Even after Houston’s victory over General Antonio López de Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, the Mexican government continued to promise the Indians it would retake the former colony. When an invasion did not occur, most chiefs chose to accept the new Republic of Texas, with Houston as its founding president. President Houston tried to have the U.S. Senate ratify the treaty he had signed with the Indians that February, but it too refused.

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Mexico again threatened invasion, and in May 1838 disgruntled Indians made a pact with Mexican army Captain Vicente Córdova to raid Texas in support of his cause, sparking the so-called Córdova Rebellion. That September, Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar replaced Houston as president of the Republic of Texas and announced his intention to drive all Indians from the republic. Peace, he argued, could not exist on the Texas frontier as long as the Indians considered alliance with Mexico. Indeed, the peace was shattered in October by Kickapoo raids in which Mexican agents participated. Major General Thomas Jefferson Rusk, commander of the Nacogdoches militia, was tasked with suppressing the Kickapoos and Caddos, and midmonth his militia would meet hostile Indians head-on.

But first the surveyors had their turn at battle.

The surveying party formed on October 6, 1838, at Franklin, in Robertson County, Texas. The men were to survey the land in future Navarro County for veterans of the Texas Revolution. The first night out they camped at Fort Parker, which had been abandoned following a Comanche raid two years earlier in which most of the inhabitants were killed and Cynthia Ann Parker captured.

The surveyors certainly were aware of possible danger from Indians in the area and likely posted guards. A few months earlier, chief surveyor William F. Henderson had been out with another party when it was attacked. The Indians killed one man and cut short that survey.

After passing the Tehuacana Hills, the October surveying party reached Richland Creek (later known as Battle Creek) and set up camp. The Texas men soon discovered about 300 ostensibly friendly Kickapoo Indians camped nearby. The Kickapoos said they were there to kill enough buffalo to have meat for the winter. “From the hills you could see a thousand buffalo at a sight,” noted surveyor Lane, who later provided a narrative of the clash.

The Kickapoo chief gave the surveyors some friendly advice: Leave the area quickly because it isn’t safe. He said a renegade band of Ionies (another name for Caddos of the Hasinai Confederacy) was planning to attack the survey party and drive it from the rich buffalo range. If the chief had hoped to scare off the white men, his tactic failed. According to Lane, “We thanked them for the information, but said that we were not afraid of the Jonies [Ionies], and said if they attacked us we would clean them out, as they have nothing but bows and arrows anyway.” The chief begged them to leave, saying that if the Ionies killed them, their deaths would be blamed on his Kickapoo tribe. No dice, said the surveyors; there was work to be done.

On October 8, William Love discovered that one of the party’s compasses was broken. He and a fellow surveyor named Jackson volunteered to return to Franklin to get a replacement. Concerned about the Kickapoo chief’s warning, Love suggested the others refrain from surveying until their return. He further urged them to drive the buffalo away so the Indians would follow and leave the surveyors in peace. But the survey party, largely unconcerned at the threat, ignored Love’s advice, left the buffalo unmolested and went to work—riding right into the Kickapoo trap. The chief had decided to attack the surveyors and blame the Ionies.

Following the initial ambush, the surveyors seemed to get the upper hand, driving the 40 warriors from the ravine. But that only exposed the Texans to the guns of the remaining Kickapoos. Badly outnumbered and surrounded by mounted warriors, the surveyors had no choice but to retreat. They managed to fight their way back to the head of the ravine, where they had some cover but no peace, as the Indians rode into the ravine below and opened fire. To keep the party from escaping, the warriors killed the surveyors’ horses, except for two that remained undiscovered in the bushes.

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