The Great Raid of 1840 is the largest raid ever mounted by Native Americans on white cities in what is now the United States.

It follows the Council House Fight, in which Republic of Texas officials attempt to capture and take prisoner thirty-three Comanche chiefs who had come to negotiate a peace treaty, killing them together with two dozen of their family and followers.

The Comanche tribe is supposed to have brought white hostages as their part of the negotiations but had only brought one young girl.

Arguments and fighting now break out among the Texians and Comanches.

The Texas Officials are determined to force the Comanche to release all white captives among them.

To avenge what the Comanche view as a bitter betrayal by the Texans, the Comanche war chief Buffalo Hump raises a huge war party of many of the bands of the Comanche, and raids deep into white-settled areas of Southeast Texas.