DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm going to give it to you straight. Somewhere around this mountain — right here in Irion County — on January 8, 1865, the ground itself had something to say. Two thousand Indians met Texas Rangers and State Troops in a battle that wrapped itself around this mountain like a storm that had nowhere else to go.
Leading those Rangers and State Troops were two captains: John Fossett and S. S. Totten.
Two men, two commands, one very long day. Now, I won't dress it up any fancier than the marker does, because the marker doesn't need dressing up. When the fighting was done — when January 8th finally let go of its grip — four officers and twenty-two of their men were dead.
And here's the part that sits with you: they're still out there. Nearby. Unmarked graves.
No headstones, no names carved in stone, nothing to tell a passing stranger who they were or what they did that day. Two thousand on one side. A pair of captains and their soldiers on the other.
And when it was over, twenty-six men went into the ground without so much as a marker to remember them by. Well. Now you know they were there.
What the marker says
Around this mountain a battle was fought on January 8, 1865 between 2000 Indians and Texas Rangers and State Troops commanded by Captains John Fossett and S. S. Totten. Four officers and 22 of their men lie in unmarked graves nearby.