Adobe Walls, Texas

He waited for the train to pull into the station, entered Ritter's compartment, drew on him, and made him pay what he owed at gunpoint.

[upbeat music]On June the 27th 1874, Bat Masterson unwillingly took part in the Second Battle of Adobe Walls against hundreds of Comanche, Cheyenne, and Kiowa warriors led by the Comanche chief Quanah Parker.

Adobe Walls was a trading post built in the Texas Panhandle, and a decade prior, it was the site of one of the largest conflicts to take place on the Great Plains when a force of around 400 soldiers and scouts led by Kit Carson fought thousands of Native Americans, most of them Comanche and Apache.

That battle was inconclusive, so now 10 years later, the Southern Plains bands again wanted to try and destroy Adobe Walls and push back the hunters who were quickly dwindling the buffalo population.

This time, the scale of the conflict was reduced significantly.

On one side, there were just 28 buffalo hunters who were trapped inside Adobe Walls, with 20-year-old Bat Masterson being the youngest of the bunch.

On the other side, there were hundreds of braves, although the exact number is disputed, ranging anywhere between 250 and 700.

In his memoir, Billy Dixon presented the scene, "There was never a more splendidly barbaric sight.

June 27th, 1874.

Dawn breaks over the wind-swept panhandle of Texas, bleeding crimson across the scrub brush and dirt of adobe walls.

Barricaded inside a handful of sod and adobe buildings is an armed garrison of 28 hardened buffalo hunters.

These men are crack shots, equipped with heavy, long range, 50 caliber Sharps Big 50 buffalo rifles, weapons built to shatter the skull of a two-ton bison at 1,000 yards.

Wood splinters.

Slugs punch through dirt and air.

But Quanah charges directly to the adobe walls, ignoring the hail of lead like it's a summer rain.

He swings his machete, smashing at the barricaded windows, hacking through shutter slats, and barking battle cries over the deafening cracks of the Big 50s.