stephen richard eng: tennessee wild west: john coffee hays

8/4/2019 Stephen Richard Eng: Tennessee Wild West: John Coffee Hays

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TWW John Coffee Hays: Pioneer Pistolero 1

God made some men big and some men small, but

Sam Colt made them all equal

Texas proverb

They are the only weapon which enabled the experiencedfrontiersmen to defeat the mounted Indian in his own

peculiar mode of warfare...

testimonial by Major George T. Howard

and Captain I. S. Sutton, 1850

Some call it "the gun that won the West"--the Colt six shooter. The Colt revolver is not

only immensely important in the history of the old West--it almost dominates the

romance of the frontier, from the dime novel to the latest movie. Back in 1976, Clint

Eastwood rode across the screen in The Outlaw Josey Wales, reins in teeth and a revolver

in each hand, to do battle with the oncoming Kansas "Jayhawkers." Yet few realize

that the man who initiated the use of the revolver--in pitched battles similar to

Eastwood's--was an almost forgotten Tennessean...John Coffee Hays.

Like many Tennesseans who went to Texas in the 19th century Hays came from a

pioneer family. His grandfather, Robert Hays, settled in Davidson County, north of

Nashville; in 1785. Early maps show "Hays' Station" (among others) in the Cumberland

area, which became the town of Haysboro.* Robert Hays married Jane Donelson,

daughter of Colonel John Donelson (who brought citizens by boat for the founding of

Nashville), and sister of Rachel Donelson, daughter of Colonel John Donelson (who

brought citizens by boat for the founding of Nashville), and sister Rachel Donelson, later

*Haysboro was gradually absorbed by Nashville--but Haysboro Avenue still lies to the east of

Gallatin Road, between the suburbs of Inglewood and Madison, land marked by the HaysboroTexaco station (4708 Gallatin Rd.). A few hundred yards north is the Briley Parkway turnoff for

Opryland. General William S. Harney was born at Haysboro

(see Ch. ).

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wife of Andrew Jackson. Robert Hays, himself the Marshall of West Tennessee, issued

Jackson deed to some land back in 1802. Here Jackson built his famous home, The

Hermitage.

Robert's son Harmon Hays served at the Battle of New Orleans--as a second

lieutenant in Brigadier General John Coffee's Tennessee Infantry. When Harmon's second

child was born on January 28, 1817, at Little Cedar Lick in Wilson County, he named

him after his former commander.

Young Jack Hays spent his early years in Tennessee, and (reportedly) often

visited the Hermitage. His father died in 1832--and Jack, with siblings Robert and Sarah,

went to live with their uncle, Robert Cage, a planter in YazooCounty, Mississippi.

Soon Jack had gone to work as a chain-boy with a Mississippi survey party. With

tuition money earned from surveying, he went home and attended "an academy near

Nashville" (probably the University of Nashville) for a few months (1834 or '35),

and was reportedly "the best runner in the school." Hays had wanted to go to West Point

his uncle opposed him--so he ended up in New Orleans, volunteering to fight for Texas

independence. He made it to Texas after Santa Anna's defeat by Sam Houston...but the

frontier of the new republic still needed to be secured. Hays's father had fought with

Houston in the Creek war--now Houston advised Harmon's son Jack to join a company of

Texas Rangers, headed by his famous chief scout, Captain Erastus "Deaf" Smith. So for

the next few years, Hays fought Mexican and Indian raiders, primarily in the "no man's

land" between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers.

But what of the revolver...?

Around 1839, the first Patterson Colts began appearing on the Texas frontier

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Named for their city of manufacture, Patterson, New Jersey, this five-shot model was the

ancestor of the famous 1873 Colt "Peacemaker." First offered for sale in the East around

1837, it never really caught on--only about 3,100 were made before inventor Samuel Colt

went out of business in 1843. The Colt company might have stayed defunct, had not Jack

Hays and some fellow Texas Rangers bought some of these Patterson pistols for their

own use.

Ironically, Colt had liquidated his assets, when Hays--personally pleased with his

revolver--ordered around thirty more in early 1844, to arm the fifteen Rangers he now

commanded. Then on May 27, 1844along Sisters Creek, a couple of miles from

where it enters Guadalupe (and about 50 miles from San Antonio)--Hays and his

fourteen-man squad met up with seventy to eighty Comanche warriors. Vastly

outnumbered, still the Rangers chose to attack...in a running fight killing around thirty

Indians, more than twice the number in their command.

The extra fire power of the Colt revolver was credited with the success...

Soon after, Hays and fifteen Rangers were set upon by about two hundred

Comanches in Nueces Canyon, west of San Antonio. The Comanche let out their war

cries--then charged!--but Hays ordered his men to hold their fire, till the Indians were at

close quarters.

The Indians expected them to be armed with single-shot muzzle-loading rifles and

pistols--but as soon as the Rangers emptied their rifles, revolvers began to crack. Many

of the braves were so close they were powder-burned when shot. Hays ordered his men to

crowd the Indians, and not give them a chance to fall back and regroup--then attack them

from the rear! Panic seized the surprised Comanches, who had figured the Rangers would

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have to reload after firing two or three shots. They stampeded out of the canyon, chased

by Hays' small band for three miles...losing (or throwing away) many of their bows,

quivers of arrows, spears and shields in their flight.

Several Rangers were wounded--and one was killed by a wounded Indian after the

fight. The Comanche retreated to the Devil's River, half of their party already killed or

dying of wounds in the retreat--according to a Comanche chief. Later, he spoke with a

friendly Delaware Indian named Bob...and heard that "Devil Yack" commanded the

Rangers that day. Bob said he never wanted to fight "Devil Yack" again--because each of

"Yack's" men had a shot for each of the fingers in their hands.

When the Mexican War began in 1846, the Texas Rangers were enlisted in the

U.S. Volunteers and went to Mexico. Again, the revolver had proved itself against the

Mexicans--so the Texas officers now asked the Federal government for more. But

Samuel Colt was out of business, his pistol long out of production--so Captain Samuel

Walker (who'd served under Hays earlier) went east to meet Samuel Colt. Maybe the old

Patterson model could be improved--from the old .34 or .36 caliber that the Rangers

carried, up to .44 caliber. And it ought to have a trigger guard (instead of the "Patterson's"

folding trigger which sprang out when the hammer was cocked)--plus an integral loading

lever (most early "Patterson's" had to be taken apart, and a special tool used for loading

a time-consuming process). Finally, the pistol should have a cylinder holding six shots,

not five (first of the Colt six-shooters!)--and this would make it heavier. Far, far heavier.

The new "Walker" Colt would weigh four pounds, nine ounces--perhaps the heaviest

Handgun ever made--and, till the modern .44 magnum, the most powerful. The cylinder

could accommodate heavy, sixty-grain powder charges...as much as some rifles used!

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For a time, Hays and his Rangers campaigned with General Zachary Taylor in

Northern Mexico. But not till October, 1847, would Hays or his troops see the new guns.

By now, the major campaigns of the Mexican War were over. Mexico City had

fallenoccupied by the U.S. Army till the peace treaty was signed. Meanwhile, a nasty

guerilla war was endangering the road to Vera Cruz. The supply line for Winfield

Scott's army was threatened--so President Polk sent Colonel Hays and his Ranger

regiment south, to smash the raiders.

Known as "Los Diablos Tejanos" ("Texas Devils"), Hays' Rangers had been

fighting Mexicans for years along the Nueces-Rio Grande strip. With each soldier armed

with a rifle, a Bowie knife--and with a new pair of "Walker" Colts--they were eager to

clash with any guerillas they could find.

Hays and a scouting party of twelve found a chance to test their new six-guns,

soon after they were issued--on some two hundred mounted guerillas outside Vera Cruz.

It was an old story, just like the Comanche: the Mexicans charged, only to meet rifle and

revolver fire...which emptied a number of saddles. Immediately they retreated.

Just as the medieval English longbow proved so effective, against mounted

French knights at the Battle of Crecy in 1346, so had the multi-shot revolver proved

itself, against similar charges by Mexican cavalry, a little over five hundred years

later. In fact, the U.S. Army was the first to issue revolvers to its troops. Hays' men were

more than a match for the typical Mexican lancers (who made up a large part of the

guerilla cavalry).

In the coming months, there were many skirmisheseven battles--with irregular

forces; and the story was usually the same. Largely through the exploits of Hays and his

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men, the revolver had come of age...unsurpassed till the advent of the repeating rifle

(with metallic cartridges) in the 1860s. Yet despite Hays' personal adventures--and his

larger, seminal influence through the spread of the Colt revolver--other, often less

important figures receive greater exploitation by the media. Everyone has heard of Wyatt

Earp, Jesse James, and General Custer--but ask "Who was John Coffee Hays?," and

you'll probably get a bewildered stare. The "Walker" Colts Hays and his men used in

Mexico turn up in the hands of Clint Eastwood's The Outlaw, Josey Wales.* It was this

gun, which Hays made famous, that became mythical. But Hays the man has seemingly

never been portrayed on the screen.

Even in the state of his birth, Hays goes unheralded...overshadowed by heroes like

Sam Houston and Davy Crockett. But it was Hays of Tennessee who introduced to the

old West its most important weapon and famous symbol.

The six-shooter.

And there would be further adventures for Hays and his famous six-gun--in Gold

Rush-era California...

*Collector's replicas have been reproduced in Italy, along with the "Patterson" model.

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stephen richard eng: tennessee wild west: john coffee hays

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