February 24, 1850; Artesia Wells, Texas: In January 1850 Tawakoni Indians came down into the areas between Laredo and Eagle Pass from the north on a horse-stealing expedition. About twenty miles north of Laredo, they captured two Mexican boys, who were themselves out looking for horses. One of the boys was killed and the other was held captive. On 23 January a Tawakoni warrior went to the stables at Fort McIntosh to assess his chances of stealing the government animals, but the stock was well protected. Angry, he shot one of the horses dead and ran off in the night.
The next morning, Lt. Walter W. Hudson took a twelve-man mounted detachment of Company G, First Infantry, in pursuit of the intruder. A mile north of the post, Hudson spotted the trail of two mounted Indians accompanied by one on foot. The track meandered north through dense chaparral. The soldiers followed it until about one in the afternoon, when the trail changed, revealing that another thirteen Indians on ponies had joined the group. At the same time, another twelve-man detachment of soldiers, who had been trailing the thirteen mounted Indians, appeared and joined Hudson.
At 5 p.m. the party, about fifty miles north of Fort McIntosh, saw twenty to thirty warriors on a hill to the north. The Indians, seeing the soldiers' approach, fired first. "I returned their fire," Hudson later wrote, "wounding one of them slightly, when upon a signal from their Chief they fled." Hudson ordered the other detachment to try to cut the band off at their right flank, but the Indians having favorable ground and fresher horses, got away. Hudson pursued them for three miles before his mounts gave out; one of the horses even collapsed and died.
When Hudson and his company returned to the site of the first encounter, they found the Mexican boy the Indians had captured; he had escaped during the melee. The boy informed Hudson that there were about sixty Tawakonis altogether, and he told him where their camp was. The next day, Hudson followed the trail to the campsite and beyond, but the Indians were long gone.
