February 13, 1859; Leakey, Texas: In mid-February 1859, Comanche raiders stole about eighty horses from stockman I.C. Isbel, who lived on the Frio River at the foot of the Balcones Escarpment. The alarm went out, and soon, fifteen local settlers had gathered at Isbel's place. From Fort Inge, a Sergeant Maloney and five soldiers from Company F, Eighth Infantry, joined them, The combined force, under Capt. Henry Robinson, took up the Indians' trail.
The raiders' tracks led north up the East Fork of the Frio River to the divide that ran between it and the Sabinal River, in hilly country covered with post oak and blackjack. At that point Robinson, following a hunch about where the Indians were heading, led his men off the trail, circling back to a point between Postoak and Frio Waterholes, about thirteen miles north of present-day Leakey, Texas.
The Indians were right where he guessed, and Robinson ordered a charge. The Texans outnumbered the Comanches, but they made the mistake of firing all their guns at once. Realizing this, the Indians countercharged. The soldiers and settlers, of whom only John Leakey and two others had repeating firearms, turned to run to the shelter of some trees where they could reload. Leakey and the other two kept the Indians at bay with their six-shooters for the critical first few minutes. Two warriors went down, then an arrow pierced John Cook's leg and pinned him to his saddle. A wounded warrior sitting on the ground sent a shower of arrows at the Texans until a soldier shot him through the head with a musket. At one point, Richard Ware had an Indian in his sights and was about to pull the trigger when a white man's head popped up in front of him. He pulled the rifle up just in time.
One mounted warrior, whom Leakey thought he had hit about six times, kept fighting. Henry Courtney, on horseback, chased the warrior down and blasted him with his shotgun, but he still kept going. Next, John Daugherty went after him, but the warrior's arrows forced Daugherty off his horse. The Indian dismounted and ran up to fight Daugherty, who had taken cover behind his horse. The two battled from opposite sides of the horse until Daugherty's pistol was empty. When Daugherty ran to a tree, the Indian mounted his horse and rode away.
The Indians finally got away, but at least three were killed and several were wounded. The Texans recovered about forty-nine stolen horses.
