A pivotal moment for General George H. Thomas

Ozona—In the summer of 1860, the landscape of America was on the brink of transformation. Then Major George H. Thomas, commanding the United States military post at Camp Cooper, found himself amid a turbulent period in Texas history. Positioned about 20 miles north of what is now Albany in Shackelford County, Thomas was one of many officers stationed in Texas, a region rife with both promise and peril, as tensions simmered between the North and South.

Texas was a vast, largely uninhabited wilderness at that time, quite different from the bustling communities that emerged in the following century. Major General Robert E. Lee, then a Lieutenant Colonel, oversaw the Department of Texas from his headquarters in San Antonio. 

Among the officers stationed in the area were several who would later rise to prominence during the American Civil War—Generals E. Kirby Smith, Fitzhugh Lee, John B. Hood, Earl Van Dorn, George H. Stoneman, S. P. Heintzelman, W. H. French, and S. D. Sturgis. The local situation was complicated by ongoing conflict with Native American tribes, particularly the Comanche, who had been forcibly removed from their reservations but continued to raid settlements on the fringes of the burgeoning frontier. These skirmishes were political and deeply personal for the settlers and soldiers alike, as lives and livelihoods hung in the balance.

To safeguard the Butterfield Southern Mail and Stage Line, an essential route stretching from Saint Louis to San Francisco, cavalry units frequently embarked on patrols to scout for Indian trails and potential threats. 

Major Thomas, committed to this duty, left Camp Cooper on July 23, 1860, with a small detachment that included Lieutenant Lowe, a hospital steward, a noncommissioned officer, and 12 privates. 

Their mission took them southwest, through what would later become the city of Abilene, past Fort Chadbourne, and on to the Concho River, where other cavalry units joined them under the command of Lieutenant Fitzhugh Lee and Captain Johnson.

As Thomas and his men scoured the land, they traversed areas that would eventually become Sterling, Glasscock, Irion, Crockett, Reagan, Tom Green, and parts of Mitchell and Howard counties. The soldiers’ search yielded little beyond the occasional stage stand operator; the absence of human presence underscored the wildness of the land. Despite their extensive efforts, they could find no signs of the elusive Native American tribes.

Major Thomas’ fortunes changed in what is now Taylor County when he stumbled upon a fresh Indian trail about 15 miles southwest of Abilene. On the morning of July 25, 1860, as the detachment moved swiftly to follow the trail, they encountered a group of 11 Native Americans preparing to leave their camp. Though he had faced conflict before, this would be his first direct engagement with a hostile Indian force. 

What ensued would test every man’s mettle that day, marking a significant event in Thomas’s military career. With the Indians already mounted and ready to flee, the U.S. soldiers pushed hard to close the gap. The captured animals numbered 28, and the encounter underscored the complexities of frontier warfare, where every skirmish was laden with significance.

Major Thomas’ report described the encounter in detail, “On the morning of the 25th about 14 miles east of Mountain Pass, one of the Indian guides (Doss) discovered a fresh horse trail crossing the road. As soon as the packs could be arranged and our wagons dispatched with the remains of our baggage to this post (Camp Cooper), with the teamsters, hospital stewards and a private of the band, both too sick to ride, I followed the trail that day with all of the remainder of the detachment and the three guides, in a west-northwest direction, for about 40 miles, traveling as long as we could see the trail after nightfall. On the 26th, at about 7 a.m., the Delaware guide (Doss) discovered the Indians, 11 in number, just as they were preparing to leave camp. Giving the signal agreed upon, the party moved on at once in a gallop for a mile and a half before coming in sight of their camp, which was located on the opposite side of a deep ravine (running north, and I presume into Clear Fork), impassable except at a few points. Here, we lost considerable time searching for a crossing but succeeded finally in getting over by dismounting and leading our animals.”

This “deep ravine” is in the vicinity of what is now known as Big Stink Creek, about 12 miles east of Sweetwater. With Thomas and his squad of about 25 United States soldiers finally across the “deep ravine,” they struck the enemy trail, as Thomas continued.

“In the meantime, the Indians, being already mounted and having their animals collected, had increased their distance from us by at least half a mile. As soon as the crossing was affected and the men remounted, we ran them at full speed for about three miles and a half further, pushing them so closely that they finally abandoned their loose animals and continued their flight, effecting their escape solely from the fact that our animals had become completely exhausted from the fatiguing pace at which the pursuit had been kept up,” as Thomas’ report stated.