DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and Duane's not about to soften a word of it. November 25, 1865. Out here on the Texas Panhandle, fifteen miles to the east, at the ruins of Bent's Old Fort on the Canadian River, two forces came together in what the record calls the largest Indian battle of the Civil War.
On one side: three thousand Comanches and Kiowas, allies of the South. On the other: three hundred and seventy-two Federal soldiers under Colonel Kit Carson — famous scout, famous mountain man, a figure already legend before this day was done. Now, Carson fought what was called a brilliant defense.
His commanders — or at least the ones doing the recording — called it the greatest fight of his career. And by the standards of a military man, that is no small thing to have said about you. But here is the part that tends to get left out of the campfire version: the Indians won.
Carson's brilliance held his men together, no question. But three thousand against three hundred and seventy-two is a weight that brilliance alone cannot fully balance, and when the smoke cleared on the Canadian, the Comanches and Kiowas held the field. Now the marker doesn't let the story end there, and neither will I.
Some of those same warriors — some of those very same fighters who carried the day in 1865 — came back to this country in 1874. Same ground, different fight. This time they faced buffalo hunters.
Twenty-nine of them. And the Indians numbered seven hundred. Seven hundred to twenty-nine.
You'd think that story writes itself the same way the first one did. It didn't. The buffalo hunters held.
They won. And that victory, the marker tells us, helped open the Panhandle to settlement. Two battles.
Same stretch of country. Same cast of nations, near enough. First time, the weight of numbers decided it.
Second time, it didn't. History has a way of refusing to repeat itself cleanly — and out here on the Canadian, it did that twice.
What the marker says
(November 25, 1865) Largest Indian battle in Civil War. 15 miles east, at ruins of Bent's Old Fort, on the Canadian. 3,000 Comanches and Kiowas, allies of the South, met 372 Federals under Col. Kit Carson, famous scout and mountain man. Though Carson made a brilliant defense - called greatest fight of his career - the Indians won. Some of the same Indians lost in 1874 Battle of Adobe Walls, though they outnumbered 700 to 29 the buffalo hunters whose victory helped open the Panhandle to settlement. (1965)