Linnville, Texas was a town in the Republic of Texas, in what is now

Calhoun County Calhoun County is the name of several counties in the United States of America named after U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun: * Calhoun County, Alabama * Calhoun County, Arkansas * Calhoun County, Florida * Calhoun County, Georgia * Calhoun Cou ...

. It was founded in 1831 and destroyed in the

Great Raid of 1840 The Great Raid of 1840 was the largest raid ever mounted by Native Americans on white cities in what is now the United States.''The Comanche Barrier to South Plains Settlement: A Century and a Half of Savage Resistance to the Advancing White Fr ...

.Details on the road to Linnville from Victoria, TX are available in an 1858 map of Victoria County. Pressler, Charles W.. Victoria County, Map, November 21, 1858; digital image, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth89041/), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, crediting Texas General Land Office, Austin , Texas. The raid in August 1840 by Penateka Comanches, led by war chief Buffalo Hump, on Victoria and the Port of Linnville, on Lavaca Bay, Texas, is said to be the largest raid by American Indians on cities in U.S. history (Texas was at the time still a republic). Linnville was sacked and burned by the Comanches, and the port was never rebuilt. Citizens of Linnville escaped to safety by taking to small boats and a schooner in the waters off the bay, watching as their town was burned to the ground. The raid on Victoria and Linnville was one in a sequence of strikes and counter-strikes in Republic of Texas history that defined bitter relations between Comanches and Texans. Events began with the

Council House Fight The Council House Fight, often referred to as the Council House Massacre, was a fight between soldiers and officials of the Republic of Texas and a delegation of Comanche chiefs during a peace conference in San Antonio on March 19, 1840. The mee ...

in San Antonio, March 1840 in which Republic of Texas officials attempted to capture and take prisoner a large number of Comanche chiefs who had come to negotiate a peace treaty, killing them together with dozens of their family and followers. In revenge, the Comanche conducted the raid on Victoria and Linnville in August 1840. The

Battle of Plum Creek The Battle of Plum Creek was a clash between allied Tonkawa, militia, and Rangers of the Republic of Texas and a huge Comanche war party under Chief Buffalo Hump, which took place near Lockhart, Texas, on August 12, 1840, following the Great ...

, near Lockhart Texas, shortly after the raid on Linnville, was Texans' retaliation against Comanches in their retreat from Linnville. And finally, an expedition commanded by Colonel John Henry Moore against a Comanche village in October 1840, was revenge by Texans for the raid on Victoria and Linnville by striking Penateka Comanches in their homeland near what is now Colorado City.

References

{{authority control Geography of Calhoun County, Texas Former populated places in Texas Ghost towns in South Texas