JAMES MANOR - INDIAN FIGHTER

Early settlers in Texas, as well as most other areas of America, were often confronted by Indians of many different tribes. Some of those confrontations were hostile situations resulting in capture, injury, and/or death on one side or the other, or both. The information shown below is not intended to be a defense or condemnation of anyone participating on either side of these conflicts. This is simply and only a statement of historical facts. 

In the latter part of the 1830's, James Manor volunteered as part of a group from Bastrop County whose mission was to confront and deter some Comanche Indians who had been causing troubles for the settlers in parts of the newly settled areas of Texas. 

The document  below is part of the record of James Manor's military service in this campaign against the Comanches. (shown with transcript)

"This is to certify that James  Manor volunteered to go against the Comanche Indians on the 25th day of January 1839 and discharged the duty of a private faithfully up to the 24th day of February following thru the 12th day of April 1840.

     J. H. Moore                                                                      Noah Smithwick

     Commandant Com.                                                        Capt of Bastrop Volunteers"

John Henry Brown, in his book titled "INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS", published around 1890, gives this account of the conflict between the Texans, led by Colonel John H. Moore, and the Comanche Indians, on the San Saba River. 

"MOORE’S DEFEAT ON THE SAN SABA, 1839"

"In consequence of the repeated and continued inroads of the Indians through 1837 and 1838, at the close of the latter year Col. John H. Moore, of Fayette, already distinguished alike for gallantry and patriotism, determined to chastise them. Calling for volunteers from the thinly settled country around him, he succeeded in raising a force of fifty-five whites, forty-two Lipan and twelve Toncahua Indians, an aggregate of one hundred and nine. Col. Castro, chief of the Lipans, commanded his warriors, assisted by the rising and ever faithful young chief, Flacco, whose memory is honored, and whose subsequent perfidious fate is and ever has been deplored by every pioneer of Texas….

The advance scouts reported to Col. Moore the discovery of a large Comanche encampment, with many horses, on the San Saba river, yet the sequel showed that they failed to realize its magnitude in numbers.

With adroit caution that experienced frontiersman, by a night march, arrived in the vicinity before the dawn of day, on the 12^th of February, 1839, a clear, frosty morning. They were in a favored position for surprising the foe, and wholly undiscovered. At a given signal every man understood his duty. Castro, with a portion of the Indians, was to stampede the horses grazing in the valley and rush with them beyond recovery. The whites and remaining Indians were to charge, without noise, upon the village. The horses of the dismounted men of both colors were left tied a mile in the rear in a ravine. As light sufficiently appeared to distinguish friend from foe, the signal was given. With thirty of his people the wily old Castro soon had a thousand or more loose horses thundering over hill and dale towards the south. Flaaco, with twelve Lipans and the twelve Toncahuas, remained with Moore. The combined force left, numbering seventy-nine, rushed upon the buffalo tents, firing whenever an Indian was seen. Many were killed in the first onset. But almost instantly the camp was in motion, the warriors, as if by magic, rushing together and fighting; the women and children wildly fleeing to the coverts of the bottom of the neighboring thickets….

The contest was fierce and bloody, till, as the sunlight came, Col. Moore realized that he had only struck and well-nigh destroyed the fighting strength of the lower end of a long and powerful encampment. The enraged savages from above came pouring down in such numbers as to threaten the annihilation of their assailants. Retreat became a necessity, demanding the utmost courage and strictest discipline. But not a man wavered. For the time being the stentorian voice of their stalwart and iron-nerved leader was a law unto all. Detailing some to bear the wounded, with the others Moore covered them on either flank, and stubbornly fought his way back to the ravine where the horses had been left, to find that every animal had already been mounted by a Comanche, and was then curveting around them. All that remained possible was to fight on the defensive from the position thus secured and this was done with such effect that, after a prolonged contest, the enemy ceased to assault. Excepting occasional shots at long range by a few of the most daring warriors, extending into the next day, the discomfited assailants were allowed to wend their weary way homewards. Imagine such a party, 150 miles from home, afoot, with a hundred miles of the way through mountains, and six of their comrades so wounded as to perish in the wilderness, or be transported on litters home by their fellows. Such was the condition of six of the number. They were William M. Eastland (spared then to draw a black bean and be murdered by the accursed order of Santa Anna in 1843); S. S. B. Fields, a lawyer of La Grange; James Manor, Felix Taylor, ______ Leffingwell, and ______ Martin, the latter of whom died soon after reaching home. Cicero Rufus Perry was a sixteen-year-old boy in this ordeal.  Gonzalvo Wood was also one of the number.

After much suffering the party reached home, preceded by Castro with the captured horses, which the cunning old fox chiefly appropriated to this own tribe. Col. Moore, in his victorious destruction of a Comanche town high up the Colorado in 1840, made terrible reclamation for the trials and adversities of this expedition."

While I have so far found no other information to confirm it, from this account, it appears that James Manor was wounded seriously enough to require assistance to return home after the battle, which apparently resulted in victory for the Comanches and defeat for the Texans. 

Noah Smithwick gives a longer account of the battle in his book "EVOLUTION OF A STATE" published in 1900. In it, he says;

"The Indians then formed in line and advanced to the attack. One brave, under cover of his shield, preceded his comrades, and flourishing his bow, delivered a challenge. Jim Manor was standing beside me with his gun cocked; he took deliberate aim at the prancing heathen, and at the crack of his gun the Indian fell back, unable to rise.

"By ----, I killed an Indian, didn't I?" said Jim, as if needing verification of his deed."

The document shown below (with transcript) confirms that James Manor had his horse captured by the Comanches during the confrontation. 

"Republic of Texas
County of Travis
Personally appeared before me S. J. Whatley an acting Justice of the Peace for the Republic and County afforsaid Noah Smithwick and Thomas McKernon who being duly sworn deposeth and sayeth that they know the mare which James Manor rode in the campaign against the Comanche Indians under the command of Col John H. Moore was captured by the Comanches on the San Saba on the 14th day of February 1839 and that the said mare was worth two hundred dollars. 
 Sworn and Subscribed to before me                                           Noah Smithwick 
 this 10th day of April AD 1840.                                               Thomas Mckernon

S. J. Whatley J. P.

J. H. Moore    Commandant Com"

When  he  died  forty-one  years later, these  words  were  carved  on  his  headstone;  "A friend to his country...". Apparently he was also a man who was willing to put his life on the line to make sure that his country, his home, and what would become his town, were all safe places for others to live.