The Battle of the Lyman's Wagon Train was a five-day armed engagement between combined forces of the Comanche and Kiowa tribes and a wagon train, led by Captain Wyllys Lyman, on its way to Camp Supply in September 1874 near present-day Canadian, Texas. The engagement was the longest and one of the most publicized of the Red River War.
A 343 acres (139 ha) area of the battle site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 for its information potential as an archeological site. As an archeological resource, the National Register does not disclose the location of the site.
Tehan, a white member of the Kiowa who was imprisoned by the army, escaped in the event and returned to his Kiowa home.
A number of soldiers and scouts received U.S. medals of honor for the battle. Thirteen troops were awarded the Medal of Honor on recommendation by Colonel Nelson A. Miles.
On September 9, 1874, Captain Wyllys Lyman led a wagon train full of rations to Camp Supply in the Indian Territory for Col. Nelson A. Miles' troops when they were confronted by a group of Comanches and Kiowas. In the ensuing battle, Lyman and 95 troops formed a wagon corral and held off their adversaries, numbered at about 400, and a scout was dispatched to send word to Camp Supply.
Soon after, the Sixth Cavalry was sent without rest and during a rainstorm to aid the wagon train. Upon their arrival on September 14, the attackers fled.
At the end of the battle, 2 soldiers had been killed and 3 were injured while at least 13 warriors had been killed.
A marker was erected by the Texas State Historical Survey Committee in 1967 to commemorate the event, titled "Site of Lyman's Wagon Train Battle", and is located in Hemphill County, Texas.
Most of the conflict was fought near the Washita River. The site of the battle is located 10 miles East of State Highway 83 and 3 miles South of State Highway 33.
Big Bow, Big Tree, Guipago, Mamante, Satanta, and the nephew of Touhason, who is sometimes known as Touhason the Younger, were Kiowa leaders present at the battle. Touhason's sister's son, Agiati or "Gathering Feathers", inherited his name in 1864 and was also known as Touhason. Satanta's reported participation in the conflict likely contributed to his reincarceration at the state penitentiary at Huntsville for violation of his parole.
A number of soldiers and scouts received U.S. medals of honor for their gallantry in the battle including William De Armond, Billy Dixon, John Harrington, Fred S. Hay, John James, John J.H. Kelly, Thomas Kelly, George K. Kitchen, John W. Knox, William Koelpin, John Mitchell, William W. Morris, Frederick S. Neilon, Josiah Pennsyl, Peter Roth, Edward C. Sharpless, George W. Smith, and Zachariah T. Woodall. Thirteen troops were awarded the Medal of Honor on recommendation by Colonel Nelson A. Miles.
The frontier period of the American West (roughly 1865–1900) was defined by cattle drives, mining booms, railroad construction, and the violent suppression of Indigenous resistance. Texas longhorn cattle drives north along the Chisholm Trail to railheads in Kansas brought beef to eastern markets from the 1860s through the 1880s. Mining rushes to the Black Hills (1874), Colorado (1858–1859), and the Comstock Lode in Nevada attracted tens of thousands of prospectors and boom towns that rose and collapsed within years. The range wars between cattle ranchers and homesteaders, vigilante justice, and the careers of figures like Wyatt Earp, Jesse James, and Billy the Kid became mythologized in dime novels and later in film. The Dawes Act (1887) and the opening of Oklahoma Territory to homesteading (1889) completed the legal dismantling of Indigenous land tenure in the West. By 1890 the US Census declared the frontier effectively closed, and the era of open-range cattle drives ended with the introduction of barbed wire fencing across the plains.
This page covers Lyman's Wagon Train Fight — Red River War. A full Aubrey report for the area pulls together this battle alongside historic sites, land records, and everything else the record holds within a few miles:
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