The Battles of Adobe Walls (1864 and 1874) get their names from a trading post established in the north side of the Canadian River in present-day Hutchinson County, Texas, in 1840 Bent, St. Vrain and Company to attract the trade of the Kiowas and Comanches. Unable to make a profit, William Bent and his partner abandoned Adobe Walls by 1943.
———The First battle of Adobe Walls (November, 25, 1864) was fought amid the crumbling ruins of Bent's isolated outpost. Earlier that year, General James H. Carleton, commander of the Department of New Mexico, determined to punish hostile Plains tribes. After subduing the Navajos, Carleton ordered Colonel Christopher (Kit) Carson to attack Kiowa and Comanche camps along the Canadian River near the Texas border. Carson's force of 335 soldiers, including 72 additional Utes and Jicarilla Apaches, initiated the battle by ambushing a Kiowa village. The startled warriors fled, regrouped near the abandoned trading post, and counterattacked. An overconfident Carson blindly pursued the Kiowas, failing to realize that the gravity of the situation. Carson sought shelter in the ruins of Adobe Walls. The contingent from Fort Bascom, New Mexico, escaped certain death by retreating, thanks to two massive howitzers Carson employed to confuse his attackers. Carson claimed victory, but the First Battle of Adobe Walls was actually a draw. The battle did, however, succeed in reducing the frequency of Indian raids along the Santa Fe trail.
———The Second Battle of Adobe Walls (June 27, 1874) took place at a new trading post, also called Adobe Walls, located one mile south of the original post. By the summer that year the post had become the center of buffalo hunting in Texas. Embittered Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Comanches cautiously watched as hide hunters from Dodge City, Kansas, slowly inched their way toward tribal hunting grounds. The tribes recognized that something had to be done to drive out the invaders, whose activities threatened to decimate the dwindling bison herds.
———During a Sun Dance held in the spring of 1874, Quanah Parker, the war leader of the Kwahadi Comanches, urged the Indians to join forces and drive out the invaders. A short time later Parker, together with Lone Wolf (Kiowa), Woman's Heart (Kiowa), Big Bow (Comanche), Stone Wolf (Cheyenne), and White Shield (Cheyenne), agreed to attack Adobe Walls, the southernmost of the buffalo hunters' camps. Just before sunrise on June 27, 1874, Parker led the charge against the isolated outpost. During the daylong engagement, the hunters used their long-barreled buffalo guns to pick off charging warriors at long range with deadly accuracy. The Indians attacked the post throughout the day, but they failed to capture Adobe Walls. The Pan-Indian effort to prevent the wanton slaughter of the buffalo and drive the encroachers from the region had failed.

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