Council House Fight facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Council House Fight
Part of Texas-Indian Wars
The Plaza and the Council House in San Antonio
Date March 19, 1840 Location San Antonio, Republic of Texas Result Entire Comanche peace delegation killed
Belligerents
Texas Rangers and Texas Militia	Comanche
Commanders and leaders
Hugh McLeod George Thomas Howard Mathew Caldwell (WIA)	Muk-wah-ruh  †
Strength
Approximately 100	33 chiefs and warriors, and 32 family members and/or retainers
Casualties and losses
7 killed 10 wounded (most from friendly fire)	35 killed 29 captured and imprisoned

The Council House Fight, often referred to as the Council House Massacre, was a decidedly lopsided fight between soldiers and officials of the Republic of Texas and a delegation of Comanche chiefs during a peace conference in San Antonio on March 19, 1840. The meeting took place under an observed truce with the purpose of negotiating the exchange of captives and ultimately facilitating peace after two years of war. The Comanches sought to obtain recognition of the boundaries of the Comancheria, their homeland, while the Texians wanted the release of Texian and Mexican citizens held prisoner by the Comanches.

The council ended with 12 Comanche leaders shot to death inside the Council House, 23 others shot in the streets of San Antonio, and 30 taken captive. The Comanche tortured 13 captives to death in response. The incident ended any chance for peace and led to years of further hostility and war.

Background

At the time, the Comanche people were not a unified Indian nation. There were at least 12 divisions of the Comanche, with as many as 35 independent roaming bands, also known as rancherías or villages. Although bound together in various ways, both cultural and political, the bands were not responsible to any formalized unified authority.

The absence of a central authority meant that one band could not force another band to return their captives. Chiefs Buffalo Hump and Peta Nocona never agreed to return any captives to the Texian settlers.

On January 10, 1840, after several years of war against the Apache as well as constant depredations and murders of white emigrant settlers as well as and a major smallpox epidemic, three Comanche emissaries were told that peace would be entertained if they returned the dozen white captives and dozen Mexican captives. Several Comanche bands thus entered San Antonio and asked for peace, offering to send a large contingent of their leaders in 23 days to secure a new peace. But only one white boy was returned as a bargaining chip. Colonel Henry Wax Karnes received them, listened to their story, and agreed, but admonished them by saying that a lasting peace could be negotiated only when the Comanches gave up the captives that they held, estimated at thirteen. Albert Sidney Johnston, the Texas Secretary of War, had ordered San Antonio officials to take the Comanche delegates as hostages if they failed to deliver all captives. In March, Muguara, a powerful eastern Comanche chief, led 65 Comanches, including women and children, to San Antonio for peace talks.

Captives

The day after the fight, a single Comanche woman was released to return to her camp and report that the Comanche prisoners would be released if the Comanche released the 15 Americans and several Mexicans who were known to be captives. They were given 12 days to return the captives. On March 26, a white woman, Mrs. John Webster, came into town with her three-year-old. She had been a Comanche captive for 19 months and had just escaped, leaving her 12-year-old son with the Indians. Two days later, a band of Indians returned to San Antonio. Leaving the bulk of the warriors outside the city, Chief Isanaica (Howling Wolf) and one other man rode into San Antonio and yelled insults. The citizens told him to go find the soldiers if he wanted a fight, but the garrison commander, Captain Redd, declared that he had to observe the 12-day truce. Redd invited the Indians to come back in three days, but, fearing a trap, Isanaica and his men left the area. Another officer accused Redd of cowardice for refusing to fight, and they both died following a duel over the insult.

Of the 16 hostages the Texians were determined to recover, 13 were tortured to death as soon as the news of the Council House Fight reached the outraged Comanches. Only the three captives who had been adopted into the tribe, and by Comanche custom were truly part of the tribe, were spared. This was part of the Comanche answer to the breaking of a truce.

On April 3, when the truce deadline had ended, another band of Comanches appeared again to bargain for a captive exchange. They had only three captives with them, including Webster's son Booker, a five-year-old girl, and a Mexican boy. Booker told them that the other captives had been tortured and killed when the Comanche woman had returned to camp with news of the Council House Fight. These three captives were returned after their adoptive families agreed to give them up.

The Comanche captives were moved from the city jail to the San Jose Mission, then to Camp Cooke at the head of the San Antonio River. Several were taken into people's homes to live and work, but ran away as soon as they could. Eventually, all of the Texians' Comanche captives escaped.

Contemporary newspaper account

The Texas Sentinel of March 24, 1840, gives an account of "a recent battle with the Comanches at San Antonio":

On the 19th March, a body of 65 Indians arrived at that place bringing Miss Lockhart, a little girl, take(n) by them a year and a half since from the Gandaloupe (Guadalupe) for the purpose of holding a council with the agents of our government. Miss Lockhart stated that she had seen all the other prisoners at their camp a few days before she left. Col. W. G. Cooke, acting Secretary of War, being present, thought it proper to take hostages for the safe return of the prisoners and Col. Fisher was ordered to march two companies and place them in the immediate vicinity of the council room. After some parleying in relation to the prisoners, one company (w)as ordered to march into the room and the other to the rear of the building where the warriors were assembled. The Chiefs were then told that they were prisoners and would not be liberated until they restored their white prisoners. One sprang to the back door and attempted to pass the sentinel who presented his musket when the Indian drew his knife and stabbed him. A general rush was then made for the doors. Captain Howard caught one by the collar and received a severe stab. He then ordered the sentinel to shoot the Indian which was instantly done. They all then drew their knives and bows for battle and the whole twelve Chiefs were immediately shot.

In the meantime Capt. Reed's company was attacked by the warriors in the rear of the yard who fought with desperation. The Indians were driven into the stone houses from which they kept up a galling fire with their bows and rifles. A small number succeeded in gaining the opposite side of the river but Col. Wells pursued them with a party of mounted men and killed all with the exception of a renegade Mexican. A single warrior took refuge in a stone house, refusing every offer of life sent him through the squaws and after killing several of our men, the building was fired at night and he was shot as he passed the door.

The whole number of warriors, excepting the Mexicans, amounting to 35, were killed besides two women and three children. Our loss was 7 killed, Lieut. W. M. Dunnington, privates Kammiski and Whitney, Judge Thompson of Houston, Judge Hood of Bexa(r)s, Mr. Cayce of Matagorda and a Mexican. Wounded, Capt. G. T. Howard, 1st infantry, Mathew Caldwell, 1st infantry, Lieut. E. A.Thompson, private Kelley, Company 1, Judge Robinson, Mr. Higginbotham, Mr. Morgan and Mr. Carson, total wounded 8, Howard, Thompson and Kelley, very severely. At the request of the prisoners, a squaw was liberated and well mounted, to go to the main tribe and request an exchange of prisoners. She promised to return in four days with our captive friends and Cols. Cooks and McLeod will wait her return.

We learn from Mr. Durkee who arrived from Austin this evening that Col. Burleson has been called upon to organize an expedition forthwith to operate against the Comanches. He will raise one company on the Colorado and at Austin and take with him the company which left Houston a short time since under Capt. Pierce and a body of Tonkwa Indians.

Aftermath

The Comanche were shocked by the actions of the Texians. In his book Los Comanches, historian Stanley Noyes notes, "[a] violation of a council represented an almost unthinkable degree of perfidy. The council was sacred not only to the [Comanche] People, but [also] to all Native Americans". In response, the captives the Texians sought were killed, and Buffalo Hump launched the Great Raid of 1840, leading hundreds of Comanche warriors on raids against many Texian villages. The Texians, for their part, were shocked and disgusted by the actions of the barbaric Comanches in torturing to death the innocent captives. At least 25 settlers were killed in the Great Raid, with others taken prisoner, including a Mrs. Crosby, a granddaughter of Daniel Boone, who was later murdered by her captors. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods were taken; one city was burned to the ground and another damaged. The Texian militia responded, leading to the Battle of Plum Creek in August 1840, and ultimately stopped the raids.