On December 15, 1876, a band of Kwahadi Comanche, under the war chief, Black Horse, left the Fort Sill reservation to hunt buffalo on the staked plains. Black Horse's party soon began making war on any white hunters they found on the trail, stealing horses from Skelton Glenn and Pat Garrett, and killing and scalping Marshall Sewell. Garrett later earned notoriety as the killer of Billy the Kid. (Photo- Black Horse - Fort Marion, Florida)
White revenge followed quickly as a group of forty-six hunters operating out of Rath City, Texas tracked the Comanche raiding party to Yellow House Canyon. The ensuing battle, fueled by a barrel of whiskey, lasted all day before the hunters retreated to nearby Buffalo Spring. One hunter and thirty-five Comanche died during the fight. The battle and ensuing engagements were know as The Staked Plains War or The Buffalo Hunters' War.
In early May, the Tenth Cavalry buffalo soldiers, under Captain P.L. Lee overtook the Black Horse's band near Quemado Lake in Cochran County and returned them to the Fort Sill reservation thus ending the last Comanche raid into Texas.
Herman Lehmann, a notable white captive, who later authored a book about his captivity, Nine Years Among the Indians, was wounded during the battle.
The Comanche leader, Black Horse, died at Cache, Oklahoma around 1900.
White revenge followed quickly as a group of forty-six hunters operating out of Rath City, Texas tracked the Comanche raiding party to Yellow House Canyon. The ensuing battle, fueled by a barrel of whiskey, lasted all day before the hunters retreated to nearby Buffalo Spring. One hunter and thirty-five Comanche died during the fight. The battle and ensuing engagements were know as The Staked Plains War or The Buffalo Hunters' War.
In early May, the Tenth Cavalry buffalo soldiers, under Captain P.L. Lee overtook the Black Horse's band near Quemado Lake in Cochran County and returned them to the Fort Sill reservation thus ending the last Comanche raid into Texas.
Herman Lehmann, a notable white captive, who later authored a book about his captivity, Nine Years Among the Indians, was wounded during the battle.
The Comanche leader, Black Horse, died at Cache, Oklahoma around 1900.
Mike Kearby's Texas copyright 2010
