June 26, 1847; Garfield, Kansas: In June 1847, 1st Lt. John Love and Company B, First Dragoons, were ordered to escort the paymaster, Maj. Charles Bodine, from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory. Bodine's twelve-wagon train was carrying $350,000 in specie. At Pawnee Fork on 23 June, two more wagon trains joined Love's group for protection. One was government wagonmaster Capt. Charles Hayden's thirty-wagon train, and the other was a thirty-wagon train led by a man named Fagan.
Earlier that day, Indians had attacked Hayden and Fagan, wounding three or four of Fagan's men. A Mr. Smith, from Van Buren County, Missouri, was lanced seven times, but he managed to shoot and kill his attacker as he lay bleeding. The same Indians had also attacked another train, led by a Mr. Bell and Col. William H. Russell, and its fifteen-man guard from the California Battalion, commanded by Second Lieutenant Brown. The raiders had driven off and slaughtered 160 of that train's oxen. Love assured Bell and Russell that he would seek revenge.
On 24 June, the expanded party spent the day getting the wagons across the Pawnee River. The next day, Love ordered the trains to stay close together. Fagan was fine with that directive, but Hayden stubbornly rode ahead, forcing the others to travel until nightfall to catch up. Love camped next to the Arkansas River for better access to grass and water; the spot also appeared to be fairly safe from attack. Fagan's train camped in the rear. This campground, later known as Plain Encampment or Grand Prairie, was five miles southwest of present-day Garfield, Kansas, near the Big Coon Creek Crossing.
Saturday morning, 26 June, was a clear day with a gentle southerly breeze. Both Hayden and Fagan, believing there was no danger, let their oxen out to graze under the watchful eyes of the herdsmen. Love was surveying the area with his telescope from a high point overlooking the camps when he heard some war whoops coming from the direction of Hayden's camp. A group of mounted Comanches rose out of some tall grass nearby, while others charged from the ravine near Big Coon Creek. The sight and noise of charging horsemen caused the oxen to stampede. About 250 Comanches rode among the animals, lancing several. The herders, helpless to stop the stampede, placed themselves between the warriors and the livestock, but the Indians charged right through. Three herdsmen were wounded.
Seeing this, Love hurried back and ordered his dragoons to pursue the Indians. Just then, 200 more Comanches appeared south of the river, directly across from the dragoon camp. The lieutenant deployed twenty-five dragoons around the camp to protect the paymaster's wagons and sent Sgt. Ben Bishop to take twenty-five mounted men in pursuit of the original raiders and the stolen oxen.
Bishop's detachment crossed Coon Creek and saw the Comanches 150 yards in front of them. Bishop charged, expecting that Hayden's teamsters and herders would join him, but seeing that their side was outnumbered about tenfold, Hayden's men fled back to camp. The dragoons fought bravely in hand-to-hand combat for twenty minutes. After five soldiers were killed and six wounded, Bishop ordered a retreat. The Comanches scalped three of the fallen soldiers, cut the throat of one, and sliced off the ears of the last. The dragoons estimated a dozen or more Comanche casualties. About 160 oxen were driven off.
After the attack, Love had all members of the party camp together for protection. He sent a messenger to Fort Leavenworth to inform officials of their plight and requested that supplies and new oxen for the trains be sent to Fort Mann, a nearby post that, though abandoned, could still provide a degree of protection. To allow the wounded time to stabilize, Love waited until 2 July before traveling to Fort Mann. Six days later, Love and his dragoons, the paymaster and his entourage, and Fagan's train left the fort, reaching Santa Fe on 6 August. Hayden and his train had to wait at Fort Mann until a party arrived with more oxen. Finally, on 23 July, with 360 head of oxen yoked to his wagons, Hayden headed for Santa Fe.
