Kit Carson's Last Fight: the Adobe Walls Campaign of 1864 David A
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository History ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 4-12-2017 Kit Carson's Last Fight: The Adobe Walls Campaign of 1864 David A. Pafford University of New Mexico Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds Part of the Military History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Pafford, David A.. "Kit Carson's Last Fight: The Adobe Walls Campaign of 1864." (2017). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ hist_etds/165 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in History ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. David A. Pafford Candidate History Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Dr. Paul A. Hutton, Chairperson Dr. L. Durwood Ball Dr. Margaret Connell-Szasz Dr. Jerry D. Thompson i KIT CARSON’S LAST FIGHT: THE ADOBE WALLS CAMPAIGN OF 1864 by Name: DAVID A. PAFFORD B.S., History, Eastern Oregon State College, 1994 M.A., Christian Ministry, Abilene Christian University, 2006 M.A., History, University of New Mexico, 2010 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy History The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May 2017 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing a book, especially a first book, requires a LOT of assistance – so much so that any list of incurred debts while composing it must be incomplete. This book would be even more incomplete, however, without an attempt to acknowledge the many friends who aided me in this endeavor. I have always enjoyed history, but my adviser, Dr. Paul Andrew Hutton inspired me to become a historian rather than merely a lover of history. Dr. Hutton is truly an ambassador for the field. His understanding that history must be accessible, exciting, and inviting before it can be absorbed for its meaning and importance by most people is strangely rare in the world of academic history. If there were more professors who could tell a story like Paul Hutton, there would be a lot more history students. If this book tells the story of the valiant Indians and soldiers who contested the field at Adobe Walls even fractionally as well as Dr. Hutton tells stories, I count it a great success. No one spent more time poring over my text and directing me to sources than Dr. Durwood Ball. Editing can be a thankless and unglamorous task. Dr. Ball’s patience, kindness, and generosity are endless. I thank Dr. Margaret Connell-Szasz for helping direct me to works on and by Native Americans. My conversations with Dr. Jerry Thompson of Texas A&M International were not only helpful, but very enjoyable. Dr. Virginia Scharff was instrumental in helping me develop a better writing style (you should have seen it before). Dr. Mel Yazawa helped me learn to be direct, thorough, and precise. The late Dr. Frank Szasz helped me think about how to write people, and for that I thank him. The history department staff at the University of New Mexico always iii showed me kindness, and helped me get paperwork pushed. Thank you Dana Ellison, Yolanda Martinez, and Barbara Wafer. Alvin Lynn wowed me with his wonderful archaeology shop, and kindly shared with me what he learned from his artifact discoveries. Wade Popp at Fort Sill assisted me by sending copies of archival materials. Of course, library caretakes at the University of New Mexico, the Colorado Historical Society, California State University Stanislaus, the National Archives, and the Bancroft Library at the University of California all contributed valued assistance. Teddie Moreno and Sarah Gilmor at the special collections desks of the libraries at New Mexico State University and History Colorado sent me material electronically, saving many hours, days, and dollars. My patient and unassuming wife, Stephanie, tolerated all of the hours I spent writing, years I spent studying, vacations sidetracked to historical sites, and soapbox lectures on historical topics without even making me feel like it bothered her or was in any way a waste of time or resources. My exceptional children, Kirsten, Audrey, Preston, Andrew, Kimberly, and Caleb, only occasionally complained about having to listen to another history book in the car when there was, after all, music. It is my hope that growing up in a home that values learning will help prepare them for success in whatever niches they find. iv KIT CARSON’S LAST FIGHT: THE ADOBE WALLS CAMPAIGN OF 1864 by: David A. Pafford B.S., History, Eastern Oregon State College, 1994 M.A., Christian Ministry, Abilene Christian University, 2006 M.A., History, University of New Mexico, 2010 PhD, History, University of New Mexico, 2017 ABSTRACT In the fall of 1864, Brigadier General James H. Carleton sent Kit Carson and about four hundred men on a punitive campaign against the Kiowa and Comanche Indians of the high plains. The resulting battle was one of the largest in the history of North American Indian Wars. Yet this conflict has been relegated to historical obscurity. In this paper, I examine why Kit Carson’s 1864 Adobe Walls Campaign remains obscure, I measure the success of the mission, and place it in the larger context of nineteenth century Indian Wars, particularly those prosecuted against Plains tribes. v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 1. KIT CARSON: MILITARY COMMANDER 10 2. SITUATION IN NEW MEXICO & THE SOUTHERN PLAINS 63 3. U.S. MILITARY PARTICIPANTS IN THE ADOBE WALLS CAMPAIGN AND THEIR AUXILIARIES 87 4. U.S. OFFICER BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 101 5. KIOWAS, COMANCHES, AND KIOWA-APACHES 122 6. WEAPONS 144 7. ARMY STRATEGY 165 8. CARSON’S CAMPAIGN 172 9. THE BATTLE OF ADOBE WALLS 184 10. THE AFTERMATH 211 11. CONCLUSION 223 vi Introduction Visiting Adobe Walls A cold, late Panhandle norther doubled over the yellow grass. I squinted against its chilling force as I stepped out of my truck and into the bottoms on the north side of the Canadian River. A twelve-mile trek off State Highway 207 had taken me to the site of the Adobe Walls fight. Not much remains. Were it not for fingerboards pointing the way and a few markers placed by the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, I would never have found the site. A gate impedes travel beyond a wide spot between the barbed wire on a caliche road near the Turkey Track Ranch headquarters. Miles of empty prairie surround Adobe Walls. Hours later, as I departed, an inbound driver stopped me to ask whether he was on the right road. Not many people know that two important battles were fought at Adobe Walls. I made this first trip to the battle site after becoming interested in Christopher “Kit” Carson’s last fight, the 1864 Battle of Adobe Walls. This battle featured Carson, 321 New Mexico and California volunteers, and 75 Utes taking on well over a thousand Comanche, Kiowa, and Kiowa-Apache (or “Plains Apache”) warriors. Department of New Mexico commander General James H. Carleton sent Carson’s force to strike a punitive blow against the Kiowa and Comanche. Their raids on the Santa Fe Trail threatened communications, emigration, commerce, and army logistics between New Mexico Territory and the states. Carleton meant to open the trail, once and for all. The Second Battle of Adobe Walls occurred in 1874. Buffalo hide hunters had established a small community at the site of William Bent’s old trading post on the Canadian, and had commenced to slaughter vast herds of buffalo. They did this for what 1 little gain they could extract from the hides alone, and the government encouraged them, understanding the importance of the buffalo as a resource of the Plains tribes. The Indians understood the full measure of danger to them that lay in this kind of destruction as well. Over seven hundred Comanches, Kiowas, and Cheyennes attacked the camp of these scraggly hunters, of which there were only about thirty. Chief Quanah Parker and a medicine man named Isa-tai (literally, either Coyote Poop or Coyote Butt) led the attack. Isa-tai claimed to have a supernatural body paint that would render the hide hunters’ bullets ineffective. The Indians snuck up on the hide hunters in the early dawn. After inflicting a few casualties in the initial early morning raid, they settled in for a siege. On the second day of the conflict, the famous scout Billy Dixon reputedly shot an Indian off of his horse at a range of nearly a mile. This extraordinary shot startled and discouraged the Indians, who lost faith in Isa-tai’s medicine. One by one, they abandoned the enterprise and returned to their villages. On my arrival at the battlefield, I spent an hour traipsing around the site and reading the markers. One marker lists participants thought to have taken part in the 1874 fight on the side of the hide hunters. Another monument of equal prominence notes the Native Americans known to have lost their lives in the battle. One stone honors Billy Dixon, who lived until 1913 and was buried at Texline. Dixon’s widow had his remains exhumed and reinterred at Adobe Walls. Markers pay homage to the four casualties from the party of hide hunters. There are no walls at Adobe Walls – at the site or in the distance. The markers are about the only cultural geography. I found the perimeter of one building after a thorough search. Nothing remains of the hide hunters’ village.