Battle of Bandera Pass LbNA #69539
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Nearby Boxes
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Add Location| Owner: | Baby Bear  |
|---|---|
| Plant date: | Dec 28, 2015 |
| Location: | Bandera Pass |
| City: | Bandera |
| County: | Bandera |
| State: | Texas |
| Boxes: | 1 |
| Found by: | WanderingOkieWoman |
|---|---|
| Last found: | Dec 30, 2017 |
| Status: | F |
| Last edited: | Jan 4, 2016 |
Difficulty: Easy
Distance to Letterbox: 20 yards
The box is located near the historical marker at the pass. Many cars go by, so may have to use stealth. Here is the history of the Battle of Bandera Pass from Wikipedia (but some believe the actual battle with Hays using the Colts was in anther location):
After the Great Raid of 1840 where the Comanches under Buffalo Hump sacked Victoria, Texas and Linnville, President Sam Houston felt he had to strengthen the frontier defenses to prevent future “Great Raids.” He then appointed Captain John Coffee Hays to recruit a company of rangers to specifically contain the Comanches. That company was filled with noted Indian fighters. Among the company were men such as: Bigfoot Wallace, Ben Highsmith, Creed Taylor, Sam Walker, Robert Addison Gillespie, P.H. Bell, Kit Ackland, Sam Luckey, James Dunn, Tom Galberth, George Neill, and Frank Chevallier, and others well known in Texas Frontier history. That company confronted the Comanche in Bandera Pass in 1841.
It was generally accepted on both sides that the Comanches were superior cavalrymen at the time. The choice of weapons available to them to use while mounted, namely their short bows and wooden lances were best employed upon the Great Plains. The preferred terrain was the rolling, wide-open hills of the prairie. Comanches did utilize ambushes, but invariably the ambush involved attacking from horse-back from behind a thicket of trees or somewhere that allowed men and horses to remain concealed. Acquiring this particular set of circumstances was clearly impossible all the time. Texan vistas are often quite long and do not offer a surfeit of places to hide. The last place that Comanches would set an ambush would be at the end of a pass which affords the Comanche's victim a clear line of withdrawal. Logically the Comanche would favor a wide open portion of the Great Plains or Llano Estacado which would mean that the Comanches could attack from any direction.
The Battle of Bandera Pass
The exact date of this battle is no longer known, though the time it occurred is. Captain Hays and his men, approximately 50 in number, arrived at the Pass about 11 o'clock in the morning and were surprised and confronted by a large band of Comanches. Hays' reports indicate his men were discomforted by the size of the force against them, but the captain is reported to have ordered them to “dismount and tie those horses, we can whip them. No doubt about that.”
This battle is where the repeating revolvers began to change the tide of the struggle against the Comanche. The Colt revolvers had just been invented, and Captain Hays and his men were lucky enough to be armed with fifty or sixty of these weapons, which the Rangers reported were unknown to the Comanche. Although they reported being badly outnumbered, the new weapons enabled the rangers to hold their ground. The fierce battle began at 11 o'clock in the morning, according to records left by Hays, and lasted all day, with the sides finally ending the conflict as night fell.
After the battle
Finally, the Comanche retreated, and the Rangers followed. Both sides buried their dead, with the Rangers losing five men and many wounded. But the fact that 50 Rangers had held their ground against hundreds of the Comanche marked a change in the way the frontier wars would be fought, and marked the turning of the tide in the war between Texas and the Comanches.
Directions:
From Bandera, go north on Hwy 173 to Bandera Pass. Park on opposite side of road at the Historical Marker.
Directions to Letterbox:
Go behind the marker to the first tree along the fence. The box is at back base, against the back of the two biggest trunks of the tree.
Hike length: 0.1 miles
Distance to Letterbox: 20 yards
The box is located near the historical marker at the pass. Many cars go by, so may have to use stealth. Here is the history of the Battle of Bandera Pass from Wikipedia (but some believe the actual battle with Hays using the Colts was in anther location):
After the Great Raid of 1840 where the Comanches under Buffalo Hump sacked Victoria, Texas and Linnville, President Sam Houston felt he had to strengthen the frontier defenses to prevent future “Great Raids.” He then appointed Captain John Coffee Hays to recruit a company of rangers to specifically contain the Comanches. That company was filled with noted Indian fighters. Among the company were men such as: Bigfoot Wallace, Ben Highsmith, Creed Taylor, Sam Walker, Robert Addison Gillespie, P.H. Bell, Kit Ackland, Sam Luckey, James Dunn, Tom Galberth, George Neill, and Frank Chevallier, and others well known in Texas Frontier history. That company confronted the Comanche in Bandera Pass in 1841.
It was generally accepted on both sides that the Comanches were superior cavalrymen at the time. The choice of weapons available to them to use while mounted, namely their short bows and wooden lances were best employed upon the Great Plains. The preferred terrain was the rolling, wide-open hills of the prairie. Comanches did utilize ambushes, but invariably the ambush involved attacking from horse-back from behind a thicket of trees or somewhere that allowed men and horses to remain concealed. Acquiring this particular set of circumstances was clearly impossible all the time. Texan vistas are often quite long and do not offer a surfeit of places to hide. The last place that Comanches would set an ambush would be at the end of a pass which affords the Comanche's victim a clear line of withdrawal. Logically the Comanche would favor a wide open portion of the Great Plains or Llano Estacado which would mean that the Comanches could attack from any direction.
The Battle of Bandera Pass
The exact date of this battle is no longer known, though the time it occurred is. Captain Hays and his men, approximately 50 in number, arrived at the Pass about 11 o'clock in the morning and were surprised and confronted by a large band of Comanches. Hays' reports indicate his men were discomforted by the size of the force against them, but the captain is reported to have ordered them to “dismount and tie those horses, we can whip them. No doubt about that.”
This battle is where the repeating revolvers began to change the tide of the struggle against the Comanche. The Colt revolvers had just been invented, and Captain Hays and his men were lucky enough to be armed with fifty or sixty of these weapons, which the Rangers reported were unknown to the Comanche. Although they reported being badly outnumbered, the new weapons enabled the rangers to hold their ground. The fierce battle began at 11 o'clock in the morning, according to records left by Hays, and lasted all day, with the sides finally ending the conflict as night fell.
After the battle
Finally, the Comanche retreated, and the Rangers followed. Both sides buried their dead, with the Rangers losing five men and many wounded. But the fact that 50 Rangers had held their ground against hundreds of the Comanche marked a change in the way the frontier wars would be fought, and marked the turning of the tide in the war between Texas and the Comanches.
Directions:
From Bandera, go north on Hwy 173 to Bandera Pass. Park on opposite side of road at the Historical Marker.
Directions to Letterbox:
Go behind the marker to the first tree along the fence. The box is at back base, against the back of the two biggest trunks of the tree.
Hike length: 0.1 miles