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.
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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
Gen. Nelson Miles Expedition (Headquarters Dugout)
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In the winter of 1874–75, the U.S. Army swept the Texas Panhandle in the campaign now known as the Red River War, and General Nelson Miles ran part of it from a dugout post near here. His columns fought eight engagements that season and, in November 1874, recovered two of the captive German sisters, Addie and Julia, with their older sisters freed the following February. From this rough headquarters Miles nominated soldiers for the Medal of Honor, among them the celebrated scout Billy Dixon, before Fort Elliott rose in 1875 to carry on the work.
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