Battle of Little Robe Creek

The years 1856 to 1858 were particularly vicious and bloody on the Texas frontier, as settlers continued to expand their settlements into the Comanche homeland, the Comancheria. Valuable Indian hunting grounds were plowed under, and grazing ranges for the Comanche horse herds were lost. The United States Army proved wholly unable to stem the violence. Federal units were being transferred out of the area for reasons that seemed driven more by political than military considerations. At the same time, federal law and numerous treaties forbade incursion by state forces into the federally protected Indian Territories. The U.S. Army was likewise instructed not to attack Indians in the Indian Territories or to permit such attacks. The relationship between the federal government, Texas, and the native tribes was further complicated by a unique situation that arose as a result of Texas' annexation. The federal government is charged by the U.S. Constitution to be in charge of Indian affairs and took over that role in Texas after it became a state in 1846, but under the terms of Texas' accession to the Union, the new state retained control over virtually all of public land within its boundaries. In most other new states, the overwhelming majority of publicly owned land belonged to the Federal government as well as sole jurisdiction over Indian affairs, in particular the authority to make treaties guaranteeing reservations for various tribes. However, Texas adamantly refused to contribute public land in the state for Indian reservations, but still expected the federal government to be responsible for the cost and details of Indian affairs. Since federal Indian agents in Texas believed that Indian land rights were the key to peace on the frontier, little progress towards a peaceful settlement was even attempted on account of the attitude of Texas officials on the question of Indian homelands. As the Civil War loomed, federal forces were moved off the frontier with greater frequency. These troop movements, including the transfer without replacement of the 2nd Cavalry in Texas, left much of the frontier of the Great Plains without protection from Indian attacks. Their success against the Spanish, Mexicans, and early Texans led them to believe the tactics that had enabled them to win, including unrelenting raids and thefts against settlements, would continue to be successful. This violence towards settlers cost roughly 17 settler lives per mile for settlement of the Comancheria. ==Recruiting "friendly" Indians==

Among the traditional enemies of the Comanche were the Tonkawa Indians, then on a reservation on the Brazos River in Texas. Immortalized and praised in Texas history as friends and allies of the Texas settlers, these histories generally downplay the fact the Tonkawa were cannibals and were despised by virtually every other Indian tribe. Ford, who had witnessed Tonkawa brutality to other Indians, had no reservations about using cannibals to help him, as long as they were eating Comanches, not Rangers. and undertook a campaign with approximately an equal number of Texas Rangers against the Comanches. Ford and Placido were determined to follow the Comanche and Kiowa up to their strongholds amid the hills of the Canadian River and into the Wichita Mountains, and if possible, "kill their warriors, decimate their food supply, strike at their homes and families, and generally destroy their ability to make war." ==Antelope Hills expedition==

In February 1858, Ford established Camp Runnells near what used to be the town of Belknap. Ford, still operating under Governor Runnell's explicits orders to "follow any and all trails of hostile and suspected hostile Indians, inflict the most severe and summary punishment," The force then advanced into the portion of the Comancheria in the Indian Territories in Oklahoma. Ford and S. P. Ross led the men across the Red River, into the Indian Territory, violating federal laws and numerous treaties, with Ford stating later that his job was to "find and fight Indians, not to learn geography." ==Battle==

First encounter The first of three distinct encounters between the invading Texas forces and the Comanche occurred at sunrise on May 12, 1858. Fehrenbach and other historians have labelled this a massacre, where a sleeping village was attacked without warning, and the population slaughtered, the dead later eaten (by the Tonkawas) or enslaved Historian Jerry Denson notes that Ford joked about the deaths of "squaws and such." was killed in the fighting. He had worn a Spanish coat of mail in battle which had earned him a reputation of invincibility as it evidently protected him from some light weapons fire. Iron Jacket, an older man, probably in his 60s at the time, had rallied his men after warning had arrived of the attack on the first small group of lodges a short distance from his encampment, and had ridden directly in front of the attacking Rangers and Indians, challenging them to individual combat. While this had worked in his battles with previous foes, who lacked the powerful weapons able to penetrate the armor he wore, it got him killed at Little Robe Creek. His warriors were badly distressed by his death, as Iron Jacket had explained his breath could blow bullets away. The Comanche second in command was killed by a shot from Chul-le-quah, the Shawnee captain. Had reinforcements not speedily arrived, his followers might have been killed in the chaos after his death. ==Aftermath==

The Tonkawa warriors with the Rangers celebrated the victory by decorating their horses with the bloody hands and feet of their Comanche victims as trophies. They also had containers with various other body parts, which they cut off and ate in a "dreadful feast". Ford requested that the governor immediately empower him to raise additional levies of Rangers and return north at once to continue the campaign in the heart of the Comancheria. Runnels had exhausted half the budget for defense for the year, though, and disbanded the Rangers at the end of six months. The overall impact of the campaign was significant. For the first time, Texan or American forces had penetrated into the heart of Comancheria, attacked Comanche villages with impunity, and successfully made it home. The U.S. Army later adopted many of Ford's tactics, including attacking civilians as well as warriors, and destroying the buffalo herds that were a main source of food for their enemies, in their campaigns against the Plains tribes following the Civil War. ==Reasons for success==

As Frank Secoy and John C. Ewers emphasize in their military history book Changing Military Patterns on the Great Plains, the Comanche and other Plains Indians had combined mastery of horsemanship while incorporating first, their native weapons of bow and lance, then single-shot firearms, with the horse, but two things combined to alter this battlefield dynamic: first, the Rangers adopted the nomad tactics of cold camp and relentless pursuit to the Indian encampments; second was the introduction of rapid-fire pistols and rifles. estimates, as do most military historians and cultural anthropologists, that around 1700, the Comanche accessed a sufficient number of Spanish horses that they were able to make the leap from dog- and human-assisted nomadic hunter-gatherer to a true nomadic culture. The effects of this transformation were radical. Because they were the first Plains tribe to fully incorporate the horse into their way of life, and into their way of making war, they were far and away the best at it. The scorched earth tactics employed by the Rangers resulted in the destruction of Comanche lodges, food supplies, and horse herds. This left the survivors without even the most limited means to survive. The killing of women and children had occurred before, on both sides, but this marked a watershed in terms of open use as of attacks on noncombatants as a tactic of war. The Texans had had limited success against the Comanche until repeating firearms ended their battlefield domination, and new Ranger fighting tactics took the battle to the Comanche heartland. In the face of the attack on their homeland, the Comanche were defeated and forced to retreat. Only Peta Nocona's leadership saved the day, as he was able to retire skillfully enough that the entire battle disintegrated into a running individual gun battle over several miles. ==See also==