Pease River Battlefield - Foard County, TX
N 34° 03.996 W 099° 36.011
14S E 444617 N 3769702
The Battle of Pease River is best known for having seen the recapture of Cynthia Ann Parker after her twenty-four years with the Comanche, and her involuntary return to the "civilization" to which she had once belonged.
Waymark Code: WM12YTY
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 08/09/2020
Views: 3
This is a fairly quiet area of Foard County, with nearby Margaret -- once known as "Pease" -- being a virtual ghost today, so parking off the side of the road shouldn't be an issue. As always, be certain to not block someone's gate while you're taking photos.
The battle was more of a massacre, retaliation for Comanche raids on white settlers, as part of the ongoing struggles between the Native Americans and pioneers of the mid-19th century. After Chief Peta Nocona led his Comanche on a raid in Parker County to the southeast, and with Texas Ranger Captain Sul Ross's having assembled a group of his own to deal with just these kinds of raids, Nocona essentially left the history books at this site on December 18, 1860.
Ross actually scouted the Comanche himself, given cover by the elements. He sent some of his group directly into the camp, with others riding out to intercept any escapees, and his attack was successful, as most of the Comanche were killed. As Chief Nocona fled, his wife, Nadua, was captured, along with her daughter, Topsannah. Nadua's blue eyes betrayed that she wasn't "genetically" one of the Comanche, and while her grasp of English had diminished over time, she eventually identified herself as "Cincee Ann." She was Cynthia Ann Parker.
Cynthia Ann Parker really did "go native." She had been seized at the age of nine by the Comanche in a raid in Limestone County in 1836, and so, grew up with the tribe, who gave her the name "Nadua". She eventually married Chief Peta Nocona and had three children with him. Little is known about their second son, Pecos (d.1862), but their first, Quanah Parker, left his own mark on history. Her "rescuers" and society at the time knew what was best for her, and she really had little say as to her fate. It was indeed rare for a captive to be returned to "civilization", so she was considered something of a prize, and the photo we have of her with Topsannah shows her looking anything but happy. Unfortunately for her, she was a Comanche in all ways except for her birth and initial upbringing, and the rest of her life was miserable. Attempts to escape and return to her real family, the Comanche, were thwarted. Topsannah took ill and died in 1863, and while Parker lived until 1871, her daughter's death essentially took away her will to live. Both were buried separately in East Texas, but Quanah Parker eventually arranged for them to be brought up and buried next to him at Fort Sill, OK.
We're never going to know what happened to Peta Nocona. Sul Ross's account is that he killed Nocona during his flight from the battleground, while Quanah Parker related later that Nocona escaped, took ill from his injuries, and ultimately succumbed to them and others he had received over the years.