Private Peter Fohr

Peter Fohr

Ranger Captain John Coffee Hays left his headquarters at San Antonio on or about June 1st, 1844, with 15 men to scout the hills to the north and west for a Comanche war party led by Yellow Wolf, which had recently been raiding into Bexar County.

On June 8th, 1844, the Rangers spotted a band of Comanche estimated at from forty to upwards of 200 warriors. The rangers mounted and slowly followed the Indians, who were concealed in the heavy brush. Attempts to bait the Rangers to charge were ignored. Finally, the entire Indian force rode forward in a line of battle to draw the Ranger attack. Soon, the Rangers and the warriors were engaged in hand-to-hand combat. The Rangers repulsed two counterattacks on their flanks, after which the Indians fled the field and were pursued three miles under heavy fire from the Rangers' new repeating revolvers. At the end of the hour-long battle, Indian casualties were estimated at from twenty to more than fifty killed and wounded, with Yellow Wolf among the slain.

Ranger losses amounted to one killed, Private Peter Fohr, and four seriously wounded. There is little personal information about Peter Fohr except that he enlisted in San Antonio, Bexar County, on January 10th, 1841, and served until his death on June 8th, 1844. His place of burial is unknown.

The battle of Walker Creek, as the fight became known, was the first in which revolvers were used in combat, and a Comanche who had taken part in the battle later complained that the Rangers "had a shot for every finger on the hand."