The Real Comanche Warriors Described by Someone Who Knew
Forget about the paradigm you have about Native American Indians you learned from television, online or in movies.
Written in 1885, this acco... View MoreThe Real Comanche Warriors Described by Someone Who Knew
Forget about the paradigm you have about Native American Indians you learned from television, online or in movies.
Written in 1885, this account from someone who knew offers real-life insight and tactical advice on how to fight Comanches.
“In the event of being pursued, immediately after the preparation of depredations, the Comanches move day and night, very often not breaking gallop except to exchange horses (which they do several times) and water the caballada, until they deem themselves safe.
Under these circumstances, they will travel at least 70 miles a day, which is a long distance with the encumbrance of loose animals.
A party of warriors dressed in their trappings – embellished shields, fancy moccasins, long pig tails bedecked with silver, shoulder belts worked with beads and adorned with shells, fine leggings, ornamented cases for bows and arrows – mounted upon spirited horses, singing a war song, and sweeping over a prairie is a beautiful spectacle to a man with plenty of brave fellows to back him.
Their motions are easy and graceful. They sit on a horse admirably and manage one with a master hand. Charge them, and they will retreat from you with double your numbers. But beware when pursuing them; keep your men together, well in hand, with at least half their arms loaded, else you will find when it is too late, the flying Comanches will turn on you and charge you to the very teeth.
A Comanche can draw a bow when on horseback, standing, or running, with remarkable strength and accuracy. They have been known to kill horses running at full speed over one hundred yards away.
In the commencement of a fight, the yell of defiance is borne to you loud, long, and startling. The war whoop has no romance in it. It thrills even a stout heart with an indescribable sensation.
The excitement of battle is as evident among these people as among others. Let the tide turn against them, send lead messengers through some of their warriors, and then the mournful wail is heard; its lubricious notes are borne back to you with uncouth cadence, betokening sorrow, anger, and a determination to revenge.
Never ride upon a bowman’s left; if you do, ten to one he will pop an arrow through you. When mounted, an Indian cannot use his bow against an object behind and to his right.
The dead are usually borne from the field. Nothing but the most imminent danger prevents them from performing the incumbent duty of not leaving the body of a comrade in the hands of an enemy.
Over a fallen chief, they will make a desperate stand. Their caution seems merged in the determination to risk everything to bear him from the field. To attain this object, they will fight furiously, bravely, and often.
If they abandon him, it is usually in despair. Flight is no longer methodical and menacing to the pursuer. Retreat degenerates into a route. After this, they have seldom if ever been known to resume the offensive.
They will hide themselves in the first chaparral affording security against discovery, remain during the day, and visit the dead at night, and if not able to remove them, will spread blankets or some covering over them.
The bow is placed horizontally in shooting; a number of arrows are held in the left hand; the bow operates as a rest for the arrows. The distance – the curve the missile has to describe in reaching the object – is determined by the eye without taking aim.
At a distance of 60 yards and over, arrows can be dodged if but one Indian shoots at you at a time. Under forty yards, the six-shooter has little advantage over the bow.
At long distances, the angle of elevation is considerable. It requires a quick eye to see the arrow and judge the whereabouts of its descent, a good dodger to move out of the way, and a good rider to keep in the saddle. A man is required to keep both eyes engaged in an Indian fight.”
• By John Salmon “Rip” Ford who gave tactical advice for Indians in “Rip Ford’s Texas,” 1885.
The Battle Where Six Defeated 125
The survivors of the Buffalo Wallow Fight were awarded U.S. Medals of Honor
A Kiowa ledger drawing possibly depicting the Buffalo Wallow battle in 1874, a fight be... View MoreThe Battle Where Six Defeated 125
The survivors of the Buffalo Wallow Fight were awarded U.S. Medals of Honor
A Kiowa ledger drawing possibly depicting the Buffalo Wallow battle in 1874, a fight between Southern Plains Indians and the U.S. Army during the Red River War. — Wikimedia Commons
“Here on September 12th, 1874, two scouts and four soldiers defeated 125 Kiowa and Comanche Indians…Stand Silent: Heroes here have been who cleared the way for other men.” — Buffalo Wallow Battle Ground Marker
In his autobiography, Life and Adventures of “Billy” Dixon of Adobe Walls, Texas Panhandle, William “Billy” Dixon recounts his adventures on the Texas panhandle’s plains during the Red River War.
Dixon was one of the two civilian scouts that, along with four soldiers, defeated 125 Kiowa and Comanche Indians during the Buffalo Wallow Fight. In his autobiography, Dixon described the battle as:
“The most perilous adventure of my life.”
Dixon’s statement is telling because only a few months before the Fight of Buffalo Wallow, he survived the Second Battle of Adobe Walls. According to the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), in that battle, Dixon was one of 28 men and one woman who defended the township of Adobe Walls from an estimated 700 American Indians.
Mission
General Nelson A. Miles commanded U.S. Troops campaigning against the American Indians during the Red River War. U.S. settlers were moving west to Texas, and the American Indians who called that area home were being forced to reservation land in Oklahoma. Many of the tribes decided to fight for their homeland.
On September 10, 1874, General Miles sent six men to carry dispatches to Fort Supply. The party comprised two civilian scouts: William Dixon and Amos Chapman and four soldiers: Sergeant Z. T. Woodall, Peter Rath, John Harrington, and George W. Smith. All four soldiers were members of the 6th Cavalry.
According to Dixon, the party was small by design. It could move faster and receive less attention than a bigger party. The group traveled at night to avoid roaming bands of American Indian war parties.
Trapped
On the morning of September 12, at about 6 a.m., the party found themselves face to face with 125 Kiowa and Comanche warriors. They had ridden directly into a trap and were immediately surrounded. Dixon wrote:
“We knew that the best thing to do was to make a stand and fight for our lives.”
The group dismounted and decided to fight together to avoid being isolated and picked off one by one.
Smith was put in charge of the horses, but right as the battle commenced, he was shot and fell to the ground. The horses scattered.
Desperation
The American Indian warriors had a huge advantage, and they knew it. According to Dixon, the warriors could have immediately ridden the party down and killed them all, but they continued to fire upon the small party of six men from a distance.
Dixon witnessed the other civilian scout Amos Chapman take a bullet to the leg. Amos said, “Billy, I’m hit at last.”
Dixon noticed a buffalo wallow, or depression in the land that a buffalo had pawed at or deepened, and made a run for it. He called to the others, and all but, Chapman and Smith came to him. As each man got to the buffalo wallow that was about ten feet in diameter, they began digging with their knives and hands to increase their cover.
Rescue
Only Dixon and Rath were not seriously hurt. Although Sergeant Woodall and Harrington had made it to the wallow, they were badly wounded and could barely fight.
According to Dixon, the injured men sat up in the wallow to disguise their injuries, making the Kiowa and Comanche warriors hesitant to assault their now more covered position full-on.
They called to Chapman and Smith. Smith was motionless, but Chapman responded that he couldn’t walk. The bullet that had hit his leg had entered at an angle where it completely shattered his bone. He could not walk and was a sitting duck.
Dixon decided to run for Chapman. After several attempts, he finally got to him. Resting Chapman’s broken leg on his good leg Dixon slung the bigger man on his back. As bullets whizzed by them, Dixon somehow managed to carry Chapman back to the wallow.
Determination
“Ours was the courage of despair, we knew what would befall of if we should be captured alive. We had seen too many naked and mangled bodies of white men who had been spread eagled and tortured with steal and fire to forget what our own fate would be. So we were determined to fight to the end.” — Dixon
As the five men continued to fight in the wallow, they resolved to fight to the death. According to Dixon, if capture proved imminent, the men would take their own lives to avoid death by torture.
Sharps rifle — Source: Smithsonian Institution on Wikimedia Commons
Throughout the day, groups of warriors charged the wallow, but the men always managed to stop the charge with well-aimed bullets. The soldiers had strong weaponry and were good marksmen. For example, Dixon carried a .45–90 Sharps rifle meant to be used for buffalo hunting.
At around 3 p.m., after nine hours of fighting, rain began to fall heavily.
Salvation
The five men in the wallow were parched from a day of heavy fighting. As the rainwater pooled in the wallow, they were able to drink. The rain also slowed the onslaught of attacks from the Kiowa and Comanche warriors. According to Dixon, the American Indians did not like the rain, especially cold rain.
Short on ammunition, Rath ran for Smith’s gun that was next to his fallen body. On his return to the wallow, he reported that Smith was still alive. Rath and Dixon went out and between them were able to get him back to the wallow. According to Dixon, Smith was in bad shape:
“He was shot through the left lung, and when he breathed the wind sobbed out of his back under the shoulder blade.”
Unfortunately for the men in the wallow, they were without coats, blankets, or hats to protect them from the wind and rain. They had no food either; all their supplies had been lost when their horses stampeded.
Casualty
Cold winds accompanied the rain increasing the men’s misery. According to Dixon, they decided to send someone to get help, and it was between Rath and himself as they were the only two men not dealing with serious injuries. Rath was chosen.
Unfortunately, in the darkness of night, Rath could not find the trail and returned to the wallow two hours later. According to Dixon, by this point, Smith was begging to be shot and put out of his misery.
The men decided to watch Smith closely, and he finally fell asleep around 10 p.m. When the group checked on him a bit later, he was dead.
The American Indians did not attack during the night, and the five surviving men waited for the morning.
Relief
According to Dixon, at daybreak, he went for help. After traveling only a couple of miles, he found a group of soldiers led by Major Price.
A medic and a few officers were sent to the wallow to assist the men. The men did not know who was coming and fired a shot, killing a horse.
Dixon ran back to the wallow, and when the men recognized him, the medic proceeded to help the wounded. Major Price and his men then moved on, promising to send help once they reached Fort Supply.
The five survivors of the Buffalo Wallow Fight waited until Midnight for help to arrive. The men buried their deceased comrade Smith in the same buffalo wallow where they had survived for two days and made it to Fort Supply.
Restoration
The three surviving soldiers, Sergeant Woodall, Rath, and Harrington, recovered from their wounds and returned to their duties. Amos Chapman had his leg amputated above the knee. Dixon wrote:
“Amos was as tough as a second growth hickory and was soon out of the hospital and back in the saddle.”
Dixon made his home near Adobe Walls, where he lived the rest of his life. His adventures only made his love of the great plains grow. Dixon wrote:
“In no other country could there have been found a region so inviting so alluring so fascinating to the spirit of adventure as the great plains.”
Army Medal of Honor — Credit: U.S. Government on Wikimedia Commons
Recognition
In his book, Dixon includes a letter sent by General Nelson A. Miles dated September 24, 1874, that recommends the men be honored for their “cool courage, heroism, and self-sacrifice.”
Soon after, the five survivors were awarded Medals of Honor by Congress. According to the United States Army, the Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest award for valor in combat in the armed forces.
According to The Hall of Valor, Billy Dixon and Amos Chapman’s Medals of Honor were revoked by Congress after a review in 1916–17. Dixon had died in 1913, and Chapman would die in 1925. Their Medals of Honor were restored in 1989, and their actions are recognized. They are two of the eight civilians ever to receive a Medal of Honor.
Other Accounts
There are other accounts of the Buffalo Wallow Fight, most notably Colonel Richard Irving Dodge’s Our Wild Indians (1882). According to TSHA, this account is somewhat inaccurate. In Dodge’s account of the fight, Chapman is the one who carries Dixon on his back to the buffalo wallow’s safety. In my estimation, that version of events is farfetched as Chapman’s leg was so broken that it required amputation. Dixon’s first-hand account is more accurate.
Context
Against impossible odds, six men fought 125, and five survived. The Buffalo Wallow Fight is a prime example of American valor, and I believe that even though Dixon and Chapman were civilians, they earned the Medals of Honor they received. I think that it is justified that their medals were ultimately restored.
Oklahoma Tribal Statistical Area — by Crimsonedge34 on Wikimedia Commons
According to TSHA, Amos Chapman was half white and half American Indian. Chapman was a scout but also an interpreter for the U.S. Army.
The 1830 Indian Removal Act that led to The Trail of Tears led to mass removals of the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole tribes, among others.
The tribes from the southern plains were sent to areas where other American Indian tribes, such as the Kiowa and Comanche tribes, lived. Next, American settlers started claiming land in Texas and hunting buffalo. It makes sense that the Kiowa and Comanche tribes, among others, decided to defend their homeland.
The Red River War was foreseeable and almost an inevitability as American and American Indian cultures collided.
What Actually Was the Alamo?
The famous San Antonio building has had many lives as a church, fortress, military depot, and, now, memorial.
Many people are familiar with the battle cry of “Remember t... View MoreWhat Actually Was the Alamo?
The famous San Antonio building has had many lives as a church, fortress, military depot, and, now, memorial.
Many people are familiar with the battle cry of “Remember the Alamo!” The reference to the 1836 clash at the Texas landmark ended badly for its defenders but served as an inspiration for the inhabitants of a burgeoning republic.
Although casual students of history might recall some of the particulars of the battle, fewer likely realize that the Alamo existed for more than a century before this showdown or know of what became of the fortress in the aftermath.
Beyond the bravery shown by James Bowie, Davy Crockett, and their brothers-in-arms against the superior forces of Mexican General Santa Anna, this centerpiece of San Antonio history began as a church, was used as a warehouse and general store, and at one point, almost didn’t survive to become the world-famous museum and historic site it is today.
Origins as a Franciscan Mission
The Alamo began its life as Mission San Antonio de Valero on May 1, 1718. Established with the goal of developing a Spanish outpost on the San Antonio River and converting the local Indigenous population to Catholicism, it took three tries for the mission to take root in the area.
“The first location for the mission is close to the area that was San Pedro Springs Park, and where you have springs, you have fresh water,” explains Ernesto Rodriguez, the Alamo’s senior curator and historian. Water from the springs and rain forced the mission to move south of where the Alamo is now located. Yet that area came into the crosshairs of a destructive hurricane.
“It knocks down the little structure that they’ve built,” Rodriguez says, “so then they relocate the third time to its present location, which is at the highest point in downtown San Antonio.”
Construction of a two-story convento—which contained the friars’ sleeping quarters, offices, and dining rooms—commenced in 1724. A church began taking shape in the 1740s, but in 1756, some walls and arches for the not-yet-complete vaulted roof collapsed. Although its replacement was designed to feature twin bell towers and a barrel-vaulted roof, the limestone structure was left unfinished.
The three-acre grounds also included a granary, storerooms, carpentry shops, and irrigation ditches known as acequias. Surrounding fields were used for farming and livestock grazing. Sometime after 1758, inhabitants began constructing an 8-foot-high protective outer wall with a gate on the south side.
Becoming the Alamo Fortress
After Mission San Antonio de Valero was secularized in 1793, the property was divided among its residents. However, the shifting tide of geopolitics that saw the nearby territory of Louisiana pass into the hands of France, then the United States, prompted Spain to organize a military garrison to defend its territory in the developing community of San Antonio de Béxar.
“The troops are sent from a town right at the Rio Grande called San Carlos de Alamo de Parras,” Rodriguez says. “The company…move[s] into the secularized mission, and from that moment on this place will be known as the Alamo.”
The Alamo Company converted the convento into what is now known as the Long Barrack, established the first hospital in San Antonio on the second floor of the building and built additional one-story “low” barracks just inside the newly fortified southern gate. Although the former mission saw no direct conflict during the Mexican War of Independence (1810-21), the Alamo served as a base for members of the revolutionary Gutiérrez-Magee expedition and later as a Spanish prison after the 1813 Battle of Medina.
The Alamo Company continued to occupy the fort until December 1835, when Mexican forces surrendered it to the insurgents of the Texas Revolution. Mexican forces then briefly reclaimed the territory following the Battle of the Alamo in late February and early March 1836. By the time the Republic of Texas won its independence the following month, the fort’s outer walls were mostly torn down.
These sites preserve Black Americans’ contributions to society as artists, entrepreneurs, athletes, soldiers and activists.
After a 13-day siege, Mexican forces defeated the outnumbered Texas rebels at the Battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836.
Military Supply and City Focal Point
The battle-scarred buildings of the Alamo remained largely untouched until 1846, when the United States’ annexation of Texas and the subsequent Mexican-American War led to the compound’s revival as an Army quartermaster depot. The walls of the Long Barrack were repaired and replastered, as windows, doorways, and an exterior staircase were added to the building. The church, never completed during the mission era, was given its first roof as well as the now-iconic arched parapet above the front door.
Following the conclusion of the Mexican-American War, the Alamo quartermaster depot occupied a key spot in a supply chain that funneled goods to more remote outposts across western Texas. Although the depot was confiscated by the Confederacy in early 1861, it resumed its previous function at the close of the Civil War.
Meanwhile, the surrounding community was undergoing commercial development that was transforming San Antonio from a frontier town into a modern metropolis. This included the 1871 city purchase of Alamo property from the Catholic Archdiocese, a transaction that helped establish the current Alamo Plaza but also led to the razing of the low barracks. By 1877, when the U.S. Army moved on to a new depot at nearby Fort Sam Houston, the church and Long Barrack were all that remained of the 18th-century compound.
By 1890, the Long Barrack at the Alamo had become a commercial center.
Emergence of a Memorial
The vacant Long Barrack was sold to French-born businessman Honoré Grenet, who installed castle-like towers and crenellations atop his new general store, while leasing the church for use as a warehouse. Following his death in 1882, the store was acquired by the wholesale grocer Hugo & Schmeltzer.
The first step toward establishing the Alamo as a landmark came in 1883, when the state purchased the church and turned its care over to the city of San Antonio. The building became a visitors’ center, according to Rodriguez. Meanwhile, the rest of the complex remained privately owned.
Around two decades later, a group of investors proposed a radically different idea for the Alamo. They wanted to knock down Long Barrack and build a hotel—a plan that horrified Adina de Zavala, Clara Driscoll, and other members of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT). As the investors circled a deal, the DRT successfully navigated a series of political and financial hurdles to turn the remains of the old fort into a full-fledged memorial.
In 1904, largely using her own savings, Clara purchased the Long Barrack from its private owner and deeded it to the state of Texas. After that, Rodriguez explains, “the state basically creates a law [that] sets up the Alamo as the ‘sacred memorial to the heroes that immolated themselves upon that hallowed ground.’” It has been a historic site and museum ever since.
Following a bumpy transition under competing factions of the DRT, the Alamo underwent several renovations that began with the removal of the Grenet-embellished roof and second floor from the Long Barrack. The church received a new concrete roof in the early 1920s, while commemoration of the Texas centennial led to the installation of the church’s flagstone floor and the Cenotaph monument in the Alamo Plaza.
Thanks in part to popular fare such as the 1955 Disney anthology episode “Davy Crockett at the Alamo” and the 1960 John Wayne movie The Alamo, the erstwhile fortress achieved a level of recognition that made it one of the best-known memorials in the nation. Designated as part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015, the Alamo continues to add new features to its grounds and unearth relics of its origins through archaeological digs, with the goal of ensuring that people will indeed remember the battlefield and other iterations of this colonial-era site in the centuries to come.
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