Second Battle of Adobe Walls
Encyclopedia
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
.
was the name of a trading post in the Texas Panhandle, just north of the Canadian River. In 1845, an Adobe fort was built there to house the post, but it was blown up by the traders three years later after repeated Indian attacks. In 1864, the ruins were the site of one of the largest battles ever to take place on the Great Plains. Colonel Christopher "Kit" Carson led 335 soldiers from New Mexico
and 72 Ute
and Jicarilla Apache scouts against a force of more than one thousand Comanche
, Kiowa
, and Plains Apache
. The Indian army forced Carson to retreat though he was acclaimed as a hero for successfully striking a blow against the Indians and for leading his men out of the trap with minimal casualties. This is known as the First Battle of Adobe Walls
.
After the decimation of the buffalo herd in Kansas the hunters moved south and west to continue practicing their professional depradation of the buffalo. In June 1874 (ten years after the first battle), a group of enterprising businessmen had set up two stores near the ruins of the old trading post in an effort to rekindle the town of Adobe Walls. The complex quickly grew to include two stores (Leonard & Meyers and Chas. Rath & Co.), a corral, a restaurant, and a blacksmith shop (Tom Keif), all of which served the population of 200-300 buffalo hunters in the area. By late June there had been talk of imminent Indian problems and, in recent weeks, hunters had actually been killed. Some 28 or 29 persons were present at Adobe Walls, including James Hanrahan the saloon owner, a 20-year old Bat Masterson
, William "Billy" Dixon (whose famous long-distance rifle shot effectively ended the siege), California Joe
(according to a somewhat unreliable account of California Joe Milner's life, or he may have been at the First Battle of Adobe Walls
), and one woman, the wife of cook William Olds.
promised victory and immunity from bullets to warriors who took the fight to the enemy. There are many different figures given for the number of Indians who took part in the attack, with good estimates of as few as 230-300, and other claims of as many as 1500. The lower figure is considered by many to be the most likely, but the number will never be known. What is known is that, at dawn on June 27, 1874, a large group of Indian warriors under the leadership of Quanah Parker
and Isa-tai attacked the post. On the 5th of June, 1874, Hanrahan and his party of hunters departed Dodge City for Adobe Walls and on the 7th, at Sharp's Creek, seventy-five miles southwest of Dodge, the party encountered a band of Cheyenne Indians who ran-off all of their cattle stock. The party then joined by a wagon train which was enroute to the Walls and accompanied them, arriving just hours before the major battle took place.
and Quanah Parker
. Despite being outnumbered, the hunters repelled the Comanche assault. After a four-day siege, reinforcements arrived and increased the garrison to about 100 men. The Comanches retired soon afterward.
The battle was highlighted on the second day by the legendary shot of William "Billy" Dixon, who killed an attacker on a faraway hill using a Sharps
buffalo rifle. Controversy prevails over the exact range of the shot; a post-battle survey set the distance at fifteen hundred yards, while Baker and Harrison set it at about one thousand yards. Casualty reports vary, and are not known with any great accuracy, although most agree that less than 30 total deaths would be a close number.
At two in the morning on June 27, 1874, the ridgepole holding up the sod roof of the saloon broke with a loud crack. Everyone in the saloon and several other men from the town immediately set to repair the damage. Thus most of the inhabitants were already wide awake and up and about when, at dawn, a combined force of Comanche, Cheyenne, and Kiowa warriors {estimated in excess of 700 strong and led by Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, son of a captured white woman, Cynthia Ann Parker} swept across the plains, intent on erasing the populace of Adobe Walls.
The initial attack almost carried the day; the Indians were in close enough to pound on the doors and windows of the buildings with their rifle butts. The fight was in such close quarters the hunters' long range rifles were useless. They were fighting with pistols and Henry and Winchester lever-action rifles in .44 rimfire. After the initial attack was repulsed, the hunters were able to keep the Indians at bay with their Sharps rifles.
A search following the initial battle turned up the bodies of 15 warriors killed so close to the buildings that their bodies could not be retrieved by their fellows. The Indians rode out of range and camped in the distance while deciding how to handle the situation, effectively laying siege to Adobe Walls.
The hunters suffered four fatalities: two brothers asleep in a wagon failed to survive the initial onslaught, Billy Tyler was shot through the lungs as he paused in the doorway of a building to take a shot, and Mrs. Bill Olds accidentally shot her husband in the head as she handed a reloaded rifle up to him (the bullet entering under his chin and exiting out the top of his head).
The second day after the initial attack, fifteen warriors rode out on a bluff nearly a mile away to survey the situation. Some reports indicate they were taunting the Adobe Walls defenders but, at the distance involved, it seems unlikely. At the behest of one of the hunters, Billy Dixon, already renowned as a crack shot, took aim with a 'Big Fifty' Sharps (it was either a .50-70 or -90, probably the latter) he'd borrowed from Hanrahan, and cleanly dropped a warrior from atop his horse. This apparently so discouraged the Indians they decamped and gave up the fight.
Two weeks later a team of US Army surveyors, under the command of Nelson A. Miles
, measured the distance of the shot: 1,538 yards, or nine-tenths of a mile. For the rest of his life, Billy Dixon never claimed the shot was anything other than a lucky one; his memoirs do not devote even a full paragraph to 'the shot'.
Forensic archaeologists have discovered several Richards' Colt conversions, some Smith & Wesson Americans, and at least one Colt .45 (then new on the frontier) pistol, along with numerous rifles (in calibers .50-70, .50-90, .44-77, .44 Henry Flat, and at least one .45-70, also very new) were in use at Adobe Walls. At the time, Sharps did not use designations like .50-90 ("Big Fifty" Sharps). Instead, Sharps designated cartridges by bore size and case length. Technically, the "Big Fifty" was known as the .50 Sharps 2-1/2 Inch. Depending on the bullet used the case could be loaded as any of what was later designated .50-90, .50-100 or .50-110. The .50-90 loading used the heaviest bullet and gave the best performance at relatively short ranges out to about 100 yards. The two heavier loads used relatively lighter bullets and gave better performance at extended ranges. This makes it more likely that Billy Dixon's shot was made with a .50 Sharps 2-1/2 Inch case loaded to .50-110 specification. In Sharps' nomenclature the .50-70 was first known as the .50 Sharps 1-3/4 Inch and later as the .50 Sharps 2 Inch, and was sometimes referred to as the "Little Fifty."
The result of Adobe Walls was a crushing spiritual defeat for the Indians, though it was seen as a military victory. It also prompted the U.S. military to take its final actions to crush the Indians once and for all. Within the year, the long war between whites and Indians in Texas would reach its conclusion.
In September, just three months after Adobe Walls, an army dispatch detail consisting of Billy Dixon, another scout (Amos Chapman), and four troopers from the 6th Cavalry were surrounded and besieged by a large combined band of Kiowas and Comanches. They holed up in a buffalo wallow
and, with accurate rifle fire, held off the Indians for an entire day. An extremely cold rainstorm that night discouraged the Indians, and they broke off the fight; every man in the detail was wounded and one trooper killed. For this action Billy Dixon, along with the other survivors of 'The Buffalo Wallow Fight', were awarded the Medal of Honor
.
of 1874-75, resulting in the final "relocation" of the Southern Plains Indians to reservations in what is now Oklahoma. A monument was erected in 1924 on the site of Adobe Walls by the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society.
There is an exhibit of the 1874 battle in the Hutchinson County Historical Museum
in Borger
.
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...
forces and a group of twenty-eight U.S. bison
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
hunters defending the settlement of Adobe Walls, Texas
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...
in what is now 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....
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
Adobe Walls Settlement
Adobe WallsAdobe 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...
was the name of a trading post in the Texas Panhandle, just north of the Canadian River. In 1845, an Adobe fort was built there to house the post, but it was blown up by the traders three years later after repeated Indian attacks. In 1864, the ruins were the site of one of the largest battles ever to take place on the Great Plains. Colonel Christopher "Kit" Carson led 335 soldiers from 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...
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 scouts against a force of more than one thousand 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...
, 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 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...
. The Indian army forced Carson to retreat though he was acclaimed as a hero for successfully striking a blow against the Indians and for leading his men out of the trap with minimal casualties. This is known as the First Battle of Adobe Walls
First Battle of Adobe Walls
The First Battle of Adobe Walls, was a battle between the United States Army and native Americans. The Kiowa, Comanche and Plains Apache tribes drove from the battlefield a United States Expeditionary Force that was reacting to attacks on white settlers moving into the Southwest...
.
After the decimation of the buffalo herd in Kansas the hunters moved south and west to continue practicing their professional depradation of the buffalo. In June 1874 (ten years after the first battle), a group of enterprising businessmen had set up two stores near the ruins of the old trading post in an effort to rekindle the town of Adobe Walls. The complex quickly grew to include two stores (Leonard & Meyers and Chas. Rath & Co.), a corral, a restaurant, and a blacksmith shop (Tom Keif), all of which served the population of 200-300 buffalo hunters in the area. By late June there had been talk of imminent Indian problems and, in recent weeks, hunters had actually been killed. Some 28 or 29 persons were present at Adobe Walls, including James Hanrahan the saloon owner, a 20-year old Bat Masterson
Bat Masterson
William Barclay "Bat" Masterson was a figure of the American Old West known as a buffalo hunter, U.S. Marshal and Army scout, avid fisherman, gambler, frontier lawman, and sports editor and columnist for the New York Morning Telegraph...
, William "Billy" Dixon (whose famous long-distance rifle shot effectively ended the siege), California Joe
Truman Head
Private Truman Head, commonly known as "California Joe", was a famous member of the United States Sharpshooters during the American Civil War. He was under the command of Hiram Berdan....
(according to a somewhat unreliable account of California Joe Milner's life, or he may have been at the First Battle of Adobe Walls
First Battle of Adobe Walls
The First Battle of Adobe Walls, was a battle between the United States Army and native Americans. The Kiowa, Comanche and Plains Apache tribes drove from the battlefield a United States Expeditionary Force that was reacting to attacks on white settlers moving into the Southwest...
), and one woman, the wife of cook William Olds.
Native American Alliance
The remaining free-ranging Southern Plains bands (Comanche, Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Arapaho) perceived the post and the buffalo hunting as a major threat to their existence. That spring, the Indians held a sun dance. Comanche medicine man Isa-taiIsa-tai
Isa-tai was a Comanche warrior and medicine man of the Quahadi band. Originally named Quenatosavit , after the debacle at Adobe Walls he was known as Isa-tai which translates as "wolf's vulva" or "coyote vagina". Isa-tai gained enormous prominence for a brief period in 1873-74 as a prophet and...
promised victory and immunity from bullets to warriors who took the fight to the enemy. There are many different figures given for the number of Indians who took part in the attack, with good estimates of as few as 230-300, and other claims of as many as 1500. The lower figure is considered by many to be the most likely, but the number will never be known. What is known is that, at dawn on June 27, 1874, a large group of Indian warriors under the leadership of Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker was a Comanche chief, a leader in the Native American Church, and the last leader of the powerful Quahadi band before they surrendered their battle of the Great Plains and went to a reservation in Indian Territory...
and Isa-tai attacked the post. On the 5th of June, 1874, Hanrahan and his party of hunters departed Dodge City for Adobe Walls and on the 7th, at Sharp's Creek, seventy-five miles southwest of Dodge, the party encountered a band of Cheyenne Indians who ran-off all of their cattle stock. The party then joined by a wagon train which was enroute to the Walls and accompanied them, arriving just hours before the major battle took place.
Battle
The Comanches were led by Isa-taiIsa-tai
Isa-tai was a Comanche warrior and medicine man of the Quahadi band. Originally named Quenatosavit , after the debacle at Adobe Walls he was known as Isa-tai which translates as "wolf's vulva" or "coyote vagina". Isa-tai gained enormous prominence for a brief period in 1873-74 as a prophet and...
and Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker was a Comanche chief, a leader in the Native American Church, and the last leader of the powerful Quahadi band before they surrendered their battle of the Great Plains and went to a reservation in Indian Territory...
. Despite being outnumbered, the hunters repelled the Comanche assault. After a four-day siege, reinforcements arrived and increased the garrison to about 100 men. The Comanches retired soon afterward.
The battle was highlighted on the second day by the legendary shot of William "Billy" Dixon, who killed an attacker on a faraway hill using a Sharps
Sharps Rifle
Sharps rifles were those of a series begun with a design by Christian Sharps. Sharps rifles were renowned for long range and high accuracy in their day.-History:Sharps's initial rifle was patented September 17, 1848 and manufactured by A. S...
buffalo rifle. Controversy prevails over the exact range of the shot; a post-battle survey set the distance at fifteen hundred yards, while Baker and Harrison set it at about one thousand yards. Casualty reports vary, and are not known with any great accuracy, although most agree that less than 30 total deaths would be a close number.
At two in the morning on June 27, 1874, the ridgepole holding up the sod roof of the saloon broke with a loud crack. Everyone in the saloon and several other men from the town immediately set to repair the damage. Thus most of the inhabitants were already wide awake and up and about when, at dawn, a combined force of Comanche, Cheyenne, and Kiowa warriors {estimated in excess of 700 strong and led by Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, son of a captured white woman, Cynthia Ann Parker} swept across the plains, intent on erasing the populace of Adobe Walls.
The initial attack almost carried the day; the Indians were in close enough to pound on the doors and windows of the buildings with their rifle butts. The fight was in such close quarters the hunters' long range rifles were useless. They were fighting with pistols and Henry and Winchester lever-action rifles in .44 rimfire. After the initial attack was repulsed, the hunters were able to keep the Indians at bay with their Sharps rifles.
A search following the initial battle turned up the bodies of 15 warriors killed so close to the buildings that their bodies could not be retrieved by their fellows. The Indians rode out of range and camped in the distance while deciding how to handle the situation, effectively laying siege to Adobe Walls.
The hunters suffered four fatalities: two brothers asleep in a wagon failed to survive the initial onslaught, Billy Tyler was shot through the lungs as he paused in the doorway of a building to take a shot, and Mrs. Bill Olds accidentally shot her husband in the head as she handed a reloaded rifle up to him (the bullet entering under his chin and exiting out the top of his head).
The second day after the initial attack, fifteen warriors rode out on a bluff nearly a mile away to survey the situation. Some reports indicate they were taunting the Adobe Walls defenders but, at the distance involved, it seems unlikely. At the behest of one of the hunters, Billy Dixon, already renowned as a crack shot, took aim with a 'Big Fifty' Sharps (it was either a .50-70 or -90, probably the latter) he'd borrowed from Hanrahan, and cleanly dropped a warrior from atop his horse. This apparently so discouraged the Indians they decamped and gave up the fight.
Two weeks later a team of US Army surveyors, under the command of Nelson A. Miles
Nelson A. Miles
Nelson Appleton Miles was a United States soldier who served in the American Civil War, Indian Wars, and the Spanish-American War.-Early life:Miles was born in Westminster, Massachusetts, on his family's farm...
, measured the distance of the shot: 1,538 yards, or nine-tenths of a mile. For the rest of his life, Billy Dixon never claimed the shot was anything other than a lucky one; his memoirs do not devote even a full paragraph to 'the shot'.
Forensic archaeologists have discovered several Richards' Colt conversions, some Smith & Wesson Americans, and at least one Colt .45 (then new on the frontier) pistol, along with numerous rifles (in calibers .50-70, .50-90, .44-77, .44 Henry Flat, and at least one .45-70, also very new) were in use at Adobe Walls. At the time, Sharps did not use designations like .50-90 ("Big Fifty" Sharps). Instead, Sharps designated cartridges by bore size and case length. Technically, the "Big Fifty" was known as the .50 Sharps 2-1/2 Inch. Depending on the bullet used the case could be loaded as any of what was later designated .50-90, .50-100 or .50-110. The .50-90 loading used the heaviest bullet and gave the best performance at relatively short ranges out to about 100 yards. The two heavier loads used relatively lighter bullets and gave better performance at extended ranges. This makes it more likely that Billy Dixon's shot was made with a .50 Sharps 2-1/2 Inch case loaded to .50-110 specification. In Sharps' nomenclature the .50-70 was first known as the .50 Sharps 1-3/4 Inch and later as the .50 Sharps 2 Inch, and was sometimes referred to as the "Little Fifty."
Aftermath
In September, just three months after Adobe Walls, an army dispatch detail consisting of Billy Dixon, another scout (Amos Chapman), and four troopers from the 6th Cavalry were surrounded and besieged by a large combined band of Kiowas and Comanches. They holed up in a buffalo wallow
Buffalo wallow
A buffalo wallow or bison wallow is a natural topographical depression in the flat prairie land that holds rain water and runoff.Originally this would have served as a temporary watering hole for wildlife, including the North American buffalo...
and, with accurate rifle fire, held off the Indians for an entire day. An extremely cold rainstorm that night discouraged the Indians, and they broke off the fight; every man in the detail was wounded and one trooper killed. For this action Billy Dixon, along with the other survivors of 'The Buffalo Wallow Fight', were awarded the Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
.
Significance
This fight is historically significant because it led to the Red River WarRed 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. A monument was erected in 1924 on the site of Adobe Walls by the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society.
There is an exhibit of the 1874 battle in the Hutchinson County Historical Museum
Hutchinson County Historical Museum
The Hutchinson County Historical Museum, also known as Boom Town Revisited, is a museum in Borger, Texas, with more than sixty exhibits spanning the period from the 16th-century expedition of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado to the Texas Panhandle petroleum boom of the 1920s...
in Borger
Borger, Texas
Borger is the largest city in Hutchinson County, Texas, United States. The population was 14,302 at the 2000 census. Borger is named for businessman Asa Philip "Ace" Borger, who also established the Hutchinson County seat of Stinnett and several other small towns in Texas and Oklahoma.- History...
.