Cynthia Ann Parker - Rescue By Texas Rangers at Pease River

Rescue By Texas Rangers At Pease River

In December 1860, after years of searching at the behest of her surviving father and various noteworthy scouts, Texas Rangers deep in the heart of Comancheria, led by Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" Ross discovered a band of Comanche which were rumored to hold American captives. In a surprise raid, the small band of Texas Rangers surprised a force of Comanches in the Battle of Pease River. It was not much of a battle as the majority of the Comanche band was not present in the camp; in the absence of most of the Comanche band's warriors the Rangers killed mostly women and children.

After limited fighting the Comanches realized they were losing and attempted to flee. Ranger Ross and several of his men pursued the man who they had seen giving orders. The chief was fleeing alongside a woman rider. As Ross and his men neared, the other woman held a child over her head; the men did not shoot, but instead surrounded and stopped her. Ross continued to follow the chief, eventually shooting him three times. Although the chief fell from his horse, he was still alive, and refused to surrender. Ross's cook, Antonio Martinez, who had been taken captive and tortured in Mexico after Nocona killed his family, identified the captured chief as Nocona. With Ross's permission, Martinez executed the wounded Comanche.

With this event there was a rush of exhilaration as the Rangers began questioning the woman fleeing with Nocona and other remaining Comanches for signs that this was Cynthia. When Ross arrived back at the campground, he discovered that the woman his men had captured had blue eyes. He assured her that no young boys had been killed in the battle, so her sons, Quanah and Pecos were safe. At last, clutching her 2-year-old daughter, Topsanna (Anglicization: Topsannah), Cynthia in broken English identified herself and her family name. The details matched what Ross knew of the Fort Parker Massacre of 1836.

There is some dispute whether the man killed was actually Nocona or someone else. Cynthia Ann is quoted as stating that the man killed was her personal servant, a Mexican slave called José Nakoni. Cynthia Ann's granddaughter, Nelda Parker Birdsong, stated, "Out of respect to the family of General Ross, do not deny that he killed Peta Nakoni. If it is any credit to him to have killed my father, let his people continue to believe that he did so."

Upon looking at the sorry state of Cynthia's existence, and her broken English, some of the Rangers urged Ross to set her free to return to the Comanches, but he considered it best to try to return her to her natural American family. Ross knew many settlers had lost children to the Indians, and many of them might feel this was their child or relative. Ross sent the woman and her child to Camp Cooper and sent a message to Colonel Isaac Parker, the uncle of a young girl kidnapped in the raid. When Parker mentioned that his niece's name was Cynthia Ann Parker, the woman slapped her chest and said "Me Cincee Ann." Isaac Parker took her to his home near Birdville, Texas.

Cynthia Ann's rescue had fixed the imagination of the nation. With tens of thousands of Texan families, and many more throughout the U.S. having suffered the loss of family members, especially children in similar manner, Cynthia Ann, especially given her provenance as the granddaughter of a nationally famous American patriot and warrior, born in Baltimore, Maryland, soldier of the wars of the West, only to meet a gruesome end on the banks of far off Texas, had special attention. With her return, there was a literal sigh of relief throughout the country as it gave hope to many and vicariously gave hope to those who had lost it. As a result, in 1861, the Texas legislature granted her a league (about 4,400 acres) of land, a pension of $100 per year for the next five years, and made her cousins, Isaac Duke Parker and Benjamin F. Parker, her legal guardians.

However, as many other accounts testify throughout American history, the state of children so long held among the Indians, once recovered was not often successful. Cynthia Ann never adapted well to her new life among the Americans, and although white and physically integrated into the community, was ill at ease with the structure, and most importantly at the attention given her. Her brother, Silas Jr., was appointed her guardian in 1862, and took her to his home in Van Zandt County. When Silas was mustered into the Confederate Army, Cynthia Ann went to live with her sister, Orlena. According to some accounts, the chief cause of Cynthia Ann's unhappiness was that she missed her sons and never knew what had happened to them.