First Battle of Adobe Walls

On this day in 1864, Kiowa, Comanche, and Ná'ishą(Plains Apache) won a battle against the US Army led by Kit Carson and drove a column of 335 soldiers with two howitzers away. In the midst of the US Civil War (1861-1865), US Army troops were taken from the west to fight and Plains Indigenous peoples were able to accelerate their campaigns of resistance to settlers. The Texas panhandle was the site of this battle, where Kit Carson and his regiment had been sent to protect settlers stealing land. In actuality, Carson attacked Native people indiscriminately across Nʉmʉnʉʉ Sookobitʉ (Comancheria). In the morning of Nov 25th, Kit Carson attacked a Kiowa village where D̶ohausan and his people escaped, warning other Native peoples in the area of the Army's presence. Ǥûib̶à:gàui (Lone Wolf the Elder) fought a rear guard to protect the women and children escaping Carson's attack. Carson then proceeded to Adobe Walls where he dug in for battle. He underestimated his opponents and an estimated 1,200–1,400 Comanche and Kiowa returned his attack. Dohäsan, assisted by Sét:àñ:gyà (Satank), Ǥûib̶à:gàui (Lone Wolf the Elder) and Set:t’aiñde (Satanta), led the Kiowas in the first attack. By afternoon Carson called for retreat, burning a Kiowa village to escape, an act which killed multiple elderly Kiowa people not involved in the battle. The next day he retreated fully to New Mexico. The battle left the Comanche and Kiowa unchallenged in their control of the Texas Panhandle for the next 8 years. It would mark the largest battle against Native people during the American Civil War and would be the last time the Comanche and Kiowa forced American troops to retreat from a battlefield.