DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the voice that carries it down the road. September 1871. Col.
Ranald S. Mackenzie and the 4th U.S. Cavalry receive permission to lead an expedition out of Fort Griffin, over in Shackelford County.
Their orders: ride out and engage Comanche who had refused to move to their designated reservation at Fort Sill, in Oklahoma territory. Now, that sounds straightforward enough. It was not.
Soon after midnight on October 11, 1871, the Comanche made their move first. Mackenzie's troops were camped on the Freshwater Fork of the Brazos River — the stretch now called the White River — near the mouth of Blanco Canyon. And in the dark, numerous warriors slipped into that camp.
Not to attack headlong. To delay. To scatter.
To take. The Comanche stampeded the camp, sending horses in every direction, taking dozens of them with them when they left. A chase ensued.
Col. Mackenzie, Lieutenant Robert G. Carter, and a small contingent of soldiers followed.
More than forty miles of pursuit across that country. Two Comanche were killed. Private Leander Gregg was killed.
Lt. Carter's leg was crushed when his horse slipped beneath him. And Col.
Mackenzie himself was shot in the leg on the ride back to Blanco Canyon. The army's pursuit ended, and the wounded and sick retreated back to their post on November 5th. Now, Carter was the kind of man who kept a pocket diary even in the middle of all that.
He went on to write books and articles about his exploits in the Civil War and the Indian wars. And in 1900 — nearly thirty years after that night on the Freshwater Fork — he received the Medal of Honor for what the citation called most distinguished gallantry in what had come to be known as the Battle of Blanco Canyon. Col.
Mackenzie's command, all told, marched more than five hundred miles on that expedition before returning to their posts. Five hundred miles. And here's the weight the marker wants you to carry with you: this engagement marked the initial contact between Col.
Mackenzie and the U.S. Army and Quanah Parker and the Quahadi Comanche. What began at a riverside camp in the dark of an October night would not end here.
The marker calls it plainly — the beginning of the end of Comanche dominance in the Panhandle, concluding with the Red River War of 1874. Some nights on the trail, the thing that shapes everything that follows happens before dawn, when most folks are still asleep.
What the marker says
In Sep. 1871, Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie and the 4th U.S. Cavalry received permission to lead an expedition from Fort Griffin (Shackelford County) and engage Comanche who had refused to move to their designated reservation at Fort Sill (Oklahoma territory). Soon after midnight on October 11, 1871, the Comanche surprised Col. Mackenzie’s U.S. Cavalry Troops as they camped on the Freshwater Fork of the Brazos River (now White River). The camp near the mouth of Blanco Canyon was infiltrated by numerous warriors with the goal of delaying the army’s advance into the Texas panhandle. After the Comanche stampeded the camp, scattering and taking dozens of horses, a chase ensued. Col. Mackenzie, Lt. Robert G. Carter and a small contingent of soldiers followed the Comanche. During a pursuit of more than forty miles, two Comanche and Pvt. Leander Gregg were killed, Lt. Carter’s leg was crushed when his horse slipped, and Col. Mackenzie was shot in the leg when returning to Blanco Canyon. The army’s pursuit ended soon after the wounded and sick retreated back to the post on Nov. 5th. Carter, who kept a pocket diary of the expedition, wrote books and articles about his exploits in the Civil War and Indian wars. In 1900 he received the Medal of Honor for “most distinguished gallantry” in what had become known as the Battle of Blanco Canyon. Col. Mackenzie’s command marched more than 500 miles on the expedition before returning to their posts. This marked the initial contact between Quanah Parker and the Quahadi Comanche and Col. Mackenzie and the U.S. Army, and the beginning of the end of Comanche dominance in the Panhandle, concluding with the Red River War of 1874. (2015)