The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957 Page: 360
616 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
time in aligning himself with the defenders of the infant Re-
public. Under the command of the intrepid Edward Burleson,
Chalk was to win the reputation of a skilful and fearless Indian
and Mexican fighter. His military career was practically continu-
ous throughout and even beyond the period of the Republic.
But for the disastrous fire which swept the adjutant general's
office in 1855 and destroyed many of the records of the soldiers
of the Texas Revolution, the account of Chalk's service to Texas
would be much more complete and interesting.
Chalk's many activities prior to the battle of Mier included
participation in the Plum Creek Fight near the present town of
Lockhart. This encounter with the Indians was the aftermath of
the Council House Fight in San Antonio on March 19, 1840. As
a consequence of the events that transpired at that time, the
injured Comanches swept down the Guadalupe Valley killing,
plundering, and burning in retaliation for the deaths they had
suffered at the hands of the Texans at San Antonio. The climax
of the raid occurred when the Indians reached Lavaca Bay and
vented their accumulated resentment and hostility on the town
of Linnville. Before the sack of Linnville ended, a number of
its residents lay dead and four others suffered the fate of Co-
manche captives.4
Dr. Joel Ponton and Tucker Foley of the Lavaca settlement
had been attacked as the Indians moved southward. Foley was
killed but Ponton, although wounded, escaped and spread the
alarm up the Guadalupe and Colorado rivers, calling the fron-
tiersmen to arms. Eluding the settlers in the coastal plain, the
Indians moved on toward the site of present Lockhart. Captain
Mathew Caldwell, who was leading a combined command of
fifty-nine men from Gonzales and the Lavaca settlements, decided
to intercept the marauders at Plum Creek some thirty miles below
Austin. Encamped at the forks of Plum Creek southeast of present
Lockhart, Captains Caldwell, James Bird, and Lafayette Ward
and their men were joined by groups of other volunteers that in-
cluded Ben McCulloch, Henry McCulloch, John Henry Brown,
Big Foot Wallace, Jack Hays, James O. Rice, John Bate Berry,
4Among those killed was Major H. O. Watts, collector of customs; the captured
were a Mrs. Watts, a Mrs. Crosby, and a negro woman and her child.360
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957, periodical, 1957; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101163/m1/389/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.