Indian Battlefield
Pampa, Gray County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In this vicinity Lieutenant Frank D. Baldwin, commanding two companies of United States troops, attacked a large band of Indians and rescued two white girl captives, November 8, 1874.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On November 8, 1874, at the height of the Red River War on the Texas Panhandle, Lieutenant Frank D. Baldwin led two companies of U.S. troops in an attack on a large Native encampment near this spot, freeing two young white girls held captive. The clash was one of many in the Army's campaign to force the Southern Plains nations onto reservations. Baldwin's actions here later earned him lasting recognition.
Why it matters
This ground witnessed a moment in the final struggle for the Southern Plains, when the U.S. Army's Red River War broke the free-roaming life of the Comanche, Kiowa, and their allies.
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Related people
- · Frank D. Baldwin
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Big Springs
Lefors, TX
For generations, the springs near this spot were a rare oasis on the Texas Panhandle plains, drawing Native peoples and, later, U.S. military expeditions. Captain Randolph B. Marcy camped here in 1852 while searching for the headwaters of the Red River, and the springs figured in the campaigns of Ranald S. MacKenzie and Nelson Miles. Archeology has confirmed that an 1874 clash between troops under Lt. Frank Baldwin and Cheyenne chief Grey Beard occurred nearby, during the Red River War that ended free Native life on the Southern Plains.
Rescue of Two White Girls by Lt. Frank Baldwin
Pampa, TX
On November 8, 1874, during the Red River War against the Southern Plains tribes, Lieutenant Frank D. Baldwin led two companies of U.S. troops in an attack on a large Cheyenne band about ten miles southwest of here, freeing two young girls held captive. The clash came amid the army's final campaign to force the Cheyenne, Comanche, and Kiowa onto reservations and open the Texas Panhandle to settlement.
Battle of North Fork of Red River
Lefors, TX
On September 29, 1872, Colonel Ranald MacKenzie's cavalry and infantry surprised a 262-tepee Comanche village here on the North Fork of the Red River, whose people had refused to be confined to reservations. The troops seized the village in about half an hour, though Chief Mow-Way's warriors fought fiercely from the creek banks — and that night the Comanches slipped back and recaptured their horse herd. The lesson MacKenzie drew shaped his decisive 1874 campaign against the Southern Plains tribes.
Site of Fort Elliott
Mobeetie, TX
Established in June 1875, Fort Elliott was among the last military posts built in Texas as the U.S. Army sought to force Indigenous peoples off the Panhandle plains. Around its walls sprang up Mobeetie, a rough rendezvous for buffalo hunters and traders, until the fort was abandoned in 1889 and the frontier era it enforced drew to a close.