On June 9 tiny Sisterdale, TX remembers the anniversary of the Battle of Walker’s Creek…or Sisters Creek…or Asta’s Creek…or Pinta Trail Crossing.
Sisterdale is always a favorite destination of ours–right down the road from Luckenbach.

There are many names for the same spot, and it was more appropriately a skirmish than a battle, so why am I writing about it the day after? Because sometimes little things are very, very important, and the Battle of Walker’s Creek (which actually took place on June 9th) was one of those.

The Battle of Walker’s Creek was the first time the Texas Rangers used Colt revolvers against the Comanche warriors who roamed West Texas. Read here to see why that was absolutely pivotal.

On a side note, one of the things I LOVE about home schooling is that it teaches learning as a lifestyle. Learning never ends, and while learning about the Battle of Walker’s Creek, I was excited to learn THREE NEW THINGS:

• The cylinder of an 1837 Colt Patterson revolver held 5 (not 6) bullets. So if you’re thinking “Six Shooter” like I was–not quite.
• The gun came with a couple of extra cylinders that could be pre-loaded. In the heat of battle, you could take the barrel off the gun, swap out the empty cylinder for a new one, and resume firing. A little awkward, maybe, but still a vast improvement over having to dismount and ram new rounds in a front-loading black powder rifle.
• I’d observed that the Colt Patterson “had no trigger”, but actually it did! It would be more accurate to say it had no trigger guard (the round part that keeps you from shooting yourself in the foot by accidentally depressing the trigger). When the hammer was cocked, an unguarded trigger dropped down, ready to be pressed back into the body of the gun as you fired it.

Cool! 🙂