Linnville, Texas was a town in the Republic of Texas, in what is now Calhoun County. It was founded in 1831 and destroyed in the Great Raid of 1840.[1][2][3]
Events began with the Council House Fight in San Antonio, March 1840 in which Republic of Texas officials attempted to capture and take prisoner a large number of Comanche chiefs who refused to return Texan captives, killing them together with dozens of their family and followers. Linnville was sacked and burned by the Comanches and the port was never rebuilt. Citizens of Linnville escaped to safety by taking to small boats and a schooner in the waters off the bay, watching as their town was burned to the ground.
The Comanche's August raid on Victoria and Linnville was revenge for the Texan's attack at San Antonio and it became one in a sequence of strikes and counter-strikes in Republic of Texas history that defined bitter relations between Comanches and Texans.
The Texans retaliated with the Battle of Plum Creek near Lockhart Texas, attacking the Comanches in their retreat from Linnville. And finally, an expedition commanded by Colonel John Henry Moore against a Penateka Comanche village in their homeland near what is now Colorado City in October 1840 was additional revenge.
References
edit- ^ Roell, Craig H. "Linville, Texas". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
- ^ Roell, Craig H. "Linnville Raid of 1840". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
- ^ Details on the road to Linnville from Victoria, TX are available in an 1858 map of Victoria County. Pressler, Charles W.. Victoria County, Map, November 21, 1858; digital image, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth89041/), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, crediting Texas General Land Office, Austin , Texas.