The return of this victorious little army was hailed with enthusiastic rejoicing and congratulation, and the Wichita fight and Van Dorn and Ross were the themes of song and story for many years along the borders and in the halls and banqueting-rooms of the cities, and the martial music of the “Wichita March” resounded through the plains of Texas wherever the Second Cavalry encamped or rode off on scouts in after years.
The little girl captive—of whose parentage or history nothing could be ascertained, though strenuous efforts were made—was christened “Lizzie Ross,” in honor of Miss Lizzie Tinsley, daughter of Dr. D. R. Tinsley, of Waco, to whom Ross at that time was engaged; and afterwards married—May, 1861.
Of Lizzie Ross, it can be said that, in her career, is afforded a thorough verification of Lord Byron’s saying: “Truth is stranger than fiction!” She was adopted by her brave and generous captor, properly reared and educated, and became a beautiful and accomplished woman. Here were sufficient romance and vicissitude, in the brief career of a little maiden, to have turned the “roundelay’s” of “troubadour and meunesauger.” A solitary lily, blooming amidst the wildest grasses of the desert plains. A little Indian girl in all save the Caucasian’s conscious stamp of superiority. Torn from home, perhaps, amid the heart-rending scenes of rapine, torture and death. A stranger to race and lineage—stranger even to the tongue in which a mother’s lullaby was breathed. Affiliating with these wild Ishmaelites of the prairie—a Comanche in all things save the intuitive premonition that she was not of them! Finally, redeemed from a captivity worse than death by a knight entitled to rank, for all time in the history of Texas, “primus inter pores.” Vide “Ross’ Texas Brigade,” p. 178.
Lizzie Ross.
Lizzie Ross accompanied Gen. Ross’ mother on a visit to the State of California, a few years since, and while there, became the wife of a wealthy merchant near Los Angeles, where she now resides.
Such is the romantic story of “Lizzie Ross”—a story that derives additional interest because of the fact of its absolute truth in all respects.[8]
[8]—The following letter from Gen. L. S. Ross, touching upon the battle of the Wichita Mountains and the re-capture of “Lizzie Ross,” is here appropriately inserted: