July 20, 1847; Ford, Kansas: Lt. Col. Alton R. Easton, with three infantry companies and one company of cavalry (Missouri Mounted Volunteers), set out from Council Grove on 5 July escorting thirty-three wagons and teamsters, 200 mules, 100 horses, 600 loose cattle, and 30 mounted herdsmen to Fort Mann. The party was bringing oxen to Capt. Charles Hayden's wagon train, to replace those stolen in a raid on 26 June. On 20 July the company stopped to camp along the Arkansas River about twenty-five miles downstream of Fort Mann, approximately seven miles east of present-day Ford, Kansas.
While camped, about twenty-five to fifty greenhorn infantrymen went to gather wood from a grove of cottonwoods on the opposite bank of the river, unwisely leaving their weapons behind. Suddenly, the same Comanches who had attacked Hayden's train appeared at the edge of the sand dunes near the river and ambushed the unarmed soldiers. The Indians killed eight soldiers and wounded four others before anyone was able to come to their aid. The Comanches lost one warrior. The Indians scalped four of the dead soldiers and buried all the bodies in a mass grave.
Easton arrived at Fort Mann on 23 July, where he resupplied Hayden's thirty-wagon train with oxen, enabling Hayden to continue his journey to Santa Fe. Easton himself departed Fort Mann on 26 July and arrived in Santa Fe on 22 August.
