Route of Nolan Expedition
Meadow, Terry County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Army and civilian effort in 1877 to halt raiding of Chief "Old Black Horses" Comanches. In group were 60 Negro troops of Co. A, 10th U.S. Cavalry, and 22 buffalo hunters known as "The Forlorn Hope". Troops departed Fort Concho in early July, led by Capt. Nicholas Nolan. Eluded by Indians and finding water holes dry, on July 7 men were thirst-crazed. By drinking horse blood and urine, soldiers lived 86 parched hours; finally reached old supply base. Hunters left group; found water alone. All but 4 soldiers survived this heroic test of endurance. (1972)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In July 1877, Captain Nicholas Nolan led some sixty Buffalo Soldiers of Company A, 10th U.S. Cavalry—joined by 22 buffalo hunters who called themselves 'The Forlorn Hope'—onto the parched Llano Estacado in pursuit of Comanche raiders. Eluded by their quarry and finding the water holes dry, the men went 86 hours without water, surviving by drinking the blood and urine of their horses before staggering back to a supply base. All but four soldiers lived through the ordeal.
Why it matters
The all-Black regiments known as Buffalo Soldiers bore much of the hardest, least-thanked duty on the western frontier, and their endurance here became a byword for grit.
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Related people
- · Nicholas Nolan
Related events
- · Nolan Expedition of 1877
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Buffalo Soldier Tragedy of 1877
Morton, TX
In the summer of 1877, troopers of Company A, 10th Cavalry—the African American Buffalo Soldiers who helped guard the Texas frontier—set out from their posts to pursue a Comanche party across the arid Llano Estacado. The Comanches drew the column away from every water hole, and after days in the heat Capt. Nicholas Nolan led his parched men and animals back toward Double Lakes, having gone 86 hours without water. Four soldiers who wandered off in a desperate search for water never came back.
Buffalo Soldier Tragedy of 1877 in Lynn County
Tahoka, TX
After the Civil War, African American "Buffalo Soldiers" patrolled the western frontier, and in July 1877 Company A of the 10th Cavalry set out from Double Lake in pursuit of a Comanche party. The Comanche drew the troopers away from water, and the soldiers endured extreme heat and 86 hours without water; horses and mules died and men became lost searching for springs. Four soldiers died on the expedition, including Pvt. John T. Gordon, buried at Double Lakes.
Site of Mackenzie Cavalry Camp
Wilson, TX
On December 4, 1874, Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie and two companies of the U.S. 4th Cavalry were caught by a brutal snowstorm at this spot on the Llano Estacado. With no wood, water, or grass, the troopers spent what they called the most miserable night of their Southwestern service, and several horses froze to death. Mackenzie was scouting for scattered bands during the closing weeks of the 1874 campaign to force the Southern Plains tribes onto reservations.
Cedar Lake
Loop, TX
Known also as Laguna Sabinas, this largest of the plains' alkali lakes was long an Indian camp and burial ground, and by tradition the birthplace of the great Comanche leader Quanah Parker. In October 1875 it was the scene of a skirmish between Native fighters and U.S. Cavalry under Lieutenant John L. Bullis, one of the closing clashes as the Comanche were driven from the Llano Estacado. Water, refuge, and memory converged at this remote West Texas lake.