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Between 1866 and 1870 the Southern Plains and Texas Panhandle areas were terrorised by raiding attacks of the Kiowa and Comanche Indians. The attacks were most numerous along the Red River. By 1874 the Army was frustrated in its attempts to put a stop to such raids and it was decided that a major offensive against the Red River hostiles was necessary. Under the strategic command of General William Tecumseh Sherman, columns were to converge from several directions on the Indians in the Texas Panhandle. It was believed that under constant pressure from the Army the hostiles would submit and return to their agencies.
In the field was Nelson A. Miles, colonel of the Fifth Infantry, with four companies of his own and eight troops of the Sixth Cavalry. Miles was to rendezvous at Fort Dodge, Kansas and to move southward into Indian Territory. Similarly a concentration of Eighth Cavalry under Major William Price started eastward down the Canadian River. Also, Colonel Ranald McKenzie and eight troops of the Fourth Cavalry were moved to Fort Concho.
On the eve of the offensive an attempt was made to separate the friendly from the hostile Indians. The friendlies were to be enrolled at the agencies with a constant guard placed over them. Almost all of the Arapahoes declared themselves as reservation Indians whereas almost all of the Comanches stayed away. After the rolls were closed a band of Comanche chiefs asked to sign on to the reservation but were refused. They then joined with a known Kiowa war faction under Lone Wolf and camped on the banks of the Washita River not far from Fort Sill. Alarmed at this move the army sent lieutenant Colonel John Davidson with four troops of the Tenth Cavalry to meet with the Indians. On August 22, 1874 Davidson entered the Indian camp and demanded that they lay down their arms and surrender as prisoners of war. The result was predictable. The Indians were incensed and a long range gun battle ensued that lasted for two days. Neither side suffered much damage but a large force of previously peaceful warriors now marked themselves as hostile.
By late August the line between hostile and friendly Indian was established. In the field were approximately 1,800 Cheyennes, 2,000 Comanches and 1,000 Kiowas. Among these people were about 1,200 fighting men. The Indians, however, found the weather conditions to be a major impediment before they even engaged the Army. Temperatures on the plains soared to 110 degrees and more. Water was hard to find. When it was come across, it was bitterly alkaline. To further complicate matters a locust plague of Biblical proportions swarmed over the Prairie. Of course, these harsh conditions affected the soldiers as well as the Indians. At one point, Miles’ men cut the veins in their arms to moisten their lips with their own blood.
On August 30th, Miles troops were marching towards the Staked Plains when some 200 Cheyenne warriors emerged from concealment at the base of a rocky formation and charged the soldier’s advance guard. For the next five hours a running battle ensued in which the troops drove the warrior force from one line of hills to another. With the aid of Gatling Guns and howitzers the soldier force managed to drive the Indians to the slopes of Tule Canyon. The Indians were driven beyond their own villages, which Miles subsequently destroyed. He left off the pursuit after chasing the Indians to the Staked Plains.
In early September the weather deteriorated into violent storms. Temperatures dropped, streams filled and the plains were turned to mud. Miles joined up with Major Price and his Eighth Cavalry and both slogged northwards in search of badly needed supplies. But when they reached their supply line they found that it had suffered it’s own Indian attack. On September 9th, about 250 warriors had swooped down on the supply train. For three days they besieged the wagons before being driven off by a torrential rain storm.
The combination of military pressure and terrible weather began to wear down the Indians. Slowly they began heading back to the reservations. The first to come in was Woman’s Heart of the Kiowas, with 35 warriors and their families. Among them was Satanta himself. The rest of the Kiowas and Comanches, however, held out. They moved southwest in search of the main Indian force. But, before they could reach them they were routed by McKenzie’s forces, who ran the Indians from their camp at Palo Duro Canyon. McKenzie burned their entire village and killed over 1,000 ponies.
In late October Miles similarly routed the Cheyenne camp of Grey Beard. The Cheyennes fled northwest and were chased by Captain Charles Hartwell, now in charge of the Eighth Cavalry. On November 29th Hartwell attacked a force of about fifty Cheyenne warriors. They chased them for 12 miles before losing them in the Palo Duro Canyon. Bad weather now turned to terrible weather and the army’s forces were forced to give up their chase.
In early 1875, the terrible weather conditions were proving too much for the hostiles. Late in February, about 500 Kiowas under Lone Wolf surrendered. By the end of that month many Cheyennes had joined them. On 6th March another 820 Cheyennes laid down their weapons and returned to the reservation. In fact, the mass surrenders of early 1875 put and end to the long bitter, winter campaign on the Red River. It was one of the few resounding triumphs that the Army could claim in it’s history of campaigns against the Indians of the Plains.
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