Battle of Little Robe Creek - Reasons For The Texas Rangers' Success at Little Robe Creek

Reasons For The Texas Rangers' Success At Little Robe Creek

As Frank Secoy and John C. Ewers emphasized in their military history book "Changing Military Patterns on the Great Plains" the Comanche, and other plains Indians, had combined mastery of horsemanship while incorporating first, their native weapons of bow and lance, then single shot firearms, with the horse. Further, the Comanche may well have been the finest light cavalry that ever lived. But two things combined to alter this battlefield dynamic: first, adoption by the Rangers, then the cavalry, of the nomad tactics of cold camp and relentless pursuit to the Indian encampments. Second, the introduction of rapid fire pistols and rifles. Thus, the Texans had surprised the Comanche in the heart of their homeland. Subsequently the nomad's advantage of not having a fixed home to defend was negated at Little Robe Creek. Secondly, the invention and deployment of rapid rate firearms destroyed the tactics the plains Indians had developed and used with such success against the Spanish, Mexicans, and early Americans.

In this battle, the two factors combined to give a glimpse of what would end the Plains Indians way of life since horses had made them true nomads. Although the “Comanche” had always been a nomadic people, it was the horse that transformed them into a true nomad culture, and a very warlike one. In the Journal of American History Pekka Hämäläinen estimates, as do most military historians and cultural anthropologists, that it was around 1700 that the Comanche got access to a sufficient number of Spanish horses that they were able to make the leap from dog and human assisted nomadic hunter-gatherer to a true nomad culture. The effects of this transformation were radical. Because they were the first Plains tribe to fully incorporate the horse into their way of life, and into their way of making war, they were far and away the best at it . Though it was rare, the only successes the Spanish ever had in battle with the Comanche were on occasions that they were able to take them by surprise. However, since the Comanche became classic horse nomads, this was never easy to do. It was only when the Rangers had adopted classic Comanche tactics of cold camps, forced marches, and use of scouts were they able to alter the dynamic of nomad cavalry attacking fixed settlements. At Little Robe Creek, they in large part succeeded in surprising the Comanche.

Secondly, technology had changed weapons vastly in favor of the settlers. Certainly the Spanish, then the Mexicans, and later the Texans had learned that single-shot weapons were not enough to defeat the deadly Comanche light horse, whose mastery of cavalry tactics and mounted bowmanship were renowned. The Comanche's constant movement caused many of their opponent's older single shot weapons to miss their target in the chaos of battle. The Comanche could then easily kill their enemies before they had a chance to reload. And though it was understated, the Comanche learned to use single shot firearms quite well, though they found bows superior in terms of fire rate. The Comanche put an end to Spanish expansion in North America. They did what no other indigenous peoples had managed, defending their homeland – even expanding their homelands, in the face of the best military forces the Spanish could bring against them. In the late 18th century, the Comanche were said to have stolen every horse in New Mexico. Their raids into Mexico were so devastating, that that one primary goal of the Mexican government after the Mexican-American War was a treaty that would compel the United States to end the Comanche raids into Mexico. In addition, the United States promised compensation for those raids which made it to Mexico. In the years between 1848 and 1853, Mexico filed 366 separate claims for Comanches and Apache raids originating from North of the border.

The third factor was not as much a change of tactics, as an ability to inflict peripheral damage as a consequence of the changed battlefield dynamic, which resulted in the destruction of Comanche lodges, food supplies, and horse herds. This left the survivors without even the most limited means to survive. The killing of women and children had occurred before, on both sides, but this marked a watershed in terms of open use as of attacks on non-combatants as a tacic of war. The Texans had had limited success against the Comanche until repeating firearms ended their battlefield domination, and new Ranger fighting tactics took the battle to the Comanche heartland. In the face of the attack on their homeland, the Comanche were defeated and forced to retreat. Only Peta Nocona's leadership saved the day as he was able to retire skillfully enough that the entire battle disintegrated into a running individual gun battle over several miles.