DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker at this Red River site tells it — and friend, this one earns every word. It's October 1759, and a Spanish colonel named Diego Ortiz Parilla has had about all he can take. Parilla is the commandant of Presidio San Saba — out near where Menard would one day stand — and his year has been something close to a disaster.
Back at Mission San Saba, Comanche attacks have left priests and others dead. On top of that, Frenchmen are trading deep inside what Spain considers its own domain, and the Comanches are allied with those Frenchmen. So Parilla draws himself up, makes a plan, and decides he is going to settle two problems at once: whip the Comanches and push the French right out.
He leaves San Antonio in August with 380 soldiers plus Indian support, six hundred men total when you count it all up. Six hundred. He is not thinking small.
And early on, things seem to be going his way. He wins a fight against some Tonkawas on the Brazos as he marches north, and that victory — that easy, early victory — gives him what the marker calls false confidence. You hear that word and you already know where this is headed.
He arrives at this very site in October, pushes up to the Red River, and stops cold. Because what he sees is not a scattered village he can ride through. The Red River itself is wrapping around a Taovaya fort like a natural moat.
His Apache allies try to cross that river and breach the fortified village. They try in vain. And then Parilla looks closer and sees fourteen or more Frenchmen inside that fort.
A French flag is flying. The Indians inside are playing drum and fife — cool as you please — and they have plenty of guns and plenty of ammunition. Parilla brings up his cannons and bombards the fort.
Four hours of fighting. And after all of it, after all that thunder and smoke, he has lost 52 men and he has not broken through a single wall. When nightfall comes, he is, as the marker puts it, glad of the chance to withdraw.
Not victorious. Glad. Glad for the dark.
And it doesn't end there — he is pursued for days as he retreats south, all the way back to Presidio San Saba, which he finally reaches on October 25th, 1759. The Taovaya Indians who handed him that defeat were later known as the Wichitas, and they kept right on resisting white men until the 1870s. One afternoon on the Red River stopped an army of six hundred men cold, and the people who built that fort were nowhere near done.
What the marker says
Col. Diego Ortiz Parilla, a commandant of Presidio San Saba (near the later site of Menard) had grave Indian problems in 1759. Priests and others were killed in Comanche attacks on Mission San Saba. Comanches and their friends were allied to Frenchmen, who were trading deep in Spanish domain. Parilla wished to whip the Comanches and expel the French. With 380 soldiers and Indian support to a total of 600 men, he left San Antonio in August. A victory over some Tonkawas on the Brazos as he marched north gave him false confidence. When he arrived at this site in October, he saw Red River forming a moat around a fort. His Apaches tried in vain to span the river and invade the fortified Taovaya village. He saw 14 or more Frenchmen; a French flag was flying. Indians played drum and fife and had plenty of guns and ammunition. He bombarded the fort with cannons, but after losing 52 men in a 4-hour battle he was glad that nightfall gave him a chance to withdraw. He was pursued for many days as he retreated to Presidio San Saba, which he reached on Oct. 25, 1759. The Taovaya Indians were later known as Wichitas, and continued to resist white men until the 1870s. (1976)