No. 16General Orders
Headquarters,
Department of Texas,
San Antonio,
October 30th, 1860
The Colonel commanding takes pleasure in publishing to the Department a statement of the combats of the troops in Texas, which have not been previously noticed in orders, either from General or Department Head Quarters.
Many scouts and expeditions in which high soldierly qualities were evinced are not mentioned, it being the purpose to notice only those in which actual conflicts took place.
First. On the 29th of September, 1859, Lieut. Wm. B. Hazen, 8th Infantry, with two non-commissioned officers and eight men of Company F, 8th Infantry, left Fort Inge in pursuit of a party of Indians that had carried away two negro boys, and driven off a large number of horses belonging to Mr. H. Ragsdale on the Frio. The pursuit was commenced at tattoo on the evening of the 29th September, and, notwithstanding a heavy rainand chilling norther, was prosecuted with so much vigor that the Indians were overtaken at the head of the Nueces river, and immediately charged. The Indians attempted to escape, but were brought to bay after a rapid chase, — one of their number killed and one wounded, — when they again took flight over a broken country, and eluded pursuit by dashing down the precipitous bank of a ravine and into a dense cedar brake. Had not the Indians been mounted on fleet American horses, the attack would have resulted more disastrously to them. One of the negro boys (the other had been killed by the Indians), and one hundred and thirty horses were recovered.
Excerpt from “Colonel Lee’s Report on Indian Combats in Texas,” as published in Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Volume 39, July 1935, pages 22 to 31.
For the rest of the report visit Colonel Lee’s Report on Indian Combats in Texas at the Texas State Historical Association web site.
