their Village the natives must have come up with a new strategy in the meantime because when

They returned they spread their men out as the battle war on more and more Warriors streamed in from the camp eventually swelling to 3 000 or more Carson knew they were in danger of being surrounded by this much larger Army and began the process of making a tactical retreat

As they backed away and night fell they fired the Howitzer repeatedly this gave them the time and space they needed to get away and they managed to with minimal losses this became known as the first battle of adobe walls after the Civil War the U.S government worked much harder to get the Comanches

To move to Oklahoma territory they tried to persuade them by allowing them to keep their stolen horses and rewarding them with large gifts at peace treaties but this only encouraged them to keep on raiding eventually President Grant became frustrated enough to turn to a rapidly rising star in the army during the Civil

War Reynold McKenzie he was stationed at Fort Concho in 1871 and very early on had several horses stolen by a group of quahadis led by Quanah Parker after a brief Skirmish his men with several Tonkawa Scouts pursued them up and down the Llano estacado but the Comanches were quite skilled at throwing

Them off the trail eventually a severe winter storm hit and they gave up the pursuit though this Expedition could be regarded as a failure it was a valuable lesson for McKenzie and signaled something much more significant for the first time there was a leader determined enough to pursue them deep

Into the heart of their territory they also had guns that were much more advanced than the revolvers that Jack Hayes had used Spencer rifles these were used heavily during the Civil War the guns could shoot at much faster rate and were accurate from long distances in 1872 there was an escalation in the

Severity of raids and the brutality of killings once more Mackenzie became more and more obsessed with his mission he explored the Llano estacado for many days pushing himself and his men becoming more familiar with the terrain during this time they developed the toughness necessary to be successful against the ever hardened Comanche Warriors

They finally discovered a camp along the North Fork of the Red River they attacked quickly and aggressively killing 52 and capturing 124 prisoners while only losing Four soldiers they also captured many horses but in doing so would learn another valuable lesson McKenzie had left the horses lightly guarded and in typical fashion the

Comanches snuck in that night to take their horses back from that moment forward they ordered all horses captured to be immediately shot and killed this attack had one major effect it crushed the morale of the tribe an attack of this magnitude in the heart of their territory had never happened before One phenomenon was taking place during this time that would be the final straw for free roaming Comanche in Kiowa across Texas the arrival of the Buffalo Hunters they killed Millions during the 1870s destroying the horse tribe’s source of food and way of life these Hunters would kill several in just one hour

They had groups of men that would strip off the skins and leave the rest of the bodies to rot and large piles on the plains a trading post was built along the Canadian river near the site of the battle of adobe walls no one raised a fuss about the saller of millions of

Buffalo as it was soon discovered that this was doing more damage than Decades of efforts before in addition MacKenzie’s man began intercepting and destroying raiding parties with greater frequency as they chipped away at this once great Empire the formerly distinct Comanche bands began to break down and their way

Of life became further corrupted by American materialism then in the Twilight of comancheria a prophet arose named Isa Thai who claimed to possess great magical powers including the ability to raise people from the dead Witnesses spread his Legend across the land like many false prophets before and

Since he convinced the Comanches to do things that would ultimately accelerate their destruction he said that he ascended into the clouds and have been granted the power to defeat the white man and return the nation to its former glory he teamed up with Quanah and together they began preaching their gospel

And one large Gathering of all the bands they attempted to persuade the Chiefs to follow their idea a large percentage refused to follow the plan but this did not deter them in June of 1874 hundreds of Warriors attacked the Trading Post of adobe walls where 28 men were present Issa Thai had

Everyone convinced that he could not be hurt by bullets these men at Adobe walls were prolific hunters and had high-powered long-range rifles with plenty of ammunition they barricaded themselves in and successfully held off the attack from the much larger group Hana was injured and esatized Magic failed both devastating blows to the

Morale of this group of Comanche and Cheyenne Warriors however they were able to regroup and begin a campaign of raids across the Southern Plains this only calls the US Army to step up their efforts even more they gathered the largest army ever assembled against Native Americans to

Battle the last remnants of free roaming natives of comancheria their territory had been whittled down to Palo Duro Canyon and the surrounding area the final frontier of Texas estimates were that fewer than one thousand Warriors remain of Comanche Kiowa and Southern Cheyenne combined after establishing permanent Supply

Camps the U.S army was more prepared than ever to wage war on the high plains for the next few months a series of small battles occurred as Scouts discovered native camps and hideouts tucked away in the canyons in September of 1874 Ronald McKenzie and his men picked a large Trail and followed it

Having learned hard lessons over the last few years he took extra precautions to secure their horses at night by this point in time his men were experienced in tough Fighters able to withstand the elements of the harsh climate on September 28th they reached the edge of the mighty Palo Duro Canyon

They instantly realized they had come to the right place as they surveyed five distinct camps along the river below this was essentially the capital and last Refuge of comancheria they were spotted as they descended near the bottom of the canyon and the natives quickly took action to help their families Escape

The Army moved through the camps and discovered large quantities of food and supplies the natives attempted to attack from the canyon walls but were quickly repelled then Mackenzie gave the order to burn the villages to the ground they captured over a thousand horses and returned to camp later the next morning with the

Exception of a few of the best horses they ordered to shoot and kill them all apparently the pile of bones Left Behind remain there for many years amazingly only four natives were killed in this battle but the destruction of their largest camp and its supplies was a devastating

Blow one they would never recover from soon after the majority of the remaining free warriors were forced into Oklahoma territory only one significant group remained at this point and was still led by Quanah and Isa Thai but they were finally Tracked Down in May of 1875. after meditating for a period of time

Quanah had received a sign that he should surrender and move to Oklahoma they left peacefully and arrived on June 2nd and surrendered to the U.S military at Fort Sill I’m really only just scratching the surface of this period of history and I left out most of the Gory details

There was plenty of brutality from all sides from the Alamo in 1836 to the final surrender in 1875. neither Spain Mexico or the Republic of Texas control even half of what is now the state of Texas in those years I once had a viewer say that Spain had

Officially claimed all of Texas as part of their empire in the late 1500s to which I replied just because a small group hiked across it once and Drew it on a map doesn’t mean they really could rightfully claim it as theirs Spain can only muster a few scattered

Settlements at any given point in time and Mexico brought in Americans to be offered up as sacrifices against the threat ultimately backfiring in a big way for them in the end it was Texan and American settlers Rangers and Soldiers with the help of vengeful Apache and Tonkawa

Scouts that did the heavy lifting of freeing Texas from the threat of some of the most skilled Warriors the world has ever seen however it’s impossible to read this history without feeling tremendous sadness for the great loss of territory and way of life that the native tribes endured

One of the greatest tragedies of all was the fact that tonkowa Scouts were used over and over again in campaigns against the mounted Warriors of the Plains they were their eyes and ears but were never rewarded for it after the wars finally ended the last remnants were forcibly removed

In 1884 and sent to Oklahoma and an interesting turn of events after the Red River War Quanah and Reynold McKenzie wants bitter Rivals and two of the greatest warriors the respective Nations had ever known would go on to become close friends

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Video Duration: 00:27:46