Show ab wo B att le of ad obe walls 04 4 be N f 1 lee fit aw av 4 q N THE CHARGE ON ADOBE WALLS arom the pawing by J N marchand na 4 t V 1 IV X 4 7 it a rite av 21 billy dixon 4 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON y years ago this month there 1 occurred a fight the story of which has become one of the classics of the western frontier that was the battle of adobe walls which began on the early morning of june 27 11 2 1874 when a war party of se several veral hundred comanche kiowa cheyenne arapahoe and kiowa apache indians attacked a buffalo hunters camp occupied by 28 men and one woman located on the south fork of the canadian river la in what is now hutchinson county in the texas panhandle characteristic of at its ranking as a frontier classic Is the number of men who at one time or another have been called survivors of the adobe walls fight seemingly eiery old timer who was ever a buffalo hunter on the southwestern plains in the has been accorded the distinction of lie ile fought at adobe walls by amateur history hi historians ans and imaginative newspaper reporters and this despite the fact that there has bem been in existence for many years an authentic list of the actual participants which might easily disprove the claim advanced in favor of spurious de defenders feDders of that outpost of the frontier under the terms of the medicine lodge treaty of the federal government fixed the arkansas river as the northern boundary of the indian country for the tribes of the southwestern plains and guaranteed that white hunters should not cross that stream but they did in the mushroom town of dodge city kan sprang into existence and became the out fitting point and center of activity of the title hide hunters who with their big sharps buffalo guns were constantly invading the red mans country by the spring of 1874 the slaughter had been so great that the buffalo had been virtually wiped out near dodge city so A C myers who was in the general merchandise business in dodge organized an expedition to establish a trading post farther south where the hunters could get their supplies and to which they would tring their buffalo hides which mers liters would freight back bach to the kansas hide capital forming a partnership with fred leonard and accompanied by a party of 20 odd frontiersmen myers set out for the forbidden indian country among the members of the party were jim IIan Ilan rahan an old buffalo hunti hunter r aiho w ho was going the new trading P post ost along to open a saloon at thomas okeefe a blacksmith and two young buffalo hunters destined tor for future fame billy dixon and lat bat masterson asterson il after a journey of reached a spot on the miles the expedition south bouth fork of the canadian where stood the ruins of nn an old trading post known as adobe walls which had been built by william bent before 1940 wu and ceran st vrain some time valley where h ere broad A mile or so farther on in a fast adobe there iris as a pretty sire stream in called walls creek myers and tits his I 1 companions unloaded the second their wagons and set about establishing ee een n more to become adobe walls wits was famous thin than the first ilou house se 20 00 myers and leonard built a picket by go CO feet in size IIan rahan put up a sod L house ouse 25 23 by CO 00 and OlCe 0 efe opened his blacksmith 15 feet square myers shot shop in a picket structure corral by and leonard also built a stockade end in the ground cottonwood logs on setting big and wright Wrig lt leading A short time later itata decided to esta blish merchants of dodge city find and built a sod a branch store at adobe walls house 10 by 20 feet leaving 10 aalam james carlto I aston n in there to A adobe lobe charge of the new nev business olds and ills his wife ife to walls also came william open a restaurant watching u been hail had por several years the indians wasteful slaughter with increasing rl alarm wm the white hunters hun ers so buffalo by the of the me when in the spring of 1874 a comanche that lie he had cine man named isabal a announced enable them to would a new medicine which chief duanah awe WIZ I 1 ii wipe out the white men who were exterminating the buffalo he found the tribesmen ripe for such a crusade the first indian leader to agree to help in this laudable enterprise was a chief of the Co manches quanah the halfbreed half breed son of cynthia ann parker who as a little girl gar had been stolen from her home in texas and had become the wife of the great chief pets peta nocona then the medicine man carried the pipe to the Arapah oes klowas and alowa apaches and they readily agreed to accompany their comanche brethren so a great war party of between COO and mounted warriors set out for the buffalo hunters camp and on the night of june 28 20 they camped about five or six miles from adobe walls began painting themselves and their horses and preparing themselves for the charge against the hated white men those men shall not ire fire a shot we shall kill them all was the promise of isaeal that night at adobe walls 23 28 men and one woman slept peacefully little realizing that it ft storm of savage wrath was about to be hurled against them in saloon were hanrahan bat masterson I 1 mike welch hiram watson billy ogg james mckinley bermuda carlisle billy dixon and a man named shepherd in myers livers and leonards store were leonard james campbell edward trevor frank crown brown harry armitage billy tyler old I 1 van man keeler mike mccabe henry lease and two men known only as dutch henry and frenchy in rath and wrights store were james langton george r addy addy thomas okeefe sam smith andrew johnson and william olds and his wife just outside the stockade two brothers named aba shadier adler who bore the nicknames of mexico Alcy leo ike and blue bill and who were engaged in frel freighting baing hides to dodge city were sleeping in their wagons with a big newfoundland found land dog at their feet about two in the morning shepherd and mike welch were e awakened by a report that sounded like ille the alic crack of a rifle they sprang up and discovered that the big cottonwood ridge pole alich supported the dirt roof of Hanrah ans saloon had cracked and was about to allow the roof to coll collapse Ilas hastily awakening others in the place they set to work repairing the root an and d tills this commotion aroused others who fell to and assisted them before going to 8 sleep leep dixon and Ilan hanrahan rahan had prepared themselves for an early start in the morning for the buffalo hunting grounds to the northwest by the time the repairs to the roof of the saloon wore were completed the sky was growing red in III the esq so Ilan henrahan raban proposed to dixon that instead of 0 going back to bed they get ready to start out as soon as JE it was light to tills dixon agreed arid and its as lie he started to get ills his horse he be looked dnn alwn the valley at and there through the dim light of the morning he saw a sight which almot almost paralyzed him film for a moment A lark dark mass of horsemen was moving swiftly up the valley and the next moment it bad spread out like a fan n and nd a mighty war mar whoop shat th the e stillness isabal was corning coming with his host of wild tribesmen to make good his promise to wipe ile out ut the buffalo hunters at adobe walls thront ing his rifle to his shoulder dixon fired one blint then turned and sped toward the han saloon as the he wild ild charge of the ohp indians swept doi down ri apon upon him but this hasty warning arning as con enough 11 to bring brine the occupants of t the he saloon who were already awake and dressed to the windows with their big buffalo guns in their hands we were scarcely inside before the indians indiana had surrounded all the buildings and shot out every window pane billy dixon says for the first half hour the indians were reckless and daring enough to ride up and strike the doors with the butts of their guns and andrew johnson has recorded how the savages backed their horses up against the doors of the buildings and tried to push them in showing a willingness to fight at close quarters almost unparalleled in indian I 1 warfare cut but the steady sten y fire of the th e buffalo hunters hun soon discouraged this and after beating off several attacks the white men had a chance to take stock of their losses strange to say there were only three the two shadier boys asleep in their wag wagon on outside the stockade had been killed and scalped scalded ped their big newfoundland dog had evidently put up a fight for he be was also alsa killed and scalp scalded scalped ped eV a piece of hide having been cut from his side ride billy tyler one of the defenders of the leonard and myers store was killed early in the fighting fl baing and except tor for some minor wounds these were vere the only casualties time after time the indians charged but as aa their ponies were knocked down by the heavy slugs of lead from the buffalo guns and more and more of their warriors were killed or wounded it began to dawn upon them that isa tal had been a false prophet so the charges ceased during one of these lulls a young comanche gorgeously appareled in war bonnet and scalp shirt and mounted on a fine pony made a lone charge toward the buildings in the face of a hot fire from the hunters radl riding ng up close to one of the buildings he leaped fro from in his pony thrust a six sir shooter through a porthole and emptied it tie ile then attempted to retreat but was shot down this daring warrior who had hoped to make a great name for himself by his lone charge was re pe ah rite the son of horseback one of the leading chiefs 0 of the Co manches uy by late afternoon the indians had bad given up hope of wiping out the defenders of adobe walls and began to withdraw after an acx anxious IOUs night of watchfulness the buffalo hunters discovered the next nest morning that only a tow few indians we lingering around the place and they were soon driven off by some long distance shots during the second day hunters from some of the outlying camps made their way unmolested into adobe walls and that night one of them denry lease was sent to dodge city for help on the third day a party of about 15 indians indiana appeared on a aleh bluff east cast of adobe walls but they were quickly dispersed by a shot from billy dixons rifle which knocked one of th the savages from his bis horse it is this incident mat gave rise to one of the oft repeated myths about the adobe walls affair different accounts of it placing the distance of the shot all the way from a mile to a mile and a half haftl I 1 by dixous own testimony the distance was not far from three fourths of a mile I 1 was admittedly a good marksman yet this was what might be called a scratch shot more li came in on the third day and by the sixth day there were fully a hundred men gathered gatli pred there it Is among these late comers that so many of the survivors of later years were numbered cut but by this time the danger frota from the indians had passed the red men had departed for a n series of raids in ian sas and texas which soon brou brought glit the military into the field and resulted in their eventual defeat hut but before the affair at adobe walls ended there was one more tragedy one which darkened the life of the brave brane woman defender mrs olds on the fifth day her husband was coming down doin a ladder with a gun in his hand when it went clit off accidentally and she rushed from an adjoining room in time to see his body roll from the ladder and crumple at her feet today three monuments stand on the site of adobe walls one is a small slab of granite which marks the grave of william olds another marks the last resting place of the shadier brothers the third is a huge red granite monument which tells that here on june 27 1874 about picked warriors from the comanche man clie cheyenne and alowa indian tribes were defeated by 23 28 brave frontiersmen and it bears the names of the 28 who truly fought at adobe walls 0 by western newspaper union |