History: End at Adobe Walls
The outgunned Indians departed a couple of days later and took out their frustration on innocent settlers across New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado and western Texas. Meanwhile, the coincidental comrades at Adobe Walls, including a dandy named Bat Masterson, went their separate ways.
Running low on hard cash two and a half months later, Dixon agreed to blaze a trail across the Panhandle for an army expedition. From a camp southeast of modern Pampa, he set out on Sept. 11 with fellow scout Amos Chapman and four troopers to deliver dispatches to a fort in the Indian Territory.
Shortly after sunrise the next morning, a war party of 125 Comanches and Kiowas came upon the tiny contingent a few miles south of the Washita River. Scanning the flat terrain for cover, the whites retreated to a depression called Buffalo Wallow, where passing bison frequently frolicked in the soft soil.
The Indians concentrated their fire on the horse tender killing him on the first pass. The animals scattered to the four winds with the entire supply of food and water.
The battle raged into the afternoon as wave after wave of warriors pressed the attack. Careful not to waste a single precious bullet, Dixon and his comrades held their own while sustaining at least one wound apiece.
Realizing their most effective weapon was thirst, the Indians patiently withdrew to allow nature to take its agonizing course. Sooner or later the whites would make a break for water, and that would be the end of them.
But nothing is more unpredictable than West Texas weather. Storm clouds appeared from out of nowhere and drenched the battlefield with a heavy downpour. In a matter of minutes, water was ankle-deep in the wallow, and the parched defenders drank their fill.
The lightly clothed Indians shivered in the cold rain. Deciding five sharp-shooting trespassers were not worth catching their death, the warriors moved on after dark in search of easier prey.
Without any means of transportation, Dixon and his men had no choice but to wait for rescue. They cleaned their wounds and tried not to think about food.
Seventy-two hungry hours later, help finally came. Except for the soldier slain while holding the horses, the rest had survived the harrowing ordeal.
For their trouble as well as their heroism, the five survivors were awarded the Medal of Honor. The nation’s most coveted combat citation was presented to Billy Dixon in a ceremony at Adobe Walls.
Dixon defied the odds dying in bed of pneumonia in 1913. He was later reburied at the site he made famous --Adobe Walls.
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