What if Samuel Walker had died at the Battle of Walker’s Creek?

An interview with local historian Bryden Moon

Editor’s Note: The following is a special question- and-answer interview with Bryden Moon, Kendall County Historical Commission historical marker chair, with questions posed by fellow KCHC member Richard Tomlinson.

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Samuel Walker, Samuel Colt’s coinventor of the Walker Colt revolver, was severely wounded and nearly died in the 1844 Battle of Walker’s Creek. Local historian Bryden Moon speculates on how history might have been changed if Walker had died.

Tomlinson: On June 8, the Kendall County Historical Commission will celebrate the 180th anniversary of the Battle of Walker’s Creek, between 15 Texas Rangers led by John Coffee Hays and a Commanche-led raiding party.

You have done extensive research into this event. You have called it one of the most significant historical events to ever occur locally. Where did this battle take place?

Moon: In the Sisterdale region, as most accountings, including Hays, place it within a five-mile radius of the Pinta Trail crossing of the Guadalupe River.

Tomlinson: What made this battle so important?

Moon: Aside from the David-versus-Goliath aspect, the first use of revolvers firing multiple rounds — five-shot Paterson Colts — were “field-tested” by the entire outfit. The outcome emboldened pioneers to settle in the unpopulated Hill Country and beyond, and ultimately resurrected Samuel Colt’s legacy as an inventor and industrialist.

Tomlinson: One of the Rangers, Samuel Walker, was run through with an Indian lance. It was feared he would die, but he did not. You said that if he had died it could have changed history. How?

Moon: While Walker, who knew firsthand the impact of the Colt’s repeating weapon, later served as an officer in the 1846-1848 Mexican War, he corresponded with Colt. He was determined to get the fragile, five-shooting Paterson Colts that were used at the June 8, 1844, BWC engagement upgraded to more sturdy and robust weapons.

Many believe that had Walker not doggedly persuaded Colt to upgrade his revolver and actively interceded with U.S. government officials on Colt’s behalf, that Colt’s business would have failed completely and there might never have been a Colt Armory in Hartford, Connecticut.

Tomlinson: The Walker Colt was still a cap-andball pistol. Do you mean that if the Walker Colt had not been invented, that the “Peacemaker” — the cartridge firing Colt Revolver credited with being the “Gun That Won the West” — would never have been produced?

Moon: Well, without the Hartford factory, no “Peacemaker.”

Tomlinson: You have indicated that the Samuel Walker story is only a piece of a larger story. What will we see at the Kendall County Historical Commission’s program in June?

Moon: National, regional and local researchers and authors will explain what made the Battle of Walker’s Creek a watershed event. Our guests will hear intimate details of the Battle of Walker’s Creek including Hays’ June 16th report, and learn more about Samuel Colt’s early years, inventions, and later success.

We will gather at 10 a.m. on June 8 in Boerne’s Patrick Heath Public Library’s community room. The program is free and open to the public and will be followed by a ribbon- cutting on a Battle of Walker’s Creek display in the library’s gallery.