Second Battle of Adobe Walls

Battle context

The Second Battle of Adobe Walls preceded the formal outbreak of the Red River War by weeks, serving as a direct catalyst for the U.S. Army campaign that would follow through the summer and fall of 1874. A force of approximately 700 Comanche warriors, led by a coalition of prominent leaders including Quanah Parker, Lone Wolf, and Satanta, attacked a small commercial hunting settlement in what is now Hutchinson County, Texas. The target was the buffalo hunting trade operating deep in Comanche territory, which threatened the ecological foundation of Plains life. That a force of this size failed to overrun a position held by 28 hunters hardened federal resolve and demonstrated to military planners that armed commercial encroachment on the southern plains had reached a crisis point requiring a coordinated military response. The engagement is generally treated as the opening action of the Red River War, after which the U.S. Army mounted the converging-column campaign that ultimately broke Comanche and Kiowa resistance and ended the independent existence of the southern Plains nations.