The Junior Historian, Volume 8, Number 4, January 1948 Page: 3
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THE JUNIOR HISTORIAN
main adobe buildings. At the time Billy
was standing by his wagon in front of
the blacksmith shop. When he first dis-
covered the Indians, he immediately
ran to I anrahan's saloon but found the
door already closed. He pounded on it
and called to the men inside to let him
in. Dixon said it "seemed an age" be-
fore they let him in. When the door
was finally opened for Dixon, Billy
()Cg, who had gone after the horses,
ran up and fell inside. Dixon said about
Ogg's run, "I am confident that if Billy
had been timed, his would have been
forever the world's record. Billy had
made a desperate race; that he should
escape seemed incredible."
The number of Indians in the fight
was estimated at around seven or eight
hundred. The Comanches were led by
their noble and efficient chief, Quanah
I'arker, son of a white woman captured
in a raid down in Texas. The Kiowas
were led by chief Lone Wolf, and the
Cheyennes, by Stone Calf and White
Shield.
The Shadler brothers, who were
freighters, were killed at the start of
the fight. They had gone back to bed
after the ridgepole was fixed, since
they were not going on the buffalo hunt,
and were not aroused in time to get
inside one of the buildings. Although
they did get in some fighting, they
were quickly killed. According to re-
ports, they left several dead Indians
around them.
The third man killed at Adobe Walls
(luring the fight was Billy Tyler, who
was shot through the lungs when he
and Harry Armitage went out in the
horse stockade. These three gallant
men, killed in the battle of Adobe
Walls, were buried in the broad, beauti-
ful, but then blood-stained, battle-
scarred meadow, and they remain there
to this (day.
All morning the Indians came in
with their horses at dead run. They
came so close at first that they hit the
(loors with the stocks of their rifles.The Indians suffered heavy losses as
they ca ne in, however; and, by tw,.
o'clock in the afternoon, they ceased
their wild reckless charging and with-
drew to a distance, firing long shots
at intervals. Late in the afternoon some
of the white men ventured out without
being s hot at. The night of June 27
passed, very uneasily for the twenty-
five mern at Adobe Walls.
On the second day a group of fifteen
or twenty Cheyennes appeared on a
high mesa overlooking the post. This
incident formed the setting for Billy
Dixon's famous shot. Using a Sharp's
"big 50" buffalo gun, Dixon, inside the
stockade seven-eighths of a mile away,
shot an Indian off his horse.
On the afternoon of the second day
of the light, a German by the name of
Thomas Bellfield, who owned a big
hunting and freighting outfit, came in
to the Walls from down toward the
river. Bellfield saw the black banner
flying from one of the buildings and
saw that everyone was closed up inside;
so he thought that "them fellows wuz
playin' some trick on him." When he
got in closer and began to see the
numercus dead horses, his expression
changed immediately. His manner of
handling his whip changed likewise.
Fle came in at a dead run. When asked
if he had been attacked by the Indians,
Bellfield replied that he had not seen
a sign of one. That night it was decided
that someone should go to Dodge City
for help. Henry Lease volunteered to
go, and Bellfield furnished the horse.
Lease crawled on his knees and led his
horse on the end of a forty-foot rope
until lie got outside the danger zone.
There was not a man in the whole outfit
who believed that Lease would ever get
through, but he did. On the same night
two men were dispatched to the differ-
ent camps in the vicinity to let the
hunters know of the attack. The men
were to bring back the news in case the
hunters had been killed. They made
their round safely. After they got3
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Texas State Historical Association. The Junior Historian, Volume 8, Number 4, January 1948, periodical, January 1948; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth391365/m1/5/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Texas State Historical Association.