John Horse
Brackettville, Kinney County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born in Spanish Florida of a black mother and Seminole father in 1812, John Horse (also known as Juan Caballo, Juan Cavallo, or Gopher John) was a prominent leader of Seminole blacks during the 2nd Seminole War. After a valiant fight alongside Seminole Chief Coacoochee (known as Wild Cat), and emancipation by Gen. Thomas S. Jesup, John Horse was removed to the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) with hundreds of his people in June 1838, but within a short time John was back in Florida serving the U.S. Army as interpreter, scout, combatant and as a mediator with Seminoles in the latter part of the war. For his services, John was officially granted his freedom by future President Gen. Zachary Taylor. From his new home in Indian Territory John Twice journeyed to Washington, D.C., to plead his people’s case to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Years later John claimed he and Gen. Jesup met with Pres. Polk to discuss the plight of the Seminoles. In late 1849, oppressed and hunted after their freedom was withdrawn by the federal government, two groups of Seminoles and blacks, led by horse and Coacoochee, slipped out of Indian Territory into Texas, en route to freedom in Mexico. The band rested briefly here at Las Moras Spring in early July 1850. In time, John settled his group at Nacimiento on land made available by the Mexican government. In exchange, the Seminoles provided protection from Apache and Comanche. When the Seminole Scout Detachment was formed at Fort Duncan in 1870, John returned to Texas. In 1876, while living in the Seminole Camp at Fort Clark, John survived a third attempt on his life in an ambush near this site. After recovering, he returned to Nacimiento, Mexico. Following a trip to meet with Pres. Porfirio Diaz to plead for his people’s permanent land rights in Nacimiento, he died in Mexico city in 1882 at the age of 70.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in Spanish Florida in 1812 to a Black mother and a Seminole father, John Horse became a leading figure among the Black Seminoles during the Second Seminole War, fighting alongside Chief Coacoochee before serving the U.S. Army as scout, interpreter, and mediator. Repeatedly pursued after his people's freedom was stripped away, he led followers out of Indian Territory in 1849 toward sanctuary in Mexico, resting near Las Moras Spring in 1850 and later settling at Nacimiento in exchange for guarding the border against Apache and Comanche raids. He survived an ambush near this site in 1876 and died in Mexico City in 1882.
Why it matters
John Horse's life traces the extraordinary struggle of the Black Seminoles for freedom across Florida, Indian Territory, Texas, and Mexico, binding together the histories of slavery, Native resistance, and the borderlands.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John Horse
- · Coacoochee (Wild Cat)
- · Zachary Taylor
Related events
- · Second Seminole War
- · Seminole Negro Indian Scouts formed at Fort Duncan (1870)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Medal of Honor Fight, 1875
Comstock, TX
In the spring of 1875, the Texas-Mexico borderlands were still contested ground, and the U.S. Army leaned on the skilled Black Seminole (Seminole-Negro) Indian scouts to track raiders across the brush country. On April 25, Lt. John L. Bullis and three of those scouts caught up with a far larger Comanche party near this spot and were forced to withdraw under fire. When Bullis's horse bolted and left him stranded, the scouts turned back into danger to save him — a rescue that earned all three the Medal of Honor.
Palisado Kitchen/Mess Room
Brackettville, TX
African American "Buffalo Soldiers" of the 25th Infantry built this vertical-post structure in 1869-70 as a mess room behind their stone barracks, using upright timbers because no trees stood tall enough for traditional log walls. Over the years it also served as storeroom, tailor shop, and amusement hall. A persistent legend wrongly tied it to Robert E. Lee, who never visited Fort Clark during his Texas service.
Carver School Grounds
Brackettville, TX
After the Army disbanded Fort Clark's Seminole-Negro Indian Scout Detachment in 1914, the Seminole families relocated to Brackettville, where in 1919 the school district bought land for a "colored school." A two-story 1870 limestone homestead became the George Washington Carver School, once the only accredited Black school between San Antonio and El Paso. The grounds later passed to the Seminole community and remain a cultural center for Juneteenth and Seminole Day gatherings.
Tomerlin Cemetery
Devine, TX
Washington Allen Tomerlin set aside this ground for family and neighbors when this corner of Medina County was still remote and thinly settled, the earliest marked grave dating to 1875. Beneath its stones rest veterans of four American wars, three brothers said to have ridden as Texas Rangers, and the Brackens family, freed slaves who made their home nearby. Many older markers bear only initials, their stories now half-remembered.