Amarillo Sunday News-Globe (Amarillo, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 33, Ed. 1 Sunday, August 14, 1938 Page: 90 of 264
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AMARILLO SONDAY NKWS AND GLOBE. AMARILLO, TEXAS.
GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY EDITION, 1938,
Traders Quest for Wealth. Led to Site of Early Adobe Walls Fight
* * *
Sharpshooter
Bent's Fort Planned To
Resist Fierce Attacks
By CHARLES RENFROE
In a drowsy sun-washed valley near Mobeetie. Tex.,
cottonwoods murmur over a few scattered fragments of
adobe, sun-purpled jrlasa and hand-forjred nails ... all
that is left of William Bent's subsidiary trading post built
in the Texas Panhandle.
In this same quiet valley near the old trading post site
have been foujrht two of the greatest Indian battles. One,
the biggest Indian battle ever fought on the plains; the
other, the most publicized skirmish with Plains' Indians
on record.
The first was when Kit
Carson and some 300 I nion
soldiers fought about 3,000
Comanche and Kiowa in
1864. The second was the
defense of Hanrahan's sa-
loon, often called the second
Battle of Adobe Walls.
Rut in 1838 William Rent,
fur trader, friend of the
Plain's tribe and founder of
a combination trading post
and fort on the upper reaches
of the Arkansas, saw the lo-
cation only as a solution to
a pressing problem. An acute
problem because it struck at
(he very root of the Cau-
casian sense of the fitness of
things—his pocketbook.
William Bent, along with two
brothrrs and a French-Canadian
named Ceran St. Vrain, had estab-
lished a fort for the purpose of
trading with the Indians to the
north and south ... a fort known
among mountain men and plains-
men as the only place In the South-
west where a man could get a mint I , „
julep in the middle of the summer Madison County, Ky„ on December
KIT CARSON
By R. C. CRANE
Christopher Carson was born in
and with Ice!
Among other things that the ver-
satile Bent had brought to his fort
was a French tailor who fashioned
"made to order" buckskins for the
more sartorial-minded trappers . . .
a peacock that the astounded Chey-
enne called Nun-uma-e-vi-kis or
thunder bird ... a negro woman
who described herself as "de only
lady in de hull dam Injun country"
... a ragged collection of Canadian,
Spanish. Mexican, negro, Italian and
American trappers . . . and a horde
of Indian wives and hall - breed
pa pooses.
Around the fort was also a per-
manent camp of about 8,000 Chey-
enne and Arapahoe, it was the pres-
ence of these tribes around the Ar-
kansas fort that caused the afore-
mentioned problem.
The Cheyenne and Arapaho# had
fought with the Panhandle tribes
for unknown generations. Now the
Comanche and Kiowa were superb
hunters In a country well stocked
with game. Therefore, they were
eood potential customers for the
firm of Bent Brothers and St. Vrain.
William Bent had tried for several
years to establish peace between the
warring tribes. In 1836 or there-
abouts the four tribes had the blood-
test battle in their entire history
along the banks of Wolf Creek.
• • •
Disgusted, William Bent decided
24, 1808. He is commonly known
in Western history as Kit Carson.
His family moved to what now is
Howard County, Mo., while Kit
was still an infant.
At the age of 15 he was appren-
ticed to a saddler and worked at
that job for two years and then
joined a hunting expedition.
He passed the next eight years
as a trapper and then accepted an
appointment as hunter to Bent's
Fort, continuing in that work for
eight years more. Later, he met
Gen. John C. Fremont and was
engaged by him as guide in his
subsequent exploration of the West.
When Carson was sent to Wash-
ington, in 1847. he received an ap-
pointment as lieutenant in the rifle
corps of the United States Army.
In 1835 he drove 6,500 head of
sheep to California. This was a
mast difficult undertaking but he
performed it successfully. Upon
his return to Taos, N. M„ he was
appointed Indian agent for that
territory.
During the civil War he served In
the. Federal Army, attaining the
rank of Brevet Brigadier General.
It was during that time and while
he was a Colonel of volunteers that
he went from Fort Bascom, N. M.,
up The Canadian River into the
Panhandle of Texas looking for
I Comanche and Kiowa Indians. He
! found them at the original Adobe
the fort by means of scaling lad-
ders put up against the walls. Be-
sides these implements for cutting
and piercing, the walls were also
hung with flintlock muskets and
pistols.
At the east wall of the fgrt was
a wide gateway fitted with two great
swinging doors made of heavy
planks, plated with sheet iron and
studded with great nails so that
they could not be burned. The same
was true of the doors to the cor-
rals.
Over the main gate of the fort
was a square watch tower sur-
mounted by a belfry, from the roof
of which rose a flagstaff. The
watchtower contained a single room,
furnished with a chair and a bed,
and with windows on all sides. Here
was mounted on a pivot, an old
fashioned long telescope or spyglass,
and here certain members of the
garrison were kept constantly on
the lookout, relieving each other in
their watches.
* *
In the belfry, under a little roof
which arose over the watchtower,
was hung a bell, which sounded the
hours for meals.
At the back—west side—of the
fort, over the gate which opened
into the corral, was a second-story
room rising high above the walls,
just as the watchtower did in front.
This room, some 30 to 40 feet in
length, was used as a billiard room
during the later years of the fort;
and across one end of the room was
a bar or counter at which drink-
ables were to be had.
The stores, warehouses and living
rooms of tho post were ranged
around the walls, and opened into
the patio or courtyard—a hollow
Square within. In the center of the
court was a large brass cannon
which had been brought from St.
Louis.
On the west side of the fort and
| outside the main walls, was the
horse corral. It was large enough
I to corral a large herd. The walls
; were of adohe, three feet thick at
| the top and eight feet high, and
into this horse corral there was a
; door cut from the main fort so
' that men could go from the fort
| into the corral and get horses with-
! out having to go outside the fort.
This door was so large, and arched,
[ that the horses could be run into
the courtyard of the fort in case
* * *
an attack: party might be threaten-
ing to capture the corral.
Such is a very brief description
of Bent's Fort, on the north side
of the Arkansas, at the mouth of
Purgatory River.
Besides Bent's Fort, the Bent <fc
Vrain Company owned Fort St.
Vrain or St. George, as it was some-
times called, built on the South
Platte between 1835 and 1839 and
after the construction of Bent's Fort.
But Bent's Fort was the largest
and best equipped and served as
something of a model for other posts
afterwards built over the region;
and Indians came there to trade
from a wide area from the north
and northwest.
However, at some time before 1840,
at the request of the Kiowas, Com-
anches and Apaches the Bent St.
Vrain Company came down into the
Texas Panhandle and built, what
was then known as Adobe Fort, for
the especial accommodation of the
three tribes named.
• • *
These three tribes were at the
time at enmity with the Cheyennes
and Arapahoes, and feared to go
to Bent's Fort to trade for fear that
they would meet up with their ene-
mies and find themselves In battle
witji them. These three tribes lived
] south of the Arkansas and their
! enemies to the north.
Wm. Bent, and the traders were
averse to having any hostilities bc-
: tween the several tribes in the. vi-
j clnity of Bent's Fort, as each tribe
would expect the trader to take its
part; and this could not be done
j without incurring the enmity of the
other tribes. Bent, although lie had a
Cheyenne wife, had always managed
to keep on good terms with the ene-
mies of the Cheyennes, and con-
tinued to do so,
The Indian chiefs who requested
Adobe Fort to be built for trade
with their tribes were Little Moun-
tain and Eagle Tail for the Kiowas,
Shaved Head for the Comanches,
and Poor (Lean) Bear for the
Apaches.
In their times these were men of
considerable importance. Shaved
Head was a great friend of the
whites and a man of much influ-
ence with his own and other tribes
in the region. He Is said to have
had the left side of his head shaved
close, while on the right side the
hair was allowed to crow long,
hanging down to his waist or be-
* * *
low, thus giving rise to his name—
Shaved Head. His left ear had been
perforated with many holes made
by a blunt awl heated red hot, and
was adorned with many little brass
rings.
With the making of peace be-
tween the several trlbps, whose en-
mity had caused the construction
of Adobe Fort; and with the great
decline in fur trade between 1R40
and 1850, Adobe Fort was aban-
doned.
The exact year of Its construction
and its abandonment are not of rec-
ord.
There is authority for the state-
ment that in 1843-44 one of Bent's
men built a temporary trading post
on the South Canadian at Red Bluff
near Mustang Creek, a few miles
above Adobe Fort; and that in the
winter of 1845-46 the same man
built another post higher up, two
miles above Red Deer Creek and
just west of where the main trail
from the Arkansas crossed the Ca-
nadian.
While this old trading post was
originally known as "Adobe Fort,"
yet as the years went, by after its
abandonment, and it went into de-
cay, it became known on the fron-
tier as "Adobe Walls."
Its walls were still standing, and
high enough in November, 1864, to
afford protection to the horses of
Kit Carson's cavalry, in the Battle
at Adobe Walls (as recorded in
"Rebellion Records") while the men
fought on foot, with enough room
left for a corner of it to he used
bv the surgeon in the command, to
take care of the wounded.
It appears that the same Little
Mountain, Kiowa Indian chief who
represented the Kiowas back in
about 1840 in requesting that the
Adobe Fort trading post be put in
by the Bents, was still chief of the
no nearer, until after w# made
about four miles from the village,
when we saw our men, dismounted
and deployed as skirmishers, with
their horses corralled in an old,
deserted building, known by all
frontiersmen as the Adobe Walls.
"When we were within about a
thousand yards of this point, Car-
son with Lieutenant Heath and his
detachment, put spurs to their hors-
es and charged forward to Join in
the fray. My men seemed to get
new life, and forgot all of their
fatigues, at the prospect of going
into action, and but, a few minutes
elapsed before we came into the
center of the field at a gallop, and
touching my cap to Carson, I re-
ceived from him the following or-
der: 'Pettis, throw a few shell into
that crowd over thai-.' The next
moment, 'Battery, halt,! Action
right—load with shell—LOAD!' was
ordered.
"It was now near 10 o'clock In the
morning, the sky was not obscured
by a single cloud, and the sun was
shining in all of its brightness.
Within 100 yards of the corralled
horses In the Adobe Walls, was a
small symmetrical conical hill of
25 or 30 feet elevation while in all
directions extended a level plain.
Carson, McCleave and a few other
officers' occupied the summit when
the battery arrived and took po-
sition nearly on top. Our cavalry
was dismounted and deployed as
skirmishers in advance, lying in
tall grafK. and firing an occasional
shot at the enemy. Our Indians,
mounted and covered with paint and
feathers, were charging backwards
and forwards and shouting their
war cry, and in their front were
about two hundred Comanches and
Kiowas equipped as they themselves
Kiowas in 1864 and on hand at that were, charging in the same manner
location with a strong 'ore nf his wjth their bodies thrown over the
fighting men to give battle to Kit. j sj(|es of their hors-es, at a full run,
and shooting occasionally under
their horses' necks; while gathered
First Battle of Adobe Walls
Carson and his men.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Tile above story is based larg;rlv
on I>r. Oconee Bird Grinnell's
"Bent's Old Fort and its Build-
ers" Vol. 15. Kansas State His-
torical Society's Collections, 1010-
22; "Kit Carson's Fight with Com-
manche and Kiowa Indians No. 12
Historical Society of Netv Mex-
ico"; Ulster's Southwestern Fron-
tier; Sabin's Kit Carson Days;
and Richardson's Comanche
Barrier,
* ¥ *
just beyond them 1200 or 1400, with
a dozen or more chiefs riding up
and down their line haranguing
them, seemed to be preparing for
a desperate charge on our forces.
It up all day, blowing as shrill and
clearly as our very best buglers.
Carson insisted that it was ft white
man, but I have never had anv
information to corroborate this
opinion. All I know is that he
would answer our signals each time
they were sounded to the infinite
merriment of our men, who would
respond with shout.s of laughter
each time he sounded his horn "
And so the fight continued all
the afternoon, parties of warriors
constantly arriving in parties of
from five to 50. well mounted and
well armed and equipped. Pettis
estimated there were 3000 opposed
to them. They were In good cir-
cumstances—had enriched them-
selves from raid's on caravans on
the Santa Fe trail and from raid.-,
on Mexican villages. They had
good guns and ample ammunition
furnished by white and Mexican
traders.
It is claimed that the Sioux In-
dians who met Custer at Big Horn
and wiped out his entire force in
1876 with fearful carnage were not
nearly as many as were at t.hls bat-
tle, and that they were not better
equipped than were these warriors.
Carson's men claimed that, this
was the "biggest fight" in point
of Indian strength, that was ever
fought west of the Mississippi Rlv-
The pieces were loaded in a few
seconds after the order was given,
and were sighted by the gunners,
when the command 'Number 1-fire!'
was given, followed quickly by
'Number 2-firel' At the first dis-
charge, every one 6f the enemy,
those that were charging back-
wards and forwards on their horses
but a moment before, as well as
thjse that were standing in line,
rose high in their stirrups and
gazed, for a single moment, with
astonishment, then guiding their
horses' heads away from us, and
giving one concerted prolonged yell,
they started on ft dead run for
their village."
• •
When the fourth shot was fired
there was not an enemy in sight.
Apparently thinking that all fight-
ing was over for the day, and that
the enemy would not return to at-
tack, Carson gave the order for
his command to unsaddle, unhar-
ness, water the stock, stake the
horses and eat breakfast. After
breakfast he purposed either to re-
turn and destroy the village they
had already passed or attack the
villages down the river.
Accounts differ as to what plans
he had at that moment.
But scarcely had the men eaten
their haversack rations of raw
baron and hard-tack, when, while ; er; and there is such good authority
they were .vet jollying and talking I fnr "lr statement that this can
of their experiences, Carson dis- hardly be denied.
covered by the use of his field t The Indians were going back (o
glass, "a large force of Indians ad- I their villages through which Csr-
vancing from another village, about : son had passed, and were still
three miles east of Adobe Fort. gathering and carrying off their
"In this village there were at stock and other movable properly,
least 350 lodges. I immediately or-
dered the. command to saddle and
the companies to take position.
"In a short time I found myself
surrounded by at least 1.000 In-
dian warriors mounted on first-class
horses. They repeatedly charged
my command from different, points,
but were invariably repulsed with
great loss."
The battle thus renewed continu-
ed throughout the afternoon.
The Indians discovered that by
rapid movements on horseback they
Surgeon Courtright had prepared a , aVoici the howitzer shells. But
corner of the Adobe Walls for a
hospital, and was busy, with his
assistants, in attending the wants, warr|or whlle going at full sr
to lake the supply to the demand, Walls r,lins and there engaged them
loaded up a pack train full of trade j in battle.
goods and In some vear before 1840 j ' m0 afterwards h was
established a large'trading post ln breveted Brigadier General,
the range of the Kiowa and Co- j He died at Fort Lynn' Cola>
manche, who did not dare venture j 23- 1868'
north to trade in Bent's fort on the : ~
Arkansas.
i fight. Billy Dixon mentions them
After 1840 wh"n the tribes had as low crumbling walls in 1873,
made * lasting peace all four of Today the swift flight of the
th Indian nations traded at, the years have left hardly a trace of
old fort on the Arkansas and the Bent Brothers and St. Vrain's fur
Panhandle establishment was al- : post on the South Canadian.
lowed to fall into decay. j - ——
This ruin was known as Adobe
Fort or later as Adobe Walls. It
stood on the Canadian River in the
Tanhandle of Texas. It was evi-
dently built prior to 1840 but the
exact, date has never been re-
corded. It, was built at the re-
quest, of To-hau-sen (Little Moun-
tain! and Eagle Tail Feather of
the Kiowa nation. Shaved Head of
'he Comanche and Lean Bear of
the Kiowa-Apache all men of Im-
portance in the Texas Panhandle.
This post, was maintained at
creat, trouble and expense by the
Bent and St. Vrain Company.
Other temporary posts were built
in the Panhandle after 1840. Mooney
in his calendar history of the
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Material on William P.ent ami
Adohe Fort derived from following
sources: ' %
Hubert Hnwe Bancroft, Works.
Vol. XXV, 1890, San Francisco
Geo. Bird Grinnell, Bent's Old
Fort and Its Builders. Kansas.
Stale Historical Association Col-
lections, Vol. XV Stanley Vestal,
Kit Carson, Houghton Mifflin,
Cambridge. James Moonev, Cal-
endar History of the Kiowa In-
dians, 17tli Annual Report of Bu-
reau of American Ethnology,
Washington, D. {'., 1000-01.
By R. C. CRANE
When Adobe Fort, built by the
Bents, was abandoned, it naturally
went into decay. But its walls were
I still standing in 1864. high enough
I to afford protection to Kit Carson's
cavalry horses. It was then known
on the frontier as Adobe Walls.
In the summer of 1864 -during
the war between the States—the
Kiowa and Comanche Indians were
giving considerable trouble to all
manner of travel on the old Santa
Fe trail in Kansas, Colorado and
New Mexico.
New Mexico's settlement had been
begun by the Spaniards about the
time that the English settlements
started on the Atlantic coast, and
in 1864 there was a considerable
commerce between that, region and
Independence, Mo, by caravans.
The Indians would attack these
caravans, frequently rich in all
manner of supplies and articles of
commerce, killing many of those
who were attached to the party,
making away with the stock and
supplies, and destroying the wagons,
etc.
| pear.
These depredations had become
in the summer of 1864 rather fre-
quent. annoying to the authorities,
and destructive to life and property.
At that time Kit Carson, the well
known pioneer, scout and Indian
the horses ridden by a Comanche
i.
of half a dozen or more wounded, j rpjlp horse pitched down, sending
Fortunately the Adobe Walls were hly rlfifr through the air 20 feet,
high enough to protect nil our, jnstantlv two of his mates
horses from the enemy's rifles,
and afford protection to our wound-
ed. Within a mile of us, in full
and complete view, was a Comanche
village of over 500 lodges, which
with the village that we had cap-
tured. made about 700 lodges, which,
command was overtaken. This sup- j make a stand and stubbornly com-
ply train consisted of 27 wagons I bat the invaders.
and one ambulance. j In his official report Carson said: j allowing two fighting Indians to a
At dusk Carson with 13 officers | "They made several severe charges j'odge, which is the rule on the
and 246 men descended from camp
into the valley of the Canadian,
and found there the "deep-worn
trail of the hostile Indians."
He Rnd his force covered 15
miles by midnight and then camp-
ed until morning.
"No talking was allowed In camp
(the few orders which were neces-
sary were given In whisper?) and
the lighting of pipes and smoking
was prohibited; each officer and
soldier, upon halting, opiy dis-
mounted, and remained holding his
horse by the bridle rein until morn-
ing; and to add to our discomforts
a heavy frost fell during the night.."
At first streaks of morning light,
they mounted their horses and
followed carefully their new-found
trail.
In a few minutes their Indian
scouts found a picket of the enemy,
on Major Cleave's command be-
fore my arrival with the artillery
and the other companies, but were
gallantly repulsed."
• • •
Pettis, ln charge of the artillery
at the time, has left, his account
of the engagement. He says: "But,
as we (pushed on, the firing seemed
frontier, would give us 1400 war-
riors in the field before us.
"Tills was the prospect when the
battery came on the ground. A
finer sight I never saw before, and
probably shall never see again.
"The Indians seemed to be
raced forward and picked him up
and carried him to safety in the
midst of heavy gunfire.
Pettis tells of the presence among
the enemy forces of a man who
had a cavalry bugle: "About two
hundred yards in rear of their line,
all through the fighting at Adobe
Walls, was stationed one of the
enemy who had a cavalry bugle, and
during the entire day he would
blow the opposite call that was
used by the officer ln our line of
skirmishers. For Instance, when
our bugle sounded "advance," he
would blow "retreat," and when
astonished when the pieces came up j ours sounded "retreat," he would
at a gallop and were unlimbered. j follow with "advance." So he kept
and Major Cleave with B Company
And then they would disap- j of the First California Cavalry, to-
gether with one of the New Mexi-
co detachments was ordered by
Colonel Car.son to cross the river
which was easily fordable.
The Indian scouts with Carson
at once dashed into a clump of
chaparral nearby, and in a few
moments came out. entirely divested |
Sabers, Lances, Muskets
Kiowas says that in 1843-44 a Bent
man. probably a Kentuckian known On Walls of Earlier Fort
as Hatcher, built a small post on
the South Canadian at Red Bluff
near Mustang Creek, a few miles
above Adobe Walls, and that in
1845-46 the same man built another
post higher up, two miles above
Red Deer Creek and just west of
where the old trail to the Arkansas
crossed the Canadian.
After the abandonment of Fort
Adobe, William Bent developed a
fur business second only to that of
Jacob Astor's American Fur Com,-
By R. C. CRANE
Four brothers by the name of
Brent, Charles, William, George,
and Robert—in the early 1820's en-
gaged in the fur trade in the unset-
tled region of Kansas, Colorado,
Wyoming, the Dakotas, Nebraska
and Montana.
As early as 1823 one or more of
them had employment with the
American Fur Company in the
Sioux, Indian Country.
In about 1826 these four brothers
fighter, was a colonel of volunteers
| in the United Slates army, sta-
tioned In New Mexico.
He was ordered to fit out a lit—
j tie army, run down the depredating
, Indians, punish them and put a
stop to their deviltry.
Officers of the army had infor-
mation that, led to the belief that
these Indians had their permanent
i camps on the Texas Plains, on the
| Canadian River, in the vicinity of
the old Adobe Walls.
Carson fitted out his expedition—
[ consisting of 321 enlisted men and
I 14 officers and 75 Indians—with
j subsistence for 45 days, and left
| Fort Bascom on the Canadian, in
| eastern New Mexico, November 12,
1884.
''The allied Kiowas and Comanch-
! es, with a number of Kiowa-Apach-
es and Arapahoes, totaling between
4,000 and 5,000 adults, were in win-
j t.er camp about 200 miles down the
■ Canadian River from Fort Bascom,
of their buffalo robes and their
clothing, with their bodies covered
with war paint and with war feathers j
in abundance, and giving a. wild
hoop dashed into the river, towards
the enemy.
When Carson saw three of the
enemey's pickets racing away, sup-
posedly toward their camps, he
gave orders for a double-quick
charge before the enemy could be
prepared.
Lieutenant Heath with his com-
pany of California cavalry remained
as escort of the battery of artillery, i
which was to play a very important
part in the engagement that day.
The cavalry soon disappeared in
the clumps of cottonwood and tall
grass of the river bottom; and the
battery hastened on as fast as
possible, constantly impeded ln
progress and its dismounted can-
noneers keeping up with difficulty.
Carson's Indian scouts were soon
seen enjoying the first fruits of
j in the rich bottoms well supplied thelr war„time ]abors each of them
| with wood and game, along the j havill? collected from 20 to 50
ponies of the enemy's herds. They
sr. sir; sss t prssurr
of beaver took a rapid tumble. In
1849 an epidemic, of cholera swept ' agpd ,n trade wlth the
through the camps of the allied *J in thp region
mtome« n,r!hedf Tl ,?f > had not then been seriously ques-
Customers off the face of the plains.
r: -er in present Hutchinson County,
of the Texas Panhandle.
"The principal villages were lo-
cated on either side, east and west,
of the old Bent's trading post of
Adobe Walls."
On the twelfth day out from Fort
Bascom (two days delay being caus-
ed by snowstorm> Carson going '
along the old trader road on the !
north side of the Canadian, be-
changed mounts and hurried for-
ward for the fray.
Stolen cattle were passed.
The Indians were driven back.
And about nine o'clock, still with
the battery, Carson saw the first
of the Indian villages, some '
miles ahead, and just beyond a
long low bluff extending out into
the valley. The tepees made of
tween Santa Fe and Albuquerque ] whitened buffalo hides looked l'ke
and Arkansas, on November 2<<th, | Sibley tents isuch
tloned by the white man.
They built several trading posts
one especially on the Arkansas
Trouble caused by the Mexican War
also caused a slackening of the
South west, fur trade, although Bent | Rwer Tn"t!he'vicinity oTthe "present
did make a little money selling
horses and supplies to the Ameri-
can troops during the war.
In 1852 Bent In a fit of pique
against what he thought was gov-
ernment "ungratefulness" blew up
his fort and moved down the
Arkansas valley to a smaller post.
For the next several years he
served in various capacities as gov-
ernment freighter, Indian agent
and trader.
In the late 60s the aging man
moved to a cattle ranch on the
PiU'gatoIre where he spent his de-
clining years. He died on his ranch
May IS>; 1860.
Meanwhil*. the onslaughts of rain
and wind were gradually crumbling
the old walls nf Adobe Fort. In
1864 the walls were still large en-
ough to be used as a shelter for
Surgeon Courtright'* temporary
hospital during the Kit Carson
city of Las Animas, Bent County,
Colorado: and on account of prob-
able attacks from wild Indians,
these were built after the order of
forts and were railed forts.
The most pretentious of these
was, according to the best authority
obtainable, 180 feet long and. 135
feet wide, and was divided Into
various compartments, the whole
built of adobe bricks. The walls
were 15 feet high and 4 feet thick.
At the southeast and northwest
corners of these walls were bastions
or round towers 30 feet high f nd
10 feet in diameter inside, w'th
loopholes for muskets and openings
for cannon. These bastions were
hexagonal in shape.
Around the walls ln the second
stories of the bastions were hung
sabers, and great heavy lances with
long, .-'harp blade,", for use in ca <•
an attempt should be made to take
and after a march of 18 miles, that
day, made camp at Mule Spring
(Arroya de la Mulai, about 30
| miles from Adobe Walls.
Here, he left his wagon train
under command of Colonel Abreu
with Company A of the First Call-
| fornia Infantry, with orders to lc-
ir-in there that night, and follow < l
! she next morning until the main
as the army I
tr jd) and Carson had to explain |
lo the battery what they were.
The village of some 170 tepees j
had been abandoned, its warriors
had been put to flight, and Its wom-
en and children had been driven
into the brush by th" rapid charge
of the soldiers. But a short dis- j
tance down the river the warriors j
had stopped and were rallying to
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A MODERN INSTITUTION
For I I years the Fain Chemical Company has been
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The personnel of the company wishes to take this oppor-
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on their tremendous advancement during the past fifty
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H. B. FAIN CHEMICAL CO.
Manufacturers & Jobbers
207 POLK ST.
AMARILLO, TEXAS
and taking their families away.
Carson knew that his wagon train
with only about 75 men to pro-
tect it. was on the other side of
the Indian village through which
he had passed, and with an Re-
gressive enemy in overpowering
numbers, was liable to capture.
• • •
While the other Indian villages
to the east, and down the Canadian
were great, temptations to Carson
and his officers and men who
wanted to fight through and cap-
ture them, vet the cautious Carson
shell passed through one of COnrluclrd that he had best mak"
sure of his supply train and hi.i
rear. In that conclusion he was
supported by his Ute and Jicarillo
Indian chiefs who were in charge
of his scouts. These had to look
on and see their booty of Kiowa
and Comanche ponies being re-
captured and driven away, and
plunder with them was one of the
greatest glories in their battles
After some hesitation and again ',
the wishes of most of the officers
ar I at about halfpast three. Carson
gave orders to bring out the cav-
alry horses, and forming in columns
of fours, with one man out of
each column of four to lead the
other three horses, while three of
the men were dismounted' and with
the mountain howitzers brought up
the rear of the column. Those
(Continued on Page 4)
I
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Amarillo Sunday News-Globe (Amarillo, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 33, Ed. 1 Sunday, August 14, 1938, newspaper, August 14, 1938; Amarillo, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth299921/m1/90/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hutchinson County Library, Borger Branch.