In the early 19th century, the Comanche were the undisputed lords of the Southwestern Plains of Texas and used Las Moras Spring as a habitual resting place on their great eastern war trail during their annual migration into Mexico, camping there for generations until the early days of the Texas Republic. In retaliation for the Comanche raid on Linnville and the Battle of Plum Creek, a force of 180 Texans under Major George T. Howard, including Captain Gillen’s Company A and Captain Ogden's Company C of the 1st Regiment of Infantry, Republic of Texas, Captain Caldwell's Gonzales Rangers, and Captain Cunningham's and Captain Flores's Bexar Volunteers, attacked a large Comanche village at Las Moras Spring on the morning of October 13, 1840. Most of the Comanches fled and were pursued for about five miles, during which, according to Howard, four Comanche warriors were overtaken and killed. The Texans returned late that afternoon to a large town of well-constructed tents with a good supply of provisions, and Howard ordered the Comanche winter quarters destroyed. Among the wigwams, the men found immense quantities of food, horses, mules, and a kind of fruit cake, and Howard departed the next day with several Indian rifles and about 125 mules and horses from the village, though he did not allow his men to overburden their horses with loot. One party did load a pack mule high with buffalo robes and fastened a large brass kettle on top; when the mule stampeded off, the banging kettle frightened the horses and many stampeded in a chaotic and comical race. A June 30, 1849, postscript by Brevet Major William S. Henry recalled Las Moras Spring as a former favorite Indian camping ground and winter camp from which warriors made forays into Mexico, and said that a few years earlier a large camp had been surprised there by Texans under Major G. T. Howard, with four or five Indians killed and buffalo robes, ponies, and pecan kernels captured.