How can we help?

You can also find more resources in our Help Center.

22 terms

Battle and Conflicts

Battle Creek Fight
Creeks fight over sacred land, home of expanded casinos..: The continued disagreement over the sacred land in Wetumpka known as Hickory Ground continues between the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, who operate a casino there, and the Muscogee Creeks, whose ancestors lived there and were buried there
First Battle of Adobe Walls
Comanches and Kiowas raided wagon trains. 300 troops set up cannons at Adobe Walls and abandoned trading post. They destroyed the Kiowas winter supplies and the Native Americans had to sign a peace treaty
Second Battle of Adobe Walls
battle between buffalo hunters and Kiowas and Comanches in which the Native Americans were led by Quanah Parker. Long- range rifles helped buffalo hunters win this battle.
Battle of Blanco Canyon
In the afternoon of October 9, 1871, the cavalry force reached the White River and Blanco Canyon. Late that evening Quanah Parker personally led a small Comanche force which stampeded through the cavalry camp, driving off sixty-six horses. The next morning, a unit of cavalry set off down the canyon in pursuit of Indians who were seen driving what appeared to be stolen cavalry horses. As the pursuing cavalry reached the top of a hill on the top of the canyon, they found a much larger party of Indians, who were waiting in ambush. The cavalry fought their way clear, but suffered the loss of one cavalryman, the sole Army fatality of the entire campaign. Lt. Robert Goldthwaite Carter and a detail of five men mounted a rear guard action against the Comanches, and the remainder of the unit retreated. This action won Lt. Carter the Medal of Honor.[1]

Mackenzie's main column and the Tonkawa scouts, hearing the gunfire, advanced and probably saved the detachment from slaughter, as more Comanche had managed to surround the retreating unit. With the arrival of the main cavalry column, Quanah Parker and his warriors retreated. The Comanches fought their way up the walls of Blanco Canyon, sniping at the oncoming troopers and taunting their Tonkawa enemies before disappearing from the Army's sight as they went over the Caprock Escarpment, and onto the Llano Estacado
Battle of Golaid
Goliad Massacre
(27 March 1836)
As part of the Mexican invasion of Texas in early 1836, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and his main force of at least 5000 men followed an inland route toward San Antonio. At the same time, Mexican General Jose Urrea with some 900 troops, left Matamoros and followed a coastal route into Texas.
The first town approached by Urrea was San Patricio, where on February 27 he encountered Frank Johnson and about 50 Texans. Johnson and four of his men escaped, but the rest were either killed or captured. A few days later, the Mexicans also fell upon James Grant and another 50 men, and all but one of the Texans were killed.
Citizens of Refugio, the next town in Urrea's path, were slow to evacuate. To provide assistance, James W. Fannin, commander of forces at Goliad, sent two relief forces. The first of these groups numbered about 30 men under Aaron King, followed by a larger group of some 150 men under William Ward. Like Johnson's force, both of these groups were eventually killed or captured by the Mexicans.
Meanwhile back in Goliad, Fannin and his remaining force of about 350 were called on to aid William Barrett Travis and the Alamo defenders. Afterwards, he was also ordered by Sam Houston to retreat with back to Victoria. Due to indecision and carelessness by Fannin, however, he failed to accomplish either of these missions.
After a delay of about five days following Houston's order, Fannin finally began his retreat. It was not long, however, before the Texans found themselves surrounded on open prairie. Several attacks by Urrea resulted each time in the Mexicans being repulsed by the deadly fire of the Texans. By dusk, the Texans had lost about sixty men killed or wounded against some 200 of the Mexicans.
Still heavily outnumbered and with no water and few supplies, the Texans waved the white flag of truce the following morning. Believing that they would be taken captive and eventually returned to their homes, the Texans surrendered the morning of March 20. The were escorted back to Goliad as prisoners.
When news of their capture reached Santa Anna, however, he was furious that the Texans had not been executed on the spot. Citing a recently passed law that all foreigners taken under arms would be treated as pirates and executed, Santa Anna sent orders to execute the Goliad prisoners.
Santa Anna's orders were followed. On Palm Sunday, the 27th of March, the prisoners were divided into three groups, marched onto open prairie, and shot. Thus, all of Fannin's command except a few that managed to escape and several physicians and others deemed useful by the Mexicans, were massacred, collected into piles, and burned.
Like the defenders at the Battle of the Alamo who died only three weeks earlier, the men of Goliad served as martyrs for the remaining forces in Houston's army. Three weeks later, the Texans sought their revenge. Inspired by cries of "Remember Goliad" and "Remember the Alamo," the outnumbered Texans won one of history's most decisive victories at the Battle of San Jacinto.
Battle of the North Fork of the Red River
September, 1872 decisive battle ld by Mackenzie against Quahadi and Kotsoteka Comanche on North Fork of Red River; winter camp and all supplies in village of 262 lodges destroyed; many captives taken which in turn were then traded to Indians for white captives.
Battle of Palo Duro Canyon
Mackenzie defeated the Comanche here by destroying their villages, horses, and supplies
Battle of Pease River
Attack on a Comanche camp by Sul Ross's Texas Rangers and members of the Second Calvary. Ended with the Death of Peta Nocona and capture of Cynthia Ann Parker, Quanah's parents.
Battle of Plum Creek
was a clash between militia and Rangers of the Republic of Texas and a huge Comanche war party under Chief Buffalo Hump, which took place near Lockhart, Texas on August 12, 1840, following the Great Raid of 1840 as the Comanche war party returned back to West Texas.
Battle of the Neches
Battle that broke out in 1839 between Texans and the Cherokee after President Mirabeau B. Lamar ordered the Cherokee out of Texas, Battle that killed more than 100 Cherokee, including Chief Bowles.
Battle of San Jacinto
Battle of Walker's Creek
The Battle of Walker's Creek was a turning point in the struggle between the Indians and the Texas Rangers. Before Samuel Colt invented the Patterson "five-shooter" revolver, the Rangers were at a decided disadvantage against the Indians because their weapons were single-shot. While a Ranger was reloading, a well-trained Comanche could have five or six arrows in the air toward him. The Paterson revolver was first used in the pivotal battle of Walker's Creek on June 8, 1844. After this battle, warfare would never be the same. The Paterson revolver changed everything and the pendulum swung in favor of the Rangers.
Cherokee War
Conflict (1759-1761) on the southern frontier between cherokee indians and colonists from virginia southward. It caused south Carolina to request the aid of British troops and resulted in the surrender of more Indian land to white colonists
Council House Fight
battle in 1840 between Texans and the Comanche after the Comanche did not release all of their captives
Cordova Rebellion
The Córdova Rebellion, in 1839, was an uprising instigated in and around Nacogdoches, Texas. Alcalde Vicente Córdova and other leaders supported the Texas Revolution as long as it espoused a return to the Constitution of 1824, but after declaring independence they sought to forcefully oppose the new Texas Republic with help from the Cherokee.
Elm Creek Raid
ELM CREEK RAID. On October 13, 1864, in western Young County, several hundred Kiowa and Comanche Indians raided the Elm Creek valley northwest of Fort Belknap. Peter Harmonson and his son, after taking refuge in a thicket on nearby Rabbit Creek, shot and killed one of the Indian leaders. At the household of Elizabeth Ann FitzPatrick (see CLIFTON, ELIZABETH ANN), the Indians killed and scalped Mrs. FitzPatrick's daughter, Mildred Susanna Carter Durkin, and killed the son of Britt (Britton) Johnson, a black slave. Mrs. FitzPatrick, her son and two granddaughters, Mildred and Lottie, and Johnson's wife and children were taken captive. Farther upstream Dr. Thomas Wilson, Thomas Hamby, and his son Thornton K. Hamby, a Confederate soldier, rode to warn others in the area and then defended several families who had taken refuge in George Bragg's cabin. After charging the cabin several times, killing Wilson and wounding Bragg and Thomas Hamby, the Indians heard shots from a company of Confederate colonel James G. Bourland's Border Regiment and rode north with a herd of stolen cattle and horses. The company, under the command of a Second Lieutenant Carson, pursued the Indians but rode into an ambush, in which five soldiers were killed and several were wounded. Some sources claim that in March 1865 Britt Johnson went to live with the Comanches in order to find the captives and that he managed to pay a ransom and rescue his family and Mrs. FitzPatrick. Others regard Johnson's exploits as mere legend and credit friendly Comanches, namely Comanche chief Asa-Havey, with the rescue of Johnson's family in June 1865. Apparently, as a part of ongoing peace talks, Asa-Havey paid a ransom for the captives, rescued them, and took them to the Indian agent; eventually the family was delivered to Britt Johnson. United States troops rescued Mrs. FitzPatrick in November 1865.
Linville Raid of 1840
Parker Raid
Battle where Cynthia Ann Parker was held captive and one of the most famous events in the history of the American frontier. May 19, 1836 in Texas, near modern-day Dallas
Red River War
U.S military campaign created to rid the Southern plains of Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho in 1874
Salt Creek Massacre
Raid was led by Santata
San Saba Massacre
Lipan Apaches tricked the Spanish into building in Comanche territory as a buffer against them. The people in the mission were massacred by the Comanches.
Warren Wagon Train Raid
attack by the kiowa warriors against us army named a wagon train carrying supplies to fort Richardson.