Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 64 of 894

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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.

horn, but he swam the river, climbed its bank,
mounted behind Hunter, and escaped, to live till
1875 or 1876, when he died, in the vitcinity of his
first home, near Parker's fort. Of Evan Faulkenberry
no trace was ever found. The Indians afterwards
said that he fought like a demon, killed two
of their number, wounded a third; and when scalped
and almost cloven asunder, jerked from them,
plunged into the river and about midway sank to
appear no more-adding another to the list of
heroic boys who have died for Texas. Honored be
his memory! The dead were buried the next day.
THE MEXICAN REBELLION.
At the time of the revolution there was a considerable
resident Mexican population in and around
Nacogdoches. About the first of September, 1838,
Jose Cordova, at the head of about two hundred of
these people, aided by Juan Flores, Juan Cruz and
John Norris, rose in rebellion and pitched camp on
the Angelina, about twenty miles southwest of
Nacogdoches. Joined by renegade Indians, they
began a system of murder and pillage among the
thinly scattered settlers. They soon murdered the
brothers, Matthew and Charles Roberts, and Mr.
Finley, their relative. Speedily, Gen. Thomas J.
Rusk, at the head of six hundred volunteers, was
in the field. Cordova retired to the village of
"The Bowl," Chief of the Cherokees, and sought,
unsuccessfully, to form an alliance with him; but
succeeded in attaching to his standard some of the
more desperate of the Cherokees and Cooshattas.
In a day or two he moved to the Kickapoo village,
now in the northeast corner of Anderson County,
and succeeded in winning that band to his cause.
Rusk followed their line of retreat to the Killough
settlement, some forty miles farther. He became
convinced of his inability to overhaul them; also,
that they had left the country, and returned home,
disbanding his forces.
BATTLE OF KICKAPOO.
Rusk had scarcely disbanded his men, when the
numerous family of Killough was inhumanly butchered
by this motley confederation of Mexicans and
Indians, which alarmed and incensed the people
exposed to their forays. The bugle blast of Rusk
soon re-assembled his disbanded followers. Maj.
Leonard H. Mabbitt then had a small force at Fort
Houston. Rusk directed him to unite with him at
what is now known as the Duty place, four miles
west of the Neches. Mabbitt, reinforced by some
volunteers of the vicinity under Capt. W. T. Saddler,
started to the rendezvous. On the march, six
miles from Fort Houston, a number of Mabbitt's

men, a mile or more in rear of the command, were
surprised by an attack of Indians and Mexicans,
led by Flores and Cruz. A sharp skirmish ensued,
in which the little band displayed great gallantry,
but before Mabbitt came to their rescue, Bullock,
Wright and J. W. Carpenter were killed, and two
men, McKenzie and Webb, were wounded. The
enemy, on seeing Mabbitt's approach, precipitately
fled. This occurred on the 11th or 12th of October,
1838. The dead were buried. Only one
Indian was left on the field, but several were
killed.
On the 13th a spy company was organized, under
Capt. James E. Box, and on the 14th Mabbitt renewed
his march for a junction with Rusk. On the
afternoon of the 15th a few Indians were seen passing
the abandoned Kickapoo village, evidently
carrying meat to Cordova. Gen. Rusk soon arrived,
his united force being about seven hundred men.
It was nearly night, and he pitched camp on, a
spot chosen as well to prevent surprise as for defense.
At dawn on the 16th, Rusk was furiously assailed
by about nine hundred Kickapoos, Delawares,
Ionies, Caddos, Cooshattas, a few Cherokees, and
Cordova with his Mexicans. Indians fell within
forty or fifty feet of the lines. Many were killed,
and after an engagement of not exceeding an hour,
the enemy fled in every direction, seeking safety in
the dense forest. The assaults were most severe on
the companies of Box, Snively, Bradshaw, Saddler
and Mabbitt's command; but owing to the sagacity
of Rusk in the selection of a defensive position, his
loss was only one man, James Hall, mortally wounded,
and twenty-five wounded more or less severely,
among whom were Dr. E. J. DeBard, afterwards
of Palestine, John Murchison, J. J. Ware, Triplett
Gates, and twenty-one others. It was a signal defeat
of Cordova and his evil-inspired desire for vengeance
upon a people who had committed no act to justify
such a savage resolve. He retired to Mexico, and
thence essayed to gratify his malignant hatred by a
raid, under Flores, in the following year, which was
badly whipped by Burleson, six or eight miles from
where Seguin stands, and virtually destroyed by
the gallant Capt. James O. Rice, in the vicinity of
the present town of Round Rock, on the Brushy,
in Williamson County. His last attempt to satisfy
his thirst for revenge was in the Mexican invasion
of September, 1842, in command of a band of
Mexican desperadoes and Carrizo Indians. In the
battle of Salado, on the 18th of that month, a yager
ball, sent by John Lowe, standing within three feet
of where I stood, after a flight of about ninety
yards, crushed his arm from wrist to elbow and