Second Battle of Adobe Walls

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Date	June 27, 1874
Location	Adobe Walls
Result	U.S. victory

Combatants

American hunters

Comanche

Commanders

unknown

Isa-tai, Quanah Parker

Strength

28 hunters

300 Comanche warriors

Red River War
2nd Adobe Walls – Red River – Lyman's Wagon Train – Sweetwater Creek – Buffalo Wallow – Palo Duro Canyon – Farnsworth's Fight – McClellan Creek

The Second Battle of Adobe Walls was fought on June 27, 1874 between Comanche forces and a group of 28 hunters defending the settlement of Adobe Walls in what is now Hutchinson County, Texas.

[edit] The battle

The Comanches were led by Isa-tai 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.

[edit] Significance

This fight is historically significant because it led to the Red River War 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.

[edit] References

Rupert N. Richardson, "The Comanche Indians at the Adobe Walls Fight," Panhandle-Plains Historical Review 4 (1931).

G. Derek West, "The Battle of Adobe Walls," Panhandle-Plains Historical Review 36 (1963).

T. Lindsay Baker and Billy R. Harrison, Adobe Walls: The History and Archaeology of the 1874 Trading Post (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1986).