First Battle of Adobe Walls
Encyclopedia
The First Battle of Adobe Walls, was a battle between the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 and native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

. The Kiowa
Kiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...

, Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...

 and Plains Apache
Plains Apache
The Plains Apache are a Southern Athabaskan group that traditionally live on the Southern Plains of North America and today are centered in Southwestern Oklahoma...

 (Kiowa Apache) tribes drove from the battlefield a United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Expeditionary Force that was reacting to attacks on white settlers moving into the Southwest. The battle, November 25, 1864, resulted in light casualties on both sides but was one of the largest engagements fought on the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...

.

Background

The battle of Adobe Walls occurred on November 25, 1864, in the vicinity of Adobe Walls
Adobe Walls, Texas
Adobe Walls ia a ghost town in Hutchinson County, northeast of Stinnett, in the U.S. state of Texas. It was established in 1843 as a trading post for buffalo hunters and local Indian trade in the vicinity of the Canadian River. It later became a ranching community. Historically, Adobe Walls is the...

, the ruins of William Bent
William Bent
William Wells Bent was a frontier trapper, trader, and rancher in the American West who mediated among the Cheyenne Nation, other Native American tribes and the expanding United States. With his brothers, Bent established a trade business along the Santa Fe Trail. In the early 1830s Bent built an...

's abandoned adobe
Adobe
Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...

 trading post and saloon, located on the northern side of the Canadian River
Canadian River
The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River. It is about long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and most of Oklahoma....

 17 miles (27 km) northeast of present day Stinnett, Texas
Stinnett
-People:* Bobbie Jo Stinnett, murder victim* Kelly Stinnett, baseball player* Robert Stinnett, sailor and writer-Places:In the United States:* Stinnett, Kentucky* Stinnett, Texas* Stinnett, Wisconsin...

 in Hutchinson County
Hutchinson County, Texas
Hutchinson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas in the northern portion of the Texas Panhandle. In 2000, its population was 23,857. Its seat is Stinnett . Hutchinson County is named for Andrew Hutchinson, an early Texas attorney....

. The battle came about when General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

 James H. Carleton, commander of the military district of New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

, decided to punish severely the plains tribes of the Kiowa
Kiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...

 and Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...

, whom he deemed responsible for attacks on wagon trains on the Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880...

. The Indians saw the wagon trains as trespassers who killed buffalo
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...

 and other game the Indians needed to survive. As the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 drained available troops, attacks on the Great Plains worsened, leading in the later part of 1863 to cries from settlers for protection.

General Carleton wanted to put an end to the raids, or at least to send a sharp signal to the Indians that the Civil War had not left the United States unable to protect its people. He selected Col. Christopher (Kit) Carson
Kit Carson
Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a Mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married...

 to lead the expeditionary force as the most seasoned veteran Indian fighter at his disposal. Col. Carson took command of the First Cavalry, New Mexico Volunteers, with orders to proceed against the winter campgrounds of the Comanches and Kiowas, which were reported to be somewhere in the Palo Duro Canyons of the southern Panhandle
Texas Panhandle
The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a rectangular area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east...

 area, on the south side of the Canadian River. The Carson expedition was the second invasion of the heart of the Comancheria
Comancheria
The Comancheria is the name commonly given to the region of New Mexico, west Texas and nearby areas occupied by the Comanche before the 1860s.-Geography:...

, after the Antelope Hills Expedition
Antelope Hills Expedition
The Antelope Hills Expedition was a campaign from January 1858 to May 1858 by the Texas Rangers and members of other allied native American tribes against Comanche and Kiowa villages in the Comancheria...

.

Prelude

On November 10, 1864 Carson started from Fort Bascom
Fort Bascom
Fort Bascom, established in 1863, is located in New Mexico on the Canadian River slightly west of the Texas border. The fort was named in honor of Captain George Nicholas Bascom who was killed during the American Civil War on February 21, 1862 while defending Fort Craig against Confederate forces...

 with 260 cavalry, 75 infantry, and 72 Ute
Ute Tribe
The Ute are an American Indian people now living primarily in Utah and Colorado. There are three Ute tribal reservations: Uintah-Ouray in northeastern Utah ; Southern Ute in Colorado ; and Ute Mountain which primarily lies in Colorado, but extends to Utah and New Mexico . The name of the state of...

 and Jicarilla Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...

 scouts
U.S. Army Indian Scouts
Native Americans have made up an integral part of U.S. military conflicts since America's beginning. Colonists recruited Indian allies during such instances as the Pequot War from 1634–1638, the Revolutionary War, as well as in War of 1812...

 that he had recruited from Lucien Maxwell
Lucien Maxwell
Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell was a rancher and entrepreneur who at one point owned more than . Along with Thomas Catron and Ted Turner, Maxwell was one of the largest private landowners in United States history....

's ranch near Cimarron
Cimarron
Cimarron is the title of a novel published by popular historical fiction author Edna Ferber in 1929. The book was adapted into a critically acclaimed film in 1931 through RKO Pictures. In 1960, the story was again adapted for the screen to meager success by MGM...

, New Mexico. On November 12, Carson’s force, accompanied by two mountain howitzers under the command of Lt. George H. Pettis, twenty-seven wagons, an ambulance, and with forty-five days' rations, proceeded down the Canadian River into the Texas Panhandle. Carson had decided to march first to Adobe Walls, which he was familiar with from his employment there by Bent more than 20 years earlier. Carson, long familiar with the Utes and Jicarillas, had confidence in his Indian scouts. They covered his flanks and each morning two of them rode far ahead of the slow-moving column to search for Comanche and Kiowa encampments.

Inclement weather, including an early snow storm, caused slow progress. On November 24, 1864, the First Cavalry reached Mule Springs, in Moore County, approximately 30 miles (48.3 km) west of Adobe Walls. That same afternoon, the Indian scouts reported they had found the trail of a large Indian village. Carson left his infantry behind to guard his supply train and ordered a night march of cavalry and artillery. He rode in the van with the Utes and Jicarillas. Next morning he ordered the two howitzers forward to join him in the van. Coming to the easily-fordable Canadian River he deployed one company of cavalry on the north side of the river and continued with the remainder on the south side.

Battle

Approximately two hours after daybreak on November 25, 1864, Carson's cavalry found and attacked a Kiowa village of 176 lodges. The Chief, Dohäsan
Dohäsan
Dohäsan, Dohosan, Tauhawsin or Tohausen was a prominent Native American. He was War Chief of the Kata or Arikara band of the Kiowa Indians, and then Principal Chief of the entire Kiowa Tribe, a position he held for an extraordinary 33 years...

, and his people fled, passing the alarm to allied Comanche villages nearby. Marching forward to Adobe Walls, four miles from the Kiowa village, Carson dug in there about 10:00 am, using one corner of the ruins for a hospital. Carson discovered to his dismay that there were numerous villages in the area, including a large Comanche village. Carson saw large numbers of Indians pouring forward to engage him in battle, a much greater force than he had expected. Captain Pettis, who wrote the most complete report of the battle, estimated that 1,200 to 1,400 Comanche and Kiowa attacked the soldiers and Indian scouts who numbered 330, 75 men having been left behind to guard the supply train.

Carson dismounted his cavalry and deployed them around the two howitzers. His Indian scouts skirmished with about 200 Comanche and Kiowa warriors "mounted and covered with paint and feathers...charging backwards and forwards...their bodies thrown over the sides of their horses, at a full run, and shooting occasionally under their horses." Dohäsan, assisted by Satank and Satanta
Satanta (White Bear)
This article refers to the Kiowa chief Satanta. For the Irish hero Sétanta, please see Cú Chulainn.Satanta was a Kiowa war chief. He was a member of the Kiowa tribe, he was born around 1820, during the height of the power of the Plains Tribes, probably along the Canadian River in the traditional...

, led the Kiowas in the first attack. Fierce fighting developed as the Kiowa, Plains Apache, and Comanche warriors repeatedly attacked Carson's position. Satanta replied to Carson's bugler with his own bugle calls to confuse the soldiers. Carson succeeded in repelling the attacks only through his clever use of supporting fire from the twin howitzers. The first shells from the howitzers caused the Comanche and Kiowa to retire from the battlefield, but they soon returned in even greater numbers and renewed the attack.

By afternoon, Pettis estimated Carson's army faced more than 3,000 Indians. After six to eight hours of fairly continuous fighting, Carson realized he was running low on howitzer shells, and ammunition in general, and ordered his forces to retreat to the Kiowa village in his rear. Carson was also concerned about the fate of the 75 men guarding his much-needed supply train. The Indians tried to block his retreat by setting fire to the grass and brush down near the river. The wily Carson, however, set back-fires and retreated to higher ground, where the twin howitzers continued to hold off the Indians. When twilight came, Carson ordered about half his command and his Indian scouts to burn the lodges of the village, which also resulted in the death of the Kiowa-Apache chief, Iron Shirt
Iron Shirt
Iron Shirt is a form of hard style martial art exercise for protecting the human body from impacts in a fight. This is one of the 72 arts of the Shaolin Temple. Some martial arts are based on the idea that a correctly trained body can withstand more damage than one that is untrained...

, who refused to leave his tipi
Tipi
A tipi is a Lakota name for a conical tent traditionally made of animal skins and wooden poles used by the nomadic tribes and sedentary tribal dwellers of the Great Plains...

. The soldiers confiscated many "finely finished buffalo robes" and burned the rest and the Indian scouts killed and mutilated four Kiowas too decrepit to flee. The weary soldiers continued their retreat and found their supply train intact that night.

Carson and his soldiers rested in camp on November 26, their Indian opponents visible on a hilltop about two miles away. Carson's Indian scouts skirmished with the Comanche and Kiowa but no serious attack was mounted on the soldiers. The next day, Carson gave the order to return to New Mexico. Some of his officers wished to renew the battle, but Carson, consulting only with his Utes and Jicarillas, ordered the retreat to New Mexico.

United States victory?

The United States Army declared the First Battle of Adobe Walls a victory although the Indian army remained in control of the field and Carson's army retreated. The battle left the Comanche and Kiowa uncontested in their control of the Texas Panhandle until the Battle of the North Fork of the Red River
Battle of the North Fork of the Red River
The Battle of North Fork or the Battle of the North Fork of the Red River occurred on September 28, 1872, near McClellan Creek in Gray County, Texas, United States. A monument on that spot marks the site of the battle between the Comanche Indians under Kai-Wotche and Mow-way and a detachment of...

 eight years later. Most authorities believe that Carson's decision to retreat was wise and that he deserves credit for a good defense. He was outnumbered and only his clever use of back-fires and the howitzers prevented his force being overrun and massacred as Custer
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...

 was later at the Little Bighorn
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand and, by the Indians involved, as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army...

. The number of Indians engaged against Carson in this battle has often been estimated as high as 3,000. That seems an exaggeration. The total number of warriors possessed by the Comanche, Kiowa, and Kiowa-Apache probably did total anywhere near 3,000. As the Kiowa village consisted of 176 lodges and the Comanche village of about 500 lodges, it is unlikely that the total Indian force numbered more that two fighting men per lodge or 1,400 -- and probably less that that. As it was, Carson lost six dead and twenty-five wounded, including one Indian scout killed and four wounded, while he estimated that the Indians lost approximately fifty to sixty killed and as many as 100 wounded. The official U.S. army report on the battle estimated an Indian loss of 60 killed and wounded. Given the long distance nature of the fighting the estimate of Indian casualties can only be a guess. Only one Comanche scalp was reported taken by Carson's soldiers. .

Epilogue

The First Battle at Adobe Walls would be the last time the Comanche and Kiowa forced American troops to retreat from a battlefield, and marked the beginning of the end of the plains tribes and their way of life. A decade later, the Second Battle of Adobe Walls
Second Battle of Adobe Walls
The Second Battle of Adobe Walls was fought on June 27, 1874 between Comanche forces and a group of twenty-eight U.S. bison hunters defending the settlement of Adobe Walls, Texas in what is now Hutchinson County, Texas.-Adobe Walls Settlement:...

 was fought on June 27, 1874 between 250 to 700 Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...

 and a group of 28 hunters defending the settlement of Adobe Walls. After a four-day siege, the Indians withdrew. The Second Battle is historically significant because it led to the Red River War
Red River War
The Red River War was a military campaign launched by the United States Army in 1874, as part of the Comanche War, to remove the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Native American tribes from the Southern Plains and forcibly relocate them to reservations in Indian Territory...

 of 1874-75, resulting in the final relocation of the Southern Plains Indians to reservations in what is now Oklahoma.

Placement of Historical Marker

In 1964, the Texas State Historical Survey Committee erected Historical Marker 1690 to preserve the memory of the First Battle of Adobe Walls. The marker is not located at the actual battle site, but is located 15 miles to the west.

See also

  • Battle of Apache Pass
    Battle of Apache Pass
    The Battle of Apache Pass was fought in 1862 at Apache Pass, Arizona in the United States, between Apache warriors and the Union volunteers of the California Column as it marched from California to capture Confederate Arizona and to reinforce New Mexico's Union army...

  • Kit Carson
    Kit Carson
    Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a Mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married...

  • Texas-Indian Wars
    Texas-Indian Wars
    The Texas–Indian wars were a series of conflicts between settlers in Texas and Plains Indians. These conflicts began when the first European and mostly Spanish settlers moved into Spanish Texas, and continued through Texas's time as part of Mexico, when more Europeans, especially Americans...

  • Frank H. Maynard
    Frank H. Maynard
    Francis Henry Maynard, known as Frank H. Maynard , was an old-time cowboy of the American West who claimed authorship of the revised version of the well-known ballad, "The Streets of Laredo". After a decade of roaming the West, Maynard settled down with his wife, the former Flora V...

  • Elmo Scott Watson
    Elmo Scott Watson
    Elmo Scott Watson was an American journalist and college professor, whose longest educational stint was at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois...

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