June 8, 1844; Sisterdale: In the spring of 1844, Maj. John C. (Jack) Hays led fourteen Texas Rangers out of San Antonio to scout for Indians in the hill country to the northwest. Among the company were several men who would become famous in ranger history, including Samuel H. Walker and Richard A. Gillespie. Hays's rangers were armed with the new Paterson Colt .36-caliber five-shooters. The rapid-shooting revolvers, along with the rangers' tight discipline, would give the Texans equal footing against mounted Indian warriors.
Hays led his men to the headwaters of the Pedernales River without finding any Indians; on the way back to San Antonio, however, the rangers discovered an Indian trail. While the company paused on Walker Creek, about thirteen miles north of present-day Boerne, Texas, Hays's rear guard came riding in to report that Comanches were right behind them. The rangers mounted and turned on the Indians, who leisurely retreated toward a thicket, exposing their role as decoys. When Hays did not follow them, more than sixty warriors rode out and confronted him. The rangers formed a line and moved slowly forward, whereupon the Comanches withdrew up a brush-covered slope and dismounted, taunting the Texans in Spanish.
Hays was not about to charge uphill against four times his number. Instead, he rode down a shallow ravine out of the Indians' sight, rode up the ridge, then charged the Comanche line from the flank. The rangers fired first with their rifles, then their five-shooters, blasting away at the startled Indians. Recovering from their surprise, the Comanches formed up and countercharged. Hays maneuvered his men into a tight circle, with the horses rump to rump, and repelled the Comanche charges from all angles. Walker and Giliespie took lance wounds, but the near-constant fire of the five-shooters decimated the Comanches. The Indians fled.
The Texans pursued them for two miles, then it was the Comanches' turn to rally. A chief loudly exhorted his warriors to fight. Hays shouted, "Any man who has a load, kill that chief!" Giliespie, despite his wound, dismounted, took careful aim, and fired. When the bullet hit the chief, the Comanches suddenly lost their resolve. They pulled back, but still hovered about the ranger position.
Hays, with little ammunition remaining, could not go after the Indians again, nor did he feel he could retreat with his wounded, so he sent a man named Threadgill to get help. Back in San Antonio, however, Hays's lieutenant, Ben McCulloch, had already decided on his own to ride out with twelve more men to find Hays. When McCulloch arrived, the Comanches finally vacated the area. They left behind twenty-three warriors dead on the field, and Hays estimated that thirty more had been wounded. Two rangers had been killed and five were wounded."
