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A legend, possibly a myth, has been passed down from this era. The story goes that Walker and his fellow Mier prisoners were forced by their captures to erect a flagpole. According to the legend, Walker swore that one day a Texas flag would fly from this same pole. Other stories say it was an American flag, but since this was a Texas expedition manned by Texans, it would seem strange that Walker would vow to raise an American flag. Either way, the story continues that when Walker had planted the pole, he placed an American coin--a dime--under the flagpole’s base. The first thing Walker did when he arrived at Perote was retrieve the coin.

Whether the story is true or not, Walker had no trouble remembering his vow of vengeance when he looked at his former prison. It was a vow that would have to wait, however. For the next four months, Walker and his men worked overtime keeping General Winfield Scott’s supply line open, lest the American army starve. The men never went hungry.

Frontier Fighters. Rangers from a unit of the Frontier Battalion helped retame Texas after the Civil War. In the 1870s, the Rangers apprehended or killed over 3,000 desperados, including Sam Bass and John Wesley Hardin. (photo from collection of Mike Cox, Austin, Texas)

Walker and his men operated as Texas Rangers against the Mexican guerrillas, who were working to keep the American army’s supply line severed. Even though they were officially listed in the United States Army, that was as far as it went. Walker, his men, and their contemporaries always referred to themselves Texas Rangers.

Throughout these months, Walker and his men fought without the great pistol named after him. On October 4, only four days before his death, Walker finally received two of the soon legendary pistols.

General Joseph Lane was moving his command to Puebla, where Santa Anna waited with 4.000 men. Lane stopped in Perote. He conferred with Walker and decided to attack the Mexican forces. Walker and his Rangers would lead the assault. The Rangers would have it no other way. Later, many of those who knew him best said that Walker was obsessed with capturing the Mexican dictator.

Ranger Camp. The Ranger's numbers generally declined thoughout the last quarter of the 19th century. However, as shown in this photo taken in 1887, they were often called to the field to preserve law and order within Texas. (photo from collection of Mike Cox, Austin, Texas)

Even though instructed by Lane to stay within support distance of his force about three miles from Puebla, Walker ordered his men to draw sabers and charge. Walker’s men hit the Mexican Army a full forty-five minutes before Lane’s main force could join the battle. But by then it really didn’t matter. The enemy was beaten.

But Texas Ranger Sam Walker never knew. He was dead by the time the battle was over. His life ended as he was moving through a churchyard and a bullet snuffed out his life. There are conflicting reports as to the fatal wound. One says that he was shot through the head and another claims he was shot in the back, with the bullet passing through the left shoulder and passing above the heart. Either way, his death was immediate.

Walker’s body was returned to San Antonio for burial. Twenty years later, on April 21, 1856, San Jacinto Day, his body was exhumed and reinterred in the Odd Fellow Cemetery beside another great Texas Ranger, Richard Gillespie.

At the time of his death, Walker’s fame was nationwide. His passing was news in every major newspaper in America. In 1846, there was even a Broadway play, The Campaign on the Rio Grande, or, Triumphs in Mexico, whose main character was Sam Walker.

In 1846, the fledgling state of Texas prepared to do battle once again with Mexico. This time the U.S. Army backed the Texans and Rangers. Ranger Captain Sam Walker was sent back east by General Zachary Taylor (old rough 'n ready) to meet with Sam Colt concerning the manufacture of 1000 special holster pistols for use by the Rangers to tame the Texas frontier and quell the Mexican mess on the border. Walker was selected because of his knowledge of Colt firearms. The new revolver was to be bigger, 'half as long as your arm", and better than the Paterson.

At this time Colt was bankrupt and his factory had been sold at a Sheriff's sale for $7000.00. Colt commissioned Eli Whitney's manufacturing company to make the new revolver and the infamous Walker Dragoon was born.

In 1846, the Texas legislature formed Walker County. It was named for Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, not Sam Walker. When the Civil War started, however, there was a major problem: Robert J. Walker was a Unionist. This would never do in a Confederate Texas. In 1863, the Texas legislature decreed that the name of the county “should be named to honor the memory of Captain Samuel H. Walker, of the Texas Ranger Service.”

Late in his life, Walker traveled to Washington and New York City. He kept his date with destiny and Sam Colt as an officer of the United States Army. He may have been a member of the United States Army at his death, but he and his peers considered this shining star a Texas Ranger.

Additional Sources:

www.forttours.com
members.aol.com/thomask2/wildwestshow
www.lsjunction.com
banjo2.virtualave.net
www.houstonpbs.org
www.texasrangers.org
www.cimarron-firearms.com
users.ev1.net

Ranger stories from the book, Texas Ranger Tales, Stories That Need Telling, by Mike Cox:

Back in Texas on September 9, 1843, after escaping from Mexican custody along with two other Texans-including the man who would one day deliver his eulogy-Walker soon signed up to ride with the legendary Ranger Captain John Coffee Hays. In the words of a contemporary writer, Texas was "then embroiled with the abrasions of the great Camanche [Comanche] race and the minor tribes strewn along her northern frontier." Mindful of these "abrasions," in January 1844 the Congress of the Republic of Texas authorized Hays to organize "a Company of Mounted Gun-men, to act as Rangers."

Hays recruited his men in February and March and went to work on the frontier. All the Rangers were armed with a new weapon, originally purchased by the Republic for its navy: a five-shot revolver manufactured by a Connecticut gunsmith named Samuel Colt. Walker and the other Rangers soon got a chance to use the new pistols.

On June 8, 1844, near a creek in the Pedernales River watershed, at a point Hays later described as about fifty miles north of Seguin (no other communities existed in the area at the time), the Rangers-including Walker-tangled with seventy to eighty Comanche and Waco Indians. Hays reported some Mexicans also were in the party.

This is how Hays described the fight in his official report:

After ascertaining that they could not decoy or lead me astray, they came out boldly, formed themselves, and dared us to fight. I then ordered a charge; and, after discharging our rifles, closed in with them, hand to hand, with my five-shooting pistols, which did good execution. Had it not been for them, I doubt what the consequences would have been. I cannot recommend these arms too highly.

The Rangers killed twenty-three of the hostiles, badly wounding another thirty. Hays lost one Ranger to Indian arrows with Walker, Robert Addison Gillespie, and another Ranger suffering wounds.

Walker later assessed the fight in this light:

Col. J. C. Hays with 15 men fought about 80 Comanche Indians, boldly attacking them upon their own ground, killing and wounding about half their number. Up to this time these daring Indians had always supposed themselves superior to us, man to man, on horse…the result of this engagement was such as to intimidate them and enable us to treat with them.

This battle changed the history of the West. It marked the first time Rangers had been able to fight the Comanches with an effective close range weapon that did not have to be reloaded after each shot. In firing an estimated 150 rounds, Hays and his men shot 53 Comanches in a running battle. The Rangers had the frontier equivalent of the atomic bomb on their side.

The Comanches, though clearly at a disadvantage in weaponry, still were extremely competent in using their bows and arrows and lances.

"In this encounter," Graham's Magazine reported only a few years later, "Walker was wounded by a lance, and left by his adversary pinned to the ground. After remaining in this position for a long time, he was rescued by his companions when the fight was over."

Walker was taken to San Antonio, where he recovered from his wounds. Despite his close call, Walker stayed with Hays until the Ranger company ran out of funding. In 1845 he served in another Ranger company, this one led by Gillespie. On March 28, 1846, Walker was honorably discharged from the "Texas Mounted Rangers." But more rangering lay ahead.