7 February 1852; Zapata, Texas: In the winter of 1852, Lt. (later Gen.) John Gibbon and a company of the 4th Artillery occupied Camp Drum on the Rio Grande, 50 miles south of Laredo, Texas. Assisting Gibbon were companies of the 2nd Dragoons, split among various Texas posts. On 5 February, Gibbon sent a Cpl. Stanger with 10 men of Company C, 2nd Dragoons, from Camp Drum to chastise a band of Comanche raiders. After a two-day chase, Stanger and his men caught up with and routed about 10 Comanches.
With no casualties of their own, the soldiers killed three Indians, wounded one, and recovered stolen property.
