The Battle of Adobe Walls vs. the Battle of the Little Bighorn

 Kit Carson

In 1864, at the height of the American Civil War, U.S. troops battled Native American warriors in the Texas panhandle.

The battle came about when General James Carleton, commander of the military District of New Mexico, decided to punish the plains tribes of the Kiowa and Comanche, who were attacking wagon trains on the Santa Fe Trail.

Carleton selected Colonel Kit Carson a veteran Indian fighter to lead the expeditionary force. On November 10, 1864, Carson started out with 260 cavalry, 75 infantry and 72 Indian scouts plus two mountain howitzers. The mountain howitzer was designed to be lightweight and highly portable. Because of this, and its ease of disassembly, it did not require roads for transportation making it well suited to Indian fighting and mountain warfare.

The expedition proceeded down the Canadian River into the Texas Panhandle looking for hostiles.

Carson decided to march toward Adobe Walls, the ruins of an abandoned adobe trading post and saloon, located on the north side of the Canadian River. 

On November 24 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.

Approximately two hours after daybreak on November 25, Carson's cavalry found and attacked a Kiowa village of 176 lodges. The chief Dohäsan and his people fled, spreading the alarm to nearby Comanche villages. 

Carson soon discovered that there were numerous villages in the area, including a large Comanche village. Carson saw large numbers of angry Indians pouring out like bees, ready to do battle.

Marching forward to Adobe Walls, four miles from the Kiowa village, Carson dug in. Carson’s command of 330 was now besieged by some 3,000 Indians.  It was only the supporting fire of the howitzers that allowed Carson to repel the repeated attacks over a period of eight hours.

As night closed in, Carson ordered a retreat. The soldiers found their supply train intact later that night. Some of his officers wished to renew the battle the next day but Carson, consulting only with his Indian scouts, ordered a retreat to New Mexico.

The United States Army declared the First Battle of Adobe Walls a victory. The Kiowa remembered it as the time when the Kiowa repelled Kit Carson. The battle left the Comanche and Kiowa unchallenged in their control of the Texas Panhandle for eight years. The First Battle at Adobe Walls would be the last time the Comanche and Kiowa forced American troops to retreat from a battlefield

Military experts believe that Carson's decision to retreat was wise and that he deserves credit for a good defense. As it was, Carson suffered six dead and 25 wounded.

He was outnumbered, and only his clever defensive tactics prevented his force from being overrun and killed as George Armstrong Custer and some 220 men under his immediate command were on June 25, 1876 at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.