Battles and Massacres of the Indian Wars in the American West

Battles & Massacres of the Indian Wars

Adobe Walls – Just north of the Canadian River, in what is now Hutchinson County, Texas, the Bent, St. Vrain and Company built a trading post in about 1843, hoping to introduce peaceful exchanges with the Comanche and Kiowa. Originally, trade was conducted from tepees, then log structures, but finally an adobe structure was built, referred to as Fort Adobe. However, due to continued Indian hostility in the area, occupation of Fort Adobe was sporadic. Finally, by the spring of 1849, Bent gave up the effort when some of his stock was killed by Indians and blew up the fort, abandoning trade in the Texas Panhandle. The ruins then became a familiar landmark to anyone determined to venture through the hostile country.

Adobe Walls, photo by Toni Derrick, courtesy Panhandle Nation

First Battle of Adobe Walls (1864) – In 1864, Brigadier General James H. Carleton, commanding the Department of New Mexico , wanted to eliminate the Indian attacks on white settlers traveling along the Santa Fe Trail into New Mexico Territory. To accomplish this, he soon sent Colonel Christopher “Kit” Carson, commanding the 1st New Mexico Volunteer Cavalry, into the Texas Panhandle to attack the Kiowa and the Comanche. Resting his men at the ruins of Adobe Walls, Carson led an attack against a nearby Kiowa village on November 25, 1864. The next day, the Kiowa, now joined with the Comanche counter-attacked Carson and his men at Adobe Walls. Though thousands of Indians were attacking the Cavalry, Carson and his men were able to hold their position with two howitzers. Though the results of the battle were indecisive, Carson was acclaimed as a hero for fighting one of the largest engagements on the Great Plains, against far greater odds and with minimal casualties.

Second Battle of Adobe Walls (1874) – A decade later, several merchants from Dodge City, Kansas had set up a trading post complex near the ruins of Adobe Walls with the primary purpose of serving and an ever increasing influx of buffalo hunters in the area. Of those Indians that remained in the area, they correctly perceived the post and the buffalo hunting as a major threat to their existence. In the spring, the Indians held a sun dance, where Comanche medicine man, Isa-tai, foretold a victory to the warriors who participated in a battle to rid the buffalo hunters. Early in the morning of June 27, 1874, a combined force of some 700 Comanche, Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Arapaho warriors, led by Comanche Chief Quanah Parker and Isa-tai, attacked the buffalo camp.

Though the post held only 28 men, including Old West characters, Bat Masterson and Billy Dixon, Isa-tai's prophecy proved to be an illusion. Despite being dramatically outnumbered, the hunters’ superior weapons repelled the Indian assault. After four days of continuous battle, about 100 men arrived to reinforce the post and the Indians soon retreated. While estimates vary as to the losses, as many as 70 Indians were killed and many others, including Parker, were wounded.

The result of Adobe Walls was not only a crushing spiritual defeat for the Indians, it also led to the Red River War of 1874-75 that would end in the final relocation of the Southern Plains Indians to reservations.

Though all signs of the Adobe Walls ruins have long since been obliterated, a monument has been erected at the site.

Cherokee War (1839) - Occurring in 1839, this war was a culmination of friction between the Cherokee, Kickapoo, and Shawnee Indians and the white settlers in Northeast Texas. The Indians, who had obtained squatters' rights to the land, from both Spanish and Mexican authorities, were promised title to the land on February 23, 1836, in a treaty made by Sam Houston, representing the provisional government the the new Texas Republic. Though the agreement substantially reduced the Cherokee landholdings, the Cherokee agreed, believing it finally gave them a permanent home. Though the treaty was signed in 1836, it was rejected by the Texas Senate in 1837, despite Houston's insistence.

Battle of Neches site

The Battle of Neches was the final conflict in the

Cherokee War.

In the meantime, the Mexican Government was doing everything they could to try to regain control of Texas and after the treaty's rejection, several Cherokee Chiefs, including Big Mush and Chief Bowles, allied themselves with the Mexicans. As a result of this action, Houston's successor, President Mirabeau B. Lamar, ordered the Cherokees to leave Texas. But, the Indians refused, resulting in the Battle of the Neches on July 15 and 16, 1839.

Council House Fight (1840) - On March 19, 1840, a group of some 33 Penateka Comanche leaders, along with 32 Comanche men, women and children, arrived in San Antonio to conduct peace talks at the Council House. Since the first white settlers had come to Texas, there had been a history of conflict between the Penateka and the pioneers, but driven by the fear of Cheyenne and Arapaho attacks along the northern frontier of Comanche territory, the losses suffered in several smallpox epidemics, and the successes of Texas Rangers against them, the Comanche sought to make peace with Texas. However, their objective would not be met. Prior to the meeting, Texas had demanded that the Comanche return all captives, but when they arrived they brought only a few prisoners, including one 13 year-old girl named Matilda Lockhart who had been severely abused.

While peace talks were taking place in the Council House, Matilda was being cared for and relayed her story of torture during her capture and revealed that the Comanche still held thirteen other captives that they planned to use for future negotiations or as barter for supplies. Texas soldiers then entered the Council House and informed the Comanche leaders that they were to be held as hostages until the remaining captives were released. When the Indians tried to escape and called to their fellow tribesmen outside the house for assistance, all hell broke loose.

The soldiers killed most of the Comanches who remained in the Council House courtyard. In the melee,

30 Penateka Comanche were killed, including five women and children. Six whites were killed and twenty wounded. The rest of the Comanche were held pending the release of the remaining white captives. Outraged at having their "ambassadors," who they felt should be immune from acts of war, held hostage, the Penateka leaders refused to respond to the demands of the Texas authorities. The event hardened the Comanche hostility to white settlers in Texas and the Penatekas retaliated by increasing their number or raids.

Matilda Lockhart never recovered from her experience as a captive and died several years later.

Battle of the Neches, Van Zandt County (1839) - The principal engagement of the Cherokee War, the battle culminated after the Cherokee refused to leave Texas following President Mirabeau B. Lamar's order. In July, 1839, 500 troops, under the command of Kelsey H. Douglass, marched upon the Cherokee and their allies, in order to forcibly remove them. Camped at Council Creek, six miles south of the principal Cherokee village of Chief Bowl, the Texas Army dispatched a commission on July 12th to negotiate for the Indians' removal. The agreement required that the Indians leave, but would be allowed to profit from their crops and be reimbursed for their removal.

For the next two days the Indians insisted they were willing to leave but refused to sign the treaty because of a clause that would give them an armed escort out of the republic. On July 15th, the Texans threatened to march on the village immediately if the treaty wasn't accepted and a white flag flown over the camp. When this did not occur, the Texans attacked, leaving some 18 Indians dead and three Texans killed.

The Cherokee then began to flee and the next morning, the troops engaged them once again near the headwaters of the Neches River. The Indians were forced to the Neches bottom, where Chiefs Bowles and Big Mush , along with a number of warriors were killed. After the last fighting near Grand Saline, it was estimated that more than 100 Indians had been killed or wounded in the engagements.

The Battle of the Neches ended the Indian troubles in east Texas , as the vast majority of the tribe had moved into Indian Territory. A few renegades continued to live a fugitive existence in Texas and even continued to fight against the Texans, but they had little success. Others, took up permanent residence in Mexico.

The battle site is represented by a marker at a roadside park on Highway 20, five miles east of Colfax Texas.

A view of Palo Duro Canyon near the entrance of the park, June, 2006, Kathy Weiser.

This image available for photographic prints HERE.

Palo Duro Canyon (1874) - On September 28, 1874, Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie at the head of the Fourth U.S. Cavalry attacked and destroyed a large Indian encampment in Palo Duro Canyon. Mackenzie’s troopers formed part of the Red River Campaign of 1874-75, organized to force the Kiowas, Cheyennes, and Comanches to return to the reservations. On September 28th, Mackenzie’s scouts followed the Indian trail to the edge of Palo Duro Canyon, before the soldiers descended the steep slopes to the valley floor 700 feet below. Taken by surprise, the Indians abandoned their villages, allowing Mackenzie to capture more than 1,100 horses that were later slaughtered to prevent recapture. Although few Indians or soldiers were killed, the unrelenting pursuit of the troopers and the cold weather ultimately forced the Indians to surrender, thus bringing to a close the Red River War. Part of the battlefield is located within Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

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Contact Information:

Palo Duro Canyon State Park
11450 Park Road 5
Canyon, Texas 79015
806-488-2227

Battle of Plum Creek (1840) - The Penateka Comanche were so angry after the Council House Fight in San Antonio, in which many of their chiefs, warriors and women were killed, they retaliated in the summer of 1840 by conducting multiple raids in the Guadalupe Valley. The Comanche band, numbering as many as 600 at times, burned settlements, killed pioneers, stole horses, and made off with the plunder. After sacking the town of Linnville in Calhoun County, the Texas volunteer army along with the Texas Rangers caught up with them at Plum Creek in the vicinity of the present town of Lockhart on August 11, 1840. Over the next two days, the Texans and Comanche battled it out but in the end, the Comanche were badly defeated. The Comanches lost over 80 warriors and a number of others were captured, including women and children. The Texans lost only one man and seven were wounded.

Battle of Stone Houses (1837) - In mid-October, 1837, a Texas Ranger Company pursued a band of raiding Kichai Indians up the Colorado River. Lieutenant A. B. Van Benthusen and seventeen men then split from the main group and headed north to the Brazos River where they came upon the Kichais on November 10th. The Kichais, numbering more than 150 warriors, had stopped fleeing and took the offensive. The Rangers sought cover in a shallow ravine and fighting, often at close quarters took place over the next two hours. The Kichais lost their leader in their first attack, but retired to elect a new one and soon took up the battle again. The Indians then set fire to the prairie and and smoked the Rangers out. The Rangers charged through the smoke, eight of them escaping into the nearby woods. Four had died before the fire and another six were killed while fleeing. The eight survivors, having lost their horses and equipment, made their way to a settlement on the Sabine River on November 27. The battle is named "Stoned Houses" because the location where it took place had three stone mounds that looked like houses ot the Indians. Located about ten miles south of Windthorst, Texas, the site is commemorated with a historic marker.

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