In December of 1864, a company of Erath County Confederate militia discovered a trail heading southwest through Palo Pinto County made by several hundred Indians. They opened a fresh grave by the trail which contained the body of a young woman and stripped her of clothing and ornaments for souvenirs. The alarm was spread and about 500 militia followed the trail. It was supposed that the Indians were Comanche (Texas immigrants thought all Indians were Comanches) but they were Kickapoos escaping the Civil War fighting in Kansas. They were going to Mexico and were camped on the Concho River, near San Angelo when the militia attacked on January 8. The Kickapoo were armed with long range rifled muskets and killed many of the Anglos, including all of those who plundered the grave. On the way back to Stephenville they ran into a severe Norther and had to eat some of their horses to survive the trip.

James Buckner Barry, A Texas Ranger and Frontiersman: The Days of Buck Barry in Texas, 1845-1906, James K. Greer (ed.) Dallas: The Southwestern Press, 1932; and George B. Erath, The Memoirs of Major George B. Erath, Bulletin 3, The Heritage Society of Waco, 1956.