Iron Jacket
Encyclopedia
Iron Jacket was a Native American
War Chief and Chief of the Comanche
Indians.
Iron Jacket (Po-hebitsquash, Pro-he-bits-quash-a, Po-bish-e-quasho in Comanche) was a Comanche chieftain and medicine man whom the Comanche believed had the power to blow bullets aside with his breath. His name probably resulted from his habit of wearing a Spanish coat of mail
into battle, which protected him from most light weapons fire.
On May 12, 1858, the jacket failed to protect him, and he was killed on the bank of the South Canadian River in the Battle of Little Robe Creek
where his band of Comanches fought a combined force of Texas Rangers and Brazos Reservation Indians led by John S. Ford, Shapley P. Ross, and Placido, the Tonkawa chief.
It is believed today that he was a hereditary chief of the Comanche, and for decades the white and Mexican victims of his raids considered him a supernatural being because of his seeming invulnerability to any harm. Members of the Rangers, posses and the military on various occasions insisted that they shot the chief dead center without harming him. http://www.nanations.com/warriors/iron_shirt.htm
Evidently, this was because of the coat of old Spanish mail the chief wore, which appears to have protected him from light weapons fire. In any event, he was a feared and dangerous figure along the Texas and Mexican border, and in the Comancheria in the decades leading up to the American Civil War
. http://www.nanations.com/warriors/iron_shirt.htm
, a veteran Ranger of the Mexican-American War and frontier Indian fighter, as captain and commander of the Texas Ranger, Militia, and Allied Indian Forces, and ordered him to carry the battle to the Comanches in the heart of their homeland on the Comancheria.
Ford, whose habit of signing the casualty reports with the initials "RIP" for "Rest In Peace,” was known as a ferocious and no-nonsense Indian fighter. Commonly missing from the history books was his proclivity for ordering the wholesale slaughter of any Indian, man or woman, he could find. Ford’s reason for this was simple: Comanche raids were brutal in their treatment of settlers. Thus, Ford determined to meet brutality with brutality.
Governor Runnels issued very explicit orders to Ford, "I impress upon you the necessity of action and energy. Follow any trail and all trails of hostile or suspected hostile Indians you may discover and if possible, overtake and chastise them if unfriendly.
On March 19, 1858, Ford went to the Brazos Reservation, near what today is the city of Fort Worth, Texas
, and recruited the Tonkawa into his forces. Tonkawa Indians, the latter commanded by their “celebrated” chief, Placido, hailed as the “faithful and implicitly trusted friend of the whites” (with limited mention of their cannibalism) http://www.forttours.com/pages/antelope.asp undertook a campaign with approximately an equal number of Texas Rangers against the Comanches. Ford and Placido were determined to follow the Comanche and Kiowa up to their strongholds amid the hills of the Canadian River, and into the Wichita Mountains, and if possible, “kill their warriors, decimate their food supply, strike at their homes and families and generally destroy their ability to make war.”
In April 1858, Ford established Camp Runnells near what used to be the town of Belknap
. Ford, still operating under Governor Runnell’s explicits orders to “follow any and all trails of hostile and suspected hostile Indians, inflict the most severe and summary punishment,” and to “allow no interference from any source.” (That source was interpreted to mean the United States, whose Army and Indian Agents might try to enforce federal treaties and federal statutory law against trespassing on the Indian territories in Oklahoma). On April 15, Ford's Rangers, accompanied by Tonkawa
warriors, and Anadarko
and Shawnee
scouts from the Brazos Reservation in Texas
, crossed the Red River
into Indian Territory
. The force then advanced into the portion of the Comancheria in the Indian Territories in Oklahoma. Ford led his men across the Red River, into the Indian Territory, violating federal laws and numerous treaties, but stating later that his job was to “find and fight Indians, not to learn geography.”
began an all-day battle with a dawn attack on a sleeping Comanche village. The so-called Battle of Little Robe Creek
was actually three distinct separate incidents which happened over the course of a single day. The first was the attack on the sleeping village. The second was a follow up attack on the village of Iron Jacket, somewhat further up the Canadian River. Iron Jacket, so named for the coat of iron mail he wore in battle was killed in this exchange, and the remainder of his village was saved by the timely intervention of Peta Nocona with a third force of Comanche who arrived to engage Ford while all the villages along the Canadian made a swift withdrawal.
Iron Jacket’s death came when he repeatedly rode down the line of firing Rangers and Tonkawa, taunting them. Many historians believe the mail that protected him from light weapons fire simply was not able to protect him from the buffalo gun used by Tonkawa Jim Pockmark which killed him. In any event, the death of their legendary chief discouraged his warriors, and only the timely intervention of his son, Peta Nocona, and his warriors, saved Iron Jacket's village. As it was, his body could not be recovered, and was scalped, and partially eaten by the cannibal Tonkawas.
The Rangers broke up his coat of mail and kept the shingles for souvenirs. His other accoutrements, such as his lance and shield, were sent to the Governor in Austin for display.
and his grandson was the last Comanche Chief Quanah Parker
.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
War Chief and Chief of the Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
Indians.
Iron Jacket (Po-hebitsquash, Pro-he-bits-quash-a, Po-bish-e-quasho in Comanche) was a Comanche chieftain and medicine man whom the Comanche believed had the power to blow bullets aside with his breath. His name probably resulted from his habit of wearing a Spanish coat of mail
Mail (armour)
Mail is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh.-History:Mail was a highly successful type of armour and was used by nearly every metalworking culture....
into battle, which protected him from most light weapons fire.
On May 12, 1858, the jacket failed to protect him, and he was killed on the bank of the South Canadian River in the Battle of Little Robe Creek
Battle of Little Robe Creek
The Battle of Little Robe Creek, also called the Battle of Antelope Hills, took place on May 12, 1858. It actually was a series of three distinct encounters that took place on a single day, between the Comanches on the one side, and Texas Rangers, militia, and allied Tonkawas attacking them...
where his band of Comanches fought a combined force of Texas Rangers and Brazos Reservation Indians led by John S. Ford, Shapley P. Ross, and Placido, the Tonkawa chief.
Early life
Not much is known about Iron Jacket's early life. He was born in the 1780s or 1790s. He became a chief among the Noconi, or Wanderers, Band of the Comanche. He appears to have been both a hereditary chief and a War Chief. Little else is known about Iron Jacket, except that he led dozens of terrifying raids on settlers from the 1820s to the 1850s in Texas and Mexico.It is believed today that he was a hereditary chief of the Comanche, and for decades the white and Mexican victims of his raids considered him a supernatural being because of his seeming invulnerability to any harm. Members of the Rangers, posses and the military on various occasions insisted that they shot the chief dead center without harming him. http://www.nanations.com/warriors/iron_shirt.htm
Evidently, this was because of the coat of old Spanish mail the chief wore, which appears to have protected him from light weapons fire. In any event, he was a feared and dangerous figure along the Texas and Mexican border, and in the Comancheria in the decades leading up to the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. http://www.nanations.com/warriors/iron_shirt.htm
Antelope Hills Expedition
The years leading up to the Civil War were particularly bloody on the Texas Frontier, as Iron Jacket, his son Peta Nocona, and other Comanche and Kiowa Chiefs fought back against the encroaching white settlers in the Comancheria. In response to these raids, on January 27, 1858, Governor Runnels appointed John Salmon "Rip" FordJohn Salmon Ford
John Salmon Ford , better known as "Rip" Ford, was a member of the Republic of Texas Congress and later of the State Senate, and mayor of Brownsville, Texas. He was also a Texas Ranger, a Confederate colonel, and a journalist...
, a veteran Ranger of the Mexican-American War and frontier Indian fighter, as captain and commander of the Texas Ranger, Militia, and Allied Indian Forces, and ordered him to carry the battle to the Comanches in the heart of their homeland on the Comancheria.
Ford, whose habit of signing the casualty reports with the initials "RIP" for "Rest In Peace,” was known as a ferocious and no-nonsense Indian fighter. Commonly missing from the history books was his proclivity for ordering the wholesale slaughter of any Indian, man or woman, he could find. Ford’s reason for this was simple: Comanche raids were brutal in their treatment of settlers. Thus, Ford determined to meet brutality with brutality.
Governor Runnels issued very explicit orders to Ford, "I impress upon you the necessity of action and energy. Follow any trail and all trails of hostile or suspected hostile Indians you may discover and if possible, overtake and chastise them if unfriendly.
On March 19, 1858, Ford went to the Brazos Reservation, near what today is the city of Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
, and recruited the Tonkawa into his forces. Tonkawa Indians, the latter commanded by their “celebrated” chief, Placido, hailed as the “faithful and implicitly trusted friend of the whites” (with limited mention of their cannibalism) http://www.forttours.com/pages/antelope.asp undertook a campaign with approximately an equal number of Texas Rangers against the Comanches. Ford and Placido were determined to follow the Comanche and Kiowa up to their strongholds amid the hills of the Canadian River, and into the Wichita Mountains, and if possible, “kill their warriors, decimate their food supply, strike at their homes and families and generally destroy their ability to make war.”
In April 1858, Ford established Camp Runnells near what used to be the town of Belknap
Belknap
-Locations:In the United States:*Belknap, Illinois*Belknap, Louisville, Kentucky*Belknap County, New Hampshire**Belknap Mountain*Belknap Crater, a volcanic feature in Oregon*Belknap Hill, in Grand Rapids, Michigan*Belknap Springs, Oregon...
. Ford, still operating under Governor Runnell’s explicits orders to “follow any and all trails of hostile and suspected hostile Indians, inflict the most severe and summary punishment,” and to “allow no interference from any source.” (That source was interpreted to mean the United States, whose Army and Indian Agents might try to enforce federal treaties and federal statutory law against trespassing on the Indian territories in Oklahoma). On April 15, Ford's Rangers, accompanied by Tonkawa
Tonkawa
The Tickanwa•tic Tribe , better known as the Tonkawa , are a Native American people indigenous to present-day Oklahoma and Texas. They once spoke the now-extinct Tonkawa language believed to have been a language isolate not related to any other indigenous tongues...
warriors, and Anadarko
Anadarko
Anadarko may refer to:* Anadarko, Oklahoma* Anadarko Basin, a geologic depositional and structural basin centered in the western part of the state of Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, and extending into western Kansas and southeast Colorado...
and Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
scouts from the Brazos Reservation in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, crossed the Red River
Red River (Mississippi watershed)
The Red River, or sometimes the Red River of the South, is a major tributary of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers in the southern United States of America. The river gains its name from the red-bed country of its watershed. It is one of several rivers with that name...
into Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
. The force then advanced into the portion of the Comancheria in the Indian Territories in Oklahoma. Ford led his men across the Red River, into the Indian Territory, violating federal laws and numerous treaties, but stating later that his job was to “find and fight Indians, not to learn geography.”
Battle of Little Robe Creek and death of Iron Jacket
At sunrise on May 12, 1858. Ford and his joint force of Rangers and TonkawaTonkawa
The Tickanwa•tic Tribe , better known as the Tonkawa , are a Native American people indigenous to present-day Oklahoma and Texas. They once spoke the now-extinct Tonkawa language believed to have been a language isolate not related to any other indigenous tongues...
began an all-day battle with a dawn attack on a sleeping Comanche village. The so-called Battle of Little Robe Creek
Battle of Little Robe Creek
The Battle of Little Robe Creek, also called the Battle of Antelope Hills, took place on May 12, 1858. It actually was a series of three distinct encounters that took place on a single day, between the Comanches on the one side, and Texas Rangers, militia, and allied Tonkawas attacking them...
was actually three distinct separate incidents which happened over the course of a single day. The first was the attack on the sleeping village. The second was a follow up attack on the village of Iron Jacket, somewhat further up the Canadian River. Iron Jacket, so named for the coat of iron mail he wore in battle was killed in this exchange, and the remainder of his village was saved by the timely intervention of Peta Nocona with a third force of Comanche who arrived to engage Ford while all the villages along the Canadian made a swift withdrawal.
Iron Jacket’s death came when he repeatedly rode down the line of firing Rangers and Tonkawa, taunting them. Many historians believe the mail that protected him from light weapons fire simply was not able to protect him from the buffalo gun used by Tonkawa Jim Pockmark which killed him. In any event, the death of their legendary chief discouraged his warriors, and only the timely intervention of his son, Peta Nocona, and his warriors, saved Iron Jacket's village. As it was, his body could not be recovered, and was scalped, and partially eaten by the cannibal Tonkawas.
The Rangers broke up his coat of mail and kept the shingles for souvenirs. His other accoutrements, such as his lance and shield, were sent to the Governor in Austin for display.
Personal life
Iron Jacket’s son was the famous Comanche War Chief Peta NoconaPeta Nocona
Peta Nocona was a chief of the Comanche band Noconi. He led his tribe during the extensive Indian Wars in Texas from the 1830s to 1860. He was the son of the Comanche chief Iron Jacket and father of chief Quanah Parker. His band Noconis, or Wanderers, or travellers were named after him...
and his grandson was the last Comanche Chief Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker was a Comanche chief, a leader in the Native American Church, and the last leader of the powerful Quahadi band before they surrendered their battle of the Great Plains and went to a reservation in Indian Territory...
.