We can all name the greatest “Last Stand” that comes to our head—The siege of Masada (73 BC), The Alamo (1836), Custer’s Last Stand (1876), Rourke’s Drift (1879), or Gordon at Khartoum (1885). But our vote for the greatest last stand of all times was Jack Hays’ desperate fight at Enchanted Mountain in 1841. He faced perhaps the greatest odds in military history, one man against an entire Comanche war party.
What is most incredible is Jack survived.
Who is John Coffee Hays? Hays is the among the most famous of the storied Texas Rangers, a law enforcement troop first established by the Texas government after gaining independence from Mexico. At 19 years old, Hays migrated to Texas and joined the rangers. As one writer described him, “Jack was a small, wiry man, with fair skin that sunburned easily, and beardless in an era when beards were in fashion. In spite of his appearance, the Ranger captain could shoot straighter, fight meaner, ride faster, cuss fowler, and yell louder than any other man on the force.”