This historic marker is located at a roadside pullout along State Highway 29 about 10 miles southeast of Menard. The marker is secured by trees and the text-side faces away from the road, so the marker is easily missed.
The marker reads as follows:
"PEGLEG CROSSING ON THE SAN SABA
About 1 mi. NE
An hourglass-shaped pass through the hills where McDougal Creek joins San Saba River. For years a favored Indian campground, it entered written history, 1732, as site of Spanish-Apache battle.
Saw passage of adventurers, mustang hunters, Indian fighters, German settlers, gold-seekers.
Probably named by landowner Wilhelm Harlen for one-legged land commissioner T.W. Ward.
Crossing became station on stage line. Gained notoriety for many hold-ups that occurred at "Robbers' Roost" (1 mile west). Pegleg served in later era as crossing on Great Western Cattle Trail. (1970)"
The actual site of the battle is lost to history. We only know generally where it most likely was.
The battle between the Spaniard and Apache Indians was part of a long-running contest for control of New Spain, a vast territory claimed for Spain after their conquest of the Aztecs in 1521. Consisting of Mexico, Central America, much of the Southwestern and Central United States, and Spanish Florida, New Spain was a hige challenge not only to control but to govern.
The Spanish government attempted to hold its territory by building roads (El Camino Real, the Santa Fe Trail) through what is now the Southwestern US, and encouraging ghe Catholic Friars to build missions to christianize the native Indians. The Spanish also built forts, or presidios, in strategic locations to protect the missions and settlers from attacks by unpacified Indian tribes.
The first 200 years of Spanish control of New Spain saw multiple uprisings and attacks, as the local Indians and Spainiards struggled for control of land and water. One of those clashes occurred here, at the Pegleg Crossing of the San Saba in 1732, near where the Presidio de San Saba would later be established.
From an article by by Mike Kingston, then editor of the Texas Almanac, before his death in 1994. Published posthumously in the Texas Almanac 1996–1997: (
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"FATE OF SPANISH MISSION CHANGED THE FACE OF WEST TEXAS
The town of Menard is today a quiet West Texas town with an economy that relies on ranching and oil.
The drama played out in the bottoms of the San Sabá River, and a year later on the banks of the Red River 200 miles away, had its beginnings almost two centuries before, when Spanish military might began cutting a swath across the New World, following its discovery in 1492 by Christopher Columbus. Led by Cortés, Pizarro, Quesada, Valdivia, Mendoza, Cabeza de Vaca and others, Spanish soldiers, mounted and using firearms, overcame the New World inhabitants.But in 1757, four forces converged on the area to play their distinctive roles in history: the Spanish and the French from Europe, the Apaches and the Comanches from the northern regions of what later became the United States.
The Spanish at first blush were the most formidable of the forces coming together in 1757 in West Central Texas. Spain's army had once been the best in Europe. In the New World, the natives could not effectively oppose the Spanish, and French forces on the North American continent at this time were no match, either. Caribs. Aztec. Inca. Maya. Chichimec. Each New World civilization fell to the firepower of Spanish muskets fired from the backs of Spanish horses.
. . .
Goals of the Europeans in the New World varied. The French traded goods to the Indians for furs and gave them firearms so they could both hunt and defend themselves better. The Spanish goal was to convert Indians and turn them into exploitable copies of themselves. Conflict was inevitable.
Plains Indians Migrate into Texas
Neither the Comanches nor the Apaches were native Texas Indians. At the time of Coronado's expedition of 1540, neither tribe was in the region of today's Texas. Wichitas and Tonkawas migrated south even later. The Caddoes of East Texas, the Karankawas of the Gulf Coast and the Coahuiltecans of the Rio Grande were native. Apaches, the first great foes of the Spanish in the early 18th century, were originally Athapaskan speakers from the Pacific Northwest. A fierce and warlike people, they migrated into the Rockies and eastward at an undetermined date. At its peak, the territory of the eastern Apaches ranged from the Dismal River in Nebraska to Central Texas. Even afoot, the Apaches were potent warriors who preyed on everyone they encountered. But after they acquired the large horse herds left behind by Spanish settlers fleeing the Pueblo Indian revolt in New Mexico in 1680, they became formidable. . . .
. . .
Spanish Establish East Texas Missions
As early as 1690, when the Spanish first ventured into the Piney Woods of East Texas, they antagonized the Apaches: Not only did the Spanish build two missions among the Caddoan tribes of the area, they also aided the Caddoes in battles against the Apaches. Although the Apaches later appeared to cooperate in Spanish efforts to turn them into replicas of Spanish peasants, the Apaches never forgot this early insult. When the San Antonio de Valero mission (now known as the Alamo) was established in 1718, it was time for revenge. After an Apache raid on San Antonio in 1723, the Spanish sent a punitive expedition against the marauders. Led by Capt. Nicolás Flores y Valdés, the soldiers headed north and located an Apache camp near present-day Brownwood. In an apparent violation of Spanish policy, the soldiers killed 34 warriors and captured many women and children.
Between 1726 and 1731, Apache raids diminished. The Comanches were hammering the Apaches southward, and the temporary lull may have been an Apache attempt to attract missions and the protection they afforded.
Spanish Policy Clarified
A decree outlining Spanish policy was issued by Viceroy Juan de Acuña, Marqués de Casafuerte in 1729. This decree, which bound the frontier for 40 years, forbade attacks on Indians unless attempts to make peace had been tried and had failed. The Spanish military was not to take sides in disagreements between Christianized tribes, and soldiers were not to stir up trouble with mission Indians. And finally, when any group of Indians sued for peace, the Spanish were bound to honor the request. However, in 1732 the Apaches again began to harass the San Antonio settlement. This led to another military expedition up the San Saba River to within 10 miles of present-day Menard. The expedition was led by the newly appointed governor, Don Juan Antonio Bustillo y Caballos. Bustillo engaged the Apaches in a four-hour battle Dec. 9, 1732. The 100 Spanish soldiers forced the Apaches to retreat and captured 30 women and children. Historians believe that the battle was on the San Saba River in the vicinity of the site where the San Sabá mission was later established. Bustillo is credited with discovering the river and naming it El Rio San Sabá de las Nueces, in honor of the abbot, Saint Sabbas, whose feast day it was. . . ."