Longhorn bulls, lightning rods, a floating coffin and a bird of paradise

When Zachary Taylor’s army marched from Corpus Christi to the Rio Grande in 1846, a soldier, out of boredom, shot at a longhorn bull. The bull charged the soldier, who ran into the column of troops for protection. The bull charged into their midst, shaking his horns and scattering several regiments. The feisty little bull came out on the other side of the column, unhurt, but he left a scattered army behind him. John Dunn wrote about another bull in “Perilous Trails of Texas.” A company of Rangers, camped near King Ranch, would build a bonfire on cold nights. Dunn noticed that after the men went to sleep an old bull would slip into camp and settle down by the fire. One night the bull got too close to the fire. He got burned and went ballistic, snorting and bellowing, and the Rangers, startled from sleep, fired their guns, thinking they were under attack. The bull scattered coals of the fire and some bedrolls went up in flames. Casualties were two wounded men, some burned blankets, a broken bridle bit, a broken wagon tongue, and a saddle shot full of holes. Dunn saw the scorched bull three miles from camp. He thought he must have been a sensible animal who learned from experience. He never came back to claim a warm spot by the fire...more