Site of Lyman's Wagon Train Batttle
Canadian, Hemphill County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(2.5 miles south, 1.7 miles east) During the U.S. Army campaigns in 1874 against marauding Indians, Captain Wyllys Lyman led a wagon train to Camp Supply, Okla., for rations for Gen. Nelson A. Miles' troops on duty in Texas. On the way, Indians attacked, and the longest Indian battle in Panhandle history ensued. Fighting from a wagon corral Sept. 9 to 14, Lyman and 95 soldiers held off about 400 Comanche and Kiowa Indians. A scout escaped and reached Camp Supply for help. Company K, 6th Cavalry, traveled 80 miles without rest in a raging rainstorm to aid the wagon train. On its arrival, the Indians fled. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In September 1874, during the U.S. Army's Red River campaign against the Southern Plains tribes, Captain Wyllys Lyman's supply wagon train was besieged in the Texas Panhandle. Fighting from a wagon corral, Lyman and 95 soldiers held off some 400 Comanche and Kiowa warriors for five days in what became the longest Indian battle in Panhandle history. A scout slipped away to Camp Supply, and cavalry rode 80 miles through a rainstorm to break the siege.
Why it matters
This siege was a pivotal moment in the Red River War, the campaign that ended free life on the Southern Plains and opened the Panhandle to Anglo settlement.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By the early 1870s, the Southern Plains were in crisis. Commercial buffalo hunters armed with powerful rifles were destroying the great bison herds, which the Comanche, Kiowa and their allies depended on for food, shelter and their whole way of life. Earlier treaties had promised the tribes hunting grounds, but those promises were failing as the herds disappeared.
In 1874, the anger exploded. After warriors attacked buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls in the Texas Panhandle that summer, the U.S. Army launched a major campaign to force the Southern Plains tribes onto reservations in Indian Territory, in what is now Oklahoma. That campaign became known as the Red River War.
Several Army columns converged on the Panhandle from different directions. One, led by Colonel Nelson A. Miles, moved down from the north. Supplying troops in that vast, roadless country was a constant struggle, and the wagon trains that carried their rations were tempting and vulnerable targets.
People & events
In September 1874, Captain Wyllys Lyman was leading a wagon train between Miles's troops in Texas and Camp Supply in Indian Territory, hauling the rations the soldiers needed to keep fighting. On the open plains of the Panhandle, a large force of Comanche and Kiowa warriors attacked it.
Lyman's answer was the classic frontier defense. He circled the wagons into a corral and made a stand. From September 9 to 14, Lyman and 95 soldiers held off about 400 attackers, and the fight became the longest Indian battle in Panhandle history. For days the men were pinned down, short of water and help, with no idea whether anyone knew they were there.
During the siege, a scout managed to slip away and reach Camp Supply. Company K of the 6th Cavalry set out in response and rode about 80 miles without rest through a raging rainstorm. When the relief force arrived, the warriors withdrew, and the siege was over.
Its place in the American story
The siege of Lyman's wagon train was one episode in the Red River War, the campaign that ended the free life of the Comanche, Kiowa and other Southern Plains peoples. By the following year, the last holdouts had surrendered and moved onto reservations, closing one of the most important chapters in the history of the American West.
This fight shows how much the war depended on supply. The Army's columns could only stay in the field if wagon trains could reach them, and the tribes knew that cutting those lines was one of their best chances. Lyman's stand kept the campaign supplied, and keeping the campaign supplied helped decide the war.
It is also worth remembering what the war meant for the people on the other side. For the Comanche and Kiowa, it was the last armed defense of a homeland and a way of life already being destroyed by the slaughter of the buffalo. The end of the war opened the Panhandle to ranchers and settlers, and it marked a profound loss for the people who had lived there for generations.
If you visit
The marker stands in the area of Canadian, in Hemphill County, and the battle site itself lies a few miles away, to the south and east. Take time to look out at the surrounding country. The wide horizons, rolling grasslands and broken creek country make it easy to understand how a wagon train could be spotted from far off, and how isolated its defenders must have felt.
Canadian is a handsome Panhandle town on the Canadian River, with historic buildings and a strong sense of its ranching past. It makes a good base for exploring the northeastern Panhandle.
If you're following the story of the Red River War, this site fits naturally into a wider road trip across the Panhandle, including Palo Duro Canyon, where one of the war's decisive actions took place, and the history museums in the region. Together they tell the full, complicated story of how this country changed in a single, violent year.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Wyllys Lyman
- · Nelson A. Miles
Related events
- · Red River War
- · Lyman's Wagon Train siege
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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