The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951 Page: 431
544 p. : ill., ports., maps. (some col.) ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Callahan Expedition, 1855
in the military service of the Republic and of the state. Once,
while searching for Indians who had stolen horses at Gonzales,
Captain Ben McCulloch, Callahan, and fourteen companions
made a surprise attack at dawn on an encampment of twenty-two
warriors, killing five and wounding several others. On November
9, 1841, Callahan was elected captain of a company of minute
men and in 1842 was called into active service after General
Adrian Woll's invasion of Texas.3
The story of the Texas frontier is replete with Indian depre-
dations. Nevertheless, from 1852 to 1855, while the United States
was attempting to settle the Texas Indians on reservations, the
border was quieter than usual.4 During the summer of 1855,
however, a large portion of the mounted troops which had been
kept for several years on the Texas frontier was withdrawn and
dispatched to Kansas. As soon as these troops left, the Indians
renewed hostile incursions into the frontier settlements, killing
the citizens and stealing horses."
After receiving complaints regarding depredations on the
Guadalupe River in the upper part of Comal County, Governor
E. M. Pease communicated with Brevet Major General R. F.
Smith, commander of the department of Texas. Pease requested
a company of mounted men for protection of that neighborhood,
because since the Indians had escaped punishment, their desire
to repeat their visits had simply been whetted. The citizens were
threatening to arm and to attack any Indian whom they might
find. Governor Pease feared that the consequences of such an
act would bring on a general war with all the tribes of the
frontier.6
The United States Army failed to respond to Pease's request
as soon as he thought it should. Thus, on July 5, 1855, in order
to protect the citizens residing on the Blanco River and on the
sWilliamson County Sun, January 30o, g1931; William S. Speer, The Encyclopedia
of the New West (2 vols.; Marshall, 1881), I, 575; John Henry Brown, Indian Wars
and Pioneers of Texas (Austin, n.d.), 6o1; Muster Roll, Army of the Republic, Gon-
zales County Minute Men, 1841, Texas State Archives.
4Walter Prescott Webb, The Texas Rangers (Boston, 1935), 145.
BE. M. Pease, Message of the Governor of the State of Texas to the Sixth
Legislature, November 5, 1855 (MS. in Texas State Archives).
6E. M. Pease to R. F. Smith, June so, 1855 (MS. in Governor's Letters, Texas
State Archives).431
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951, periodical, 1951; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101133/m1/581/?rotate=270: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.