DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do my best to do it justice. Now, the marker itself sits out here in Hemphill County, but the fight — the actual ground where it happened — that's two and a half miles south and another mile and seven tenths east of where you're standin'. Keep that in mind, because what happened out there deserves a proper address.
It was 1874, and the U.S. Army was running campaigns against marauding Indians across this region. Captain Wyllys Lyman had a job that sounded straightforward enough: lead a wagon train to Camp Supply, up in Oklahoma, pick up rations for General Nelson A.
Miles' troops on duty in Texas, and bring 'em back. Simple supply run. Except nothing about the Panhandle in 1874 was simple.
On the way, Indians attacked. And what followed wasn't a skirmish, wasn't a brief exchange of fire — what followed became the longest Indian battle in Panhandle history. Lyman and his 95 soldiers pulled those wagons into a corral and dug in.
From September the ninth to September the fourteenth, they held their position against roughly 400 Comanche and Kiowa warriors. Six days. Six days of fighting from inside that wagon corral, outnumbered better than four to one.
Now somewhere in all of that, a scout managed to slip out. Made it through, and reached Camp Supply with word of what was happening. Company K, Sixth Cavalry, answered.
They rode 80 miles — no rest, in a raging rainstorm — 80 miles straight through to reach that wagon train. And when they arrived, the Indians fled. Six days of holding on, and relief came riding hard through the rain.
That's the kind of story the ground remembers even when nobody's left to tell it.
What the marker says
(2.5 miles south, 1.7 miles east) During the U.S. Army campaigns in 1874 against marauding Indians, Captain Wyllys Lyman led a wagon train to Camp Supply, Okla., for rations for Gen. Nelson A. Miles' troops on duty in Texas. On the way, Indians attacked, and the longest Indian battle in Panhandle history ensued. Fighting from a wagon corral Sept. 9 to 14, Lyman and 95 soldiers held off about 400 Comanche and Kiowa Indians. A scout escaped and reached Camp Supply for help. Company K, 6th Cavalry, traveled 80 miles without rest in a raging rainstorm to aid the wagon train. On its arrival, the Indians fled. (1967)