Sept. 22, 2011 - When the late Texas writer Edwin "Bud" Shrake created a character to tell the story of Texas' early days as a republic in his novel "Borderland: A Story of Texas" he chose Matthew Caldwell, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Caldwell was nicknamed 'Old Paint' because of his mottled beard and is sometimes referred to as the Paul Revere of Texas because he rode from Gonzales to present day Bastrop to recruit volunteers for the Battle of Gonzales.
Two episodes from Caldwell's life most dramatically illustrated in Shrake's novel are the Council House Fight and the Battle of Plum Creek, two pivotal moments from the Comanche wars in Texas. The Council House Fight was a sad spectacle that the Penetaka Comanches who attended obviously thought was going to be a peace conference. As part of the agreement to hold the talks, the Penetaka were asked to return some of the many captives the Comanches had taken over the years but the Penetaka showed up in San Antonio came with just one captive, Matilda Lockhart, who had obviously been burned, battered and bruised during her captivity.
While the Comanches expected a peace talk, the Texas commissioners were there with a deal they were sure the Penetaka could not refuse: "Surrender or die." The actual talks never advanced beyond the subject of hostages. The Texans didn't know that the Penetaka held no sway over other Comanche tribes or their captives, and couldn't produce the other captives, like Cynthia Ann or John Parker, even if they wanted to. The Texans thought they were lying. William Fisher declared that the chiefs would be held prisoner until the other captives were returned.
When Texas soldiers moved in to take the chiefs prisoner, a Comanche named Spirit Walker stabbed one of the soldiers. Then, all hell broke loose. Caldwell was shot in the leg, probably by friendly fire. He responded by grabbing a musket from one of the chiefs and blowing his head off with it and then using it to beat another Comanche to death. In the end, 30 chiefs and warriors were killed and 32 more were taken prisoner.
In response, a thousand Comanches and a smattering of adventurous Kiowas under the vision and guidance of chief Buffalo Hump swept down from the Balcones Escarpment in the summer of 1840 and headed south toward the coastal plains, looting, killing and stealing along the way as part of Buffalo Hump's vision of driving the Anglos into the sea. The vision came true when the citizens of Linnville, totally unprepared for such an attack, rowed out into Matagorda Bay and watched 1,000 Comanches loot and burn Linnville to the ground. The Comanches rode away from the coast and back toward the Hill Country with more loot and horses than they ever dared to imagine prior to Buffalo Hump's vision.
The nomadic Comanche, suddenly burdened by their possessions, were met on their way home by a group of rangers and volunteers, including Caldwell, at Plum Creek. The battle was a military draw until a Comanche war chief was killed and the Comanches paused to deal with and reflect on that sad turn of events. Caldwell, who had learned a thing or two about fighting the Comanche, called out to general Felix Huston: "Now, General! Charge 'em! They are whipped!"
This time it was Caldwell's vision that came true, at least to the extent that the Comanches pulled back and escaped with as much of their loot as they could manage.
Caldwell endured and survived imprisonment in Mexico as part of the ill-fated Santa Fe Expedition in 1841 but was released in September of 1842 where he took command of 200 men at the Battle of Salado Creek, a battle made necessary by renegade French soldier of fortune Adrian Woll and his notion that he was going to take Texas from the Texans and return it to Mexico.
Woll was dissuaded of his vision by Caldwell's fighters, who whipped trapped and whipped Woll's forces and pursued them until Caldwell decided to call off pursuit. The decision was not a popular one and tugged at Caldwell's reputation for the rest of his life, which ended just a few months later, in December of 1842. It's thought that injuries he suffered during his imprisonment in Mexico hastened his early demise.
Caldwell County was named for him in 1848. More than a century and a half later, Matthew Caldwell's short but epic life story inspired Shrake's vision of early Texas that he shared with the world in "Borderland." With the help of the man they called Old Paint, Shrake got it right in all the important ways.
