June 18, 1853; San Ygnacio: Company F, Mounted Rifles, had been scouting around Charco Largo for some time when the soldiers received word on 17 June that Comanches had attacked a ranch about five miles away. The Indians had killed a man and two children and driven off several head of cattle and horses. The company divided in half, one squad searching in the vicinity of the ranch and the other heading downstream. The first group included brothers John and William Wright and Pvt. Gerald Russell.
The next day the Wright party struck a fresh trail that headed toward the Rio Grande. They rode west twenty-two miles until the trail disap peared in the chaparral about a mile from the village of San Ygnacio. Abandoning hope of finding the trail again, they decided to head to the river to get water. Below the seventy-foot embankment they saw the other squad, who had trailed the Indians to the same point. The com bined squads, under Lt. Gordon Granger, soon discovered a narrow trail leading down to the water. Twelve soldiers followed the trail to the river, where they found about thirty Comanches in the process of carrying across the goods they had just plundered from San Ygnacio.
Mutually surprised, both sides raised yells as the twelve riflemen charged into the Indians. In a fight of about five or six minutes, two sol diers were hit while three Indians fell. The Comanches then plunged into the river and swam to the Mexican shore. Granger ordered the detach ment to dismount, holster their revolvers, and take aim with their rifles. The soldiers hit several more Indians in the water. After one warrior was hit on the bank and rolled twenty feet down to the river's edge, two of his companions went down to get him. Seeing this, William Wright ceased fire, considering the Indians' rescue attempt a noble endeavor.
The Indians left many animals as well as equipment on the far bank. The two Wright brothers, Russell, and one other soldier volunteered to swim across and recover what they could. Under cover of the other riflemen, the men succeeded in bringing back thirty horses, six mules, various stolen items, and some of the Indians' abandoned belongings. While swimming back with the last of the horses, John Wright was so exhausted that he was nearly carried away in the current, but his feet finally hit sand and he was able to crawl ashore.
William Wright was promoted to corporal for being the first volunteer, and Gen. Winfield Scott commended Granger for "destroying a party of fifteen Indians."
