DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. November 21, 1831. You're out here in what's now McCulloch County, Texas — open country, big sky, the kind of land that doesn't forgive a mistake.
Eleven men ride into it. James Bowie. Rezin P.
Bowie. David Buchanan. Cephas D.
Hamm. Matthew Doyle. Jesse Wallace.
Thomas McCaslin. Robert Armstrong. James Coryell.
And two servants named Charles and Gonzales. Eleven men total. Out here.
Together. And then — they weren't alone anymore. Coming at them: 164 Caddos and Lipans.
You do the arithmetic on those odds and you might just turn your horse around. These eleven did not. What followed was a day and a night — not an hour, not a skirmish at dusk — a full day and a full night of holding their ground.
That is a particular kind of long when the numbers are stacked the way these were. Eighty warriors were killed before the Indians finally withdrew. Eleven men.
One hundred and sixty-four. A day. A night.
And when the sun came up on November 22nd, those eleven were still there to see it. The State of Texas put this marker up in 1936 to make sure nobody who passes through forgets what happened on this ground — because some stories, the land alone can't hold.
What the marker says
In this vicinity On November 21, 1831 James Bowie, Rezin P. Bowie, David Buchanan, Cephas D. Hamm, Matthew Doyle, Jesse Wallace, Thomas McCaslin, Robert Armstrong, James Coryell with two servants, Charles and Gonzales, held at bay for a day and a night, 164 Caddos and Lipans. After 80 warriors had been killed, the Indians withdrew Erected by the State of Texas 1936