Early accounts of the Battle of Pease River read like Hollywood film treatments from the fifties. A dashing young hero, Sul Ross, led a small force of Texas Rangers, U.S. cavalry troops, and militia volunteers into combat against a much larger group of Comanche warriors led by legendary chief Peta Nocona. It was 160 years ago, on December 19, 1860—a frigid, blustery day—and the Rangers’ coalition had the element of surprise on its side. “The attack was so sudden that a considerable number [of Comanche] were killed before they could prepare for defense,” Ross said years later, in a statement supplied to historian James T. DeShields.

According to narratives popular at the time, after they defeated the warriors, Ross and another Ranger, Tom Killiheir, pursued Nocona, a girl, and a woman holding a toddler as they fled on horseback. Ross killed the girl and injured Nocona, then ordered his Mexican servant to dispatch him with a shotgun. Killiheir, meanwhile, captured the other woman, whose name was Naduah, and her young daughter.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-...tm_term=0_92f99d7313-757cb13146-54722947

Title says 1850

It was 1860

Title says 1850

It was 1860

Just a interesting piece of old history that with some research changes the view of the story. Which is true? Nobody can really know what went down.

The Gunfight at the OK Corral, Travis’ Line in the Sand, practically every legendary gunfighter - many (if not most) of what we were taught about the history of the Old West growing up had its genesis in self-promotion, dime novels, Hollywood or some combination of all three. A kernel of truth wrapped in blankets of made up exaggerations (as the article describes).

You of course...... are reading the wrong books/ articles/ and certainly, the wrong news......
But then, I'm reasonably sure, that's why you have such a
convoluted viewpoint on most everything...................

You want to read something horrifying, there are stories about the Fort Parker massacre told by survivors. And the survivors walked 100 miles to Jefferson for help. All I care about Sul Ross and the Rangers is that they won, and I don’t care how they did it or wrote it up.

The world is a vicious place and always was, and it isn’t PC.

Of course Sul Ross embellished a good bit here (Peta Nocona was not even at the Pease River battle where Cynthia Ann was rescued

He was also a badass of epic proportions

Shot thru the chest at Ft Belknap, begged his own men to kill him

But he survived

His service in the Civil War was long, & he fought in some of the biggest battles in the west

Then went on the be Governor

FYI- there is a marker down a dirt road near Thalia & Margaret where the Pease River Battlefield is. It’s at th gate to the (now) private property where it actually occurred. There’s also a marker at a roadside park on Hwy 6, but it’s only there because it’s where everyone on the highway can see it

My favorite quote from Sul Ross was spoken after the CW battle of Pea Ridge/Elkhorn Tavern (where Texas hero Ben McCullouch was killed) The commanding Confederate general (Earl Van Dorn) attempted a very difficult, all night flanking March in a circle around the Yankees in an ice storm, but the Yankees successfully altered their defenses before the fight & reformed their defensive perimeter several times during the fight, & the Confederates lost the battle. When asked what happened, Sul Ross said “too much marching & not enough fighting.”

Also, for the record, I (myself) am very soft.

Romanticized or not, the fact is the Comanches did not want settlers north of the Balcones escarpment. Somehow, some way, people like Sul Ross didn’t let that get in their way and did things in such a manner that allowed Texas to be Texas.