Battle of Yellow House Canyon

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Yellow House Canyon
partof=Buffalo Hunters' War
date=March 18, 1877
place=present-day Lubbock, Texas
result=inconclusive
combatant2=Comanche, Apache
combatant1=Texan buffalo hunters
commander2=Black Horse
commander1=Jim Smith
strength2=300 [http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/112707/lif_112707026.shtml LubbockOnline.com - In 1877, Mackenzie Park was site of deadly battle 11/27/07 ] ]
strength1=44
casualties2=31 killed, 22 wounded
casualties1=1 killed, 3 wounded

The Battle of Yellow House Canyon was a battle between a group of Quahadi Comanche and Apaches and a group of Texas settlers that occurred on March 18, 1877, near the site of the present-day city of Lubbock. It was the final battle of the Buffalo Hunters' War, and was the last fight between Texans and hostile natives on the High Plains of Texas [http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/YY/qfy1.html Handbook of Texas Online - YELLOW HOUSE CANYON, BATTLE OF ] ] .

Background

In December of 1876 a group of Comanche under Black Horse received a permit, through the Indian agent at Fort Sill, that allowed them to hunt in Texas. But Black Horse had other interests in mind; he was angry that overhunting by settlers had radically thinned herds of buffalo, and planned to camp in Yellow House Canyon and attack whatever hunters he saw. Earlier in the winter of 1876, a buffalo hunter named Marshall Sewell had, along with a group of skinners, set up camp below the Caprock in Garza County, near the head of the Salt Fork of the Brazos River. On February 1, 1877, Sewell discovered a herd of buffalo, and after setting up station, picked the animals off one by one with his rifle before running out of ammunition. Black Horse witnessed this, and with his warriors surrounded the hunter on his way back to camp. They murdered and double-scalped him before cutting open his stomach and placing pieces of his rifle tripod in the wounds; later accounts of the murder scene suggest that he may also have been tortured. The action was witnessed by the three skinners that had accompanied Sewell and by another hunter, all of whom were close to a mile away. They hurried to Rath City, the nearest settlement of any size, to report the murder.

Sewell appears to have been popular among local buffalo hunters, and as a result reaction came quickly; about forty men rode to the site of the murder and buried the Hunter, after which they picked up the Comanches' trail. The two parties met in a brief skirmish, in which a half-breed hunter named Spotted Jack was wounded by the Texans, who then returned to Rath City. Black Horse took close to 170 warriors, among whom was captive Herman Lehmann, and began plundering hunters' camps in the region. Among those targeted were Pat Garrett and Willis Glenn. Needless to say, the affair caused great consternation among buffalo hunters, and they demanded that action be taken.

Battle

Prelude to the battle

A group of forty-six men set out from Rath City on March 4, with the express purpose of finding Black Horse and his men. Jim White was elected captain; a former Comanchero from New Mexico, named José, acted as guide. Twenty-six of the men rode horses; the others came by wagon. Two nights into the journey White began to suffer from bleeding in his lungs, and he was required to turn back to Rath City; one of his lieutenants, Jim Smith, was elevated to captain. The band found the site where Sewell had been captured and there picked up the Indians' trail, following it westward to just northwest of the present-day city of Post; here the guide predicted that Black Horse and his Comanches would be found in Yellow House Canyon. This they did, entering the canyon at the site of Buffalo Springs Lake, where they killed a Comanche sentry. Scouts sighted the Indians' camp later that same day, and the band began an overnight march to reach it, in the process leaving provisions and wagons at the spring.

Battle

The Texans reached the canyon fork, today in Mackenzie State Recreation Area, sometime in the early hours of March 18; for a time they mistakenly followed the north fork before turning south. Moving west, they found the Comanche camp in Hidden Canyon, a site now marked by Lubbock Lake. By this time much of the day was gone, but the buffalo hunters nevertheless decided to mount an attack. They divided themselves into three groups, two mounted and one not; the mounted men went to the sides of the canyon, on the plain, while the hunters on foot followed the creek in the center. When they were within shooting distance, a charge was ordered. This frightened the Comanches for a moment, and they started for their horses before discovering how small was the force attacking them. Consequently, they rallied - women ran towards the horsemen discharging pistols, while the warriors set up a defensive position. The spirited defense surprised the Texans, who withdrew. One Joe Jackson was shot in the abdomen; some two months later the wound proved fatal, rendering him the only fatality on the Texans' side. Several others, including the guide, were wounded, as were a number of Indians; most notably among the latter, Herman Lehmann was shot in the thigh. His companion was killed.

At one point during the fighting, a group of hunters including John R. Cook managed to repulse a flanking movement from the Comanche; even so, the outnumbered Texans were forced to withdraw down the canyon. The Indians set a grass fire, using it to create a smokescreen. At mid-afternoon a retreat was ordered, and the hunters set out towards Buffalo Springs. The Comanche band trailed them briefly before breaking off. The Texans used a bonfire as a decoy before pulling out altogether during the night; they set fires behind them to obscure their tracks. They finally returned to Rath City on March 27.

Aftermath

Although the battle itself was a failure, it marked the beginning of the end of the war. Word of the fight soon reached Fort Griffin, and Captain P. L. Lee responded by going after the Comanches with seventy-two troopers of the Tenth Cavalry. At Lubbock Lake they turned north; on May 4 they overtook the Indians at Quemodo Lake in Cochran County. A brief skirmish erupted, in which one Ekawakane and his wife were killed. The remaining Comanche surrendered and returned to Fort Sill.

Several accounts of the battle exist, told from different points of view. Two of the Texan participants, John Cook and Willis Glenn, left descriptions of the action in their memoirs. Herman Lehmann, too, gave an account of the affair in his autobiography, telling it from the Indian point of view.

The site of the battle is today located in the Canyon Lake Project in Lubbock. Monuments mark a number of sites within the area that are associated with the battle.

Notes and references