Comanche Campaign The Comanche Campaign is a general term for efforts by the United States government to control the violence of the Comanche tribe in the newly settled west . Between 1867 and 1875 , military units fought against the Comanche people in a series of battles until the Comanche surrendered and moved onto their reservation . Background . Western settlement brought the Spanish , French , English , and American settlers into regular contact with the native tribes of the region . Many of these Indians were friendly , and received the new settlers gladly , offering to trade and coexist peacefully , while other tribes resisted the newcomers . The idea of Manifest Destiny as well as the Homestead Act pushed American and immigrant settlers further west , thereby creating more competition for a finite amount of land . This competition for land created tension between the Anglo settlers and the Natives of the region . In an effort to assuage conflicts in the area , many treaties were signed promising land and peace between the two parties , but such treaties were rarely honored . The Comanche tribe was one of the main sources of native resistance in the west . The Comanche were famous for their raids , and they became notorious for kidnapping white women from their homes or towns , the most famous of which was Cynthia Parker . These hostilities only served to tighten the tensions between the American settlers and the Indians . With the outbreak of the Civil War , some Indian tribes attempted to align themselves with what they believed would be the winning side . In the case of the Comanche , the tribe signed a treaty with the Confederacy , and therefore when the end of the war came , they were forced to swear loyalty to the United States government at Fort Smith . However , this moment of weakness did not last long because with the end of the war came a resurgence of the Comanche . They began to expand both militarily and economically . Spreading over a large expanse of the southern plains , the Comanche fought hard diplomatically to maintain power in the region they controlled . In the Treaty of Little Arkansas in 1865 , the Comanche tribe was awarded a large piece of land spanning parts of Oklahoma and Texas . Some parts of this region , called the Comancheria , soon became part of the reservation system . This treaty was later followed by the Medicine Lodge Treaty in 1867 , which helped to solidify the reservation system for the Plains Indians . These policies eventually became part of President Ulysses S . Grant ’ s Peace Policy , which prioritized missionary work and education over fighting . President Grant ’ s Peace Policy became an important part of the white - Indian relations for a number of years . " Comanche Campaign " . A faction of the Comanche tribe , the Quahadi , was arguably the most resistant towards the Anglo settlers . Skeptical of what they would bring , the Quahadi avoided contact with these men . Their avoidance was so absolute that no records of them exist before 1872 . Goods were never exchanged between the groups , and because of this seclusion , they were largely unaffected by the cholera plagues in 1816 and 1849 . Led by chief Quanah Parker , the Quahadi were noted for their fierce nature ; so much so that other Comanche feared them . They were the wealthiest of the Comanche in terms of horses and cattle , and they had never signed a peace treaty . It was this faction of the Comanche that gave the American troops the most trouble during the Comanche Campaign . Sherman sent four cavalry companies from the United States Army to capture the Indians responsible for the Warren Wagon raid , but this assignment eventually developed into eliminating the threat of the Comanche tribe , namely the Quanah Parker and his Quahadi . Following on the heels of the Civil War , the Army had a low number of recruits , and very little money to pay the soldiers they did have , so few men were sent west to fight the Indian threat . Approximately 5 , 000 enlisted men , divided into ten regiments made up the American forces that would face the powerful Comanche . General Sherman picked Ranald S . Mackenzie , described by President Grant as “ the most promising young officer in the army , ” commanding the 4th Cavalry , to lead the attack against the Comanche tribe . Mackenzie and his men developed a style of fighting designed to slowly defeat the Comanche rather than face them in open battle . Colonel Mackenzie embarked on several expeditions into the Comancheria in an effort to destroy the Comanche winter camps and crops , as well as their horses and cattle . Reminiscent of General Sherman ’ s “ March to the Sea , ” the 4th Cavalry fought the Comanche by destroying their means of survival . In the fall of 1871 , Mackenzie and his 4th Cavalry , as well as two companies in the 11th Infantry , arrived in Texas , began to seek out their target . The campaign began in the Llano Estacado region where Comanche were rumored to have been camping . In his first expedition , Mackenzie and his men attacked these camps twice . The campaign began with the Battle of Blanco Canyon . Through the use of Tonkawa scouts , Mackenzie was able to track Quanah Parker ’ s faction , and save another group of American soldiers from slaughter . They succeeded in pushing Quanah Parker and the Quahadi far into the region before they were forced to abandon the hunt for the winter . The second expedition lasted longer than the first , from September to November , and succeeded in making it clear to the Comanche that the peace policy was no longer in effect . Mackenzie established a strong border patrol at several forts in the area , such as Fort Richardson , Fort Griffin , and Fort Concho . While there was little direct combat between the two forces , the American tactics were successful . By following the Comanche tribe throughout the region and destroying each of their camps , Mackenzie and his cavalry were able to hinder the Comanche ’ s ability to prepare properly for winter . Mackenzie ’ s third expedition , in September 1872 , was , by far , the largest . Capturing 130 Indian women and children , stealing horses , and ransacking Indian camps , Mackenzie and the Fourth Cavalry spanned the region several times with the assistance of the Twenty - fourth Infantry and his Tonkawa scouts . These captives were later used in a deal made between the soldiers at Fort Sill and the Comanche tribe : peace in exchange for hostages . The Comanche agreed to the terms , and there was a period of peace in the region . During this period of peace , Mackenzie continued to take control of the Llano Estacado region through the south and central areas , while also creating a second front in the west in order to separate the Comanche from their source of weapons and food . In the winter of 1873 , record numbers of Comanche people resided at Fort Sill , and after the exchange of hostages , there was a noticeable drop in violence between the Anglos and the Native Indians . However , in an attempt to finalize the submission of the Comanche people , there was a movement towards bison hunting . The species became threatened as a result , and those Comanche people who were not at Fort Sill were on the brink of starvation . The remaining Native American Tribes began to gather at the North Fork of the Red River , the center of the slowly diminishing Comancheria region . Due to tensions between them and the Indian Office , the Indians saw the withholding of rations as a declaration of war , and acted accordingly . The Second Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874 was one of the opening engagements of the summer and fall campaign in 1874 , even though it did not involve military personnel . After the attack , federal officials issued an order stating that all Southern Plains Indians were expected to be living on their designated reservation lands by August 1 , 1874 . After the deadline passed , approximately 2 , 000 Comanche remained in the Comancheria region . When they refused to relocate , the United States government dispatched 1 , 400 soldiers , launching an operation that became known as the Red River War . One of the deciding battle of the Red River War was fought at Palo Duro Canyon on September 28 , 1874 . Colonel Mackenzie and his Tonkawa scouts surprised the Comanche , as well as a number of other tribes , and destroyed their camps . The battle ended with only three Comanche casualties , but resulted in the destruction of both the camp and the Comanche pony herd . This defeat spelled the end of the war between the Comanche and the Americans . Aftermath . Following the Red River War , a campaign that lasted from August – November in 1874 , the Comanche surrendered and moved to their new lands on the reservation . However even after that loss , it was not until June 1875 that the last of the Comanche , those under the command of Quanah Parker , finally surrendered at Fort Sill . Though the U . S . troops themselves were directly responsible for just a few hundred deaths , their tactics in the Comanche Campaign were the most devastating to the tribe . The tactics they used eventually led to the economic , rather than military , downfall of the tribe . The Comanche tribe , starting with nearly 5 , 000 people in 1870 , finally surrendered and moved onto the reservation with barely 1 , 500 remaining in 1875 . Bibliography . Paul Howard Carlson . The Buffalo Soldier Tragedy of 1877 . 1st ed . . College Station : Texas A & M University Press , 2003 . Pekka Hamalainen . The Comanche Empire . New Haven : Yale University Press , 2008 . S . C . Gwynne ( Samuel C . ) . Empire of the summer moon : Quanah Parker and the rise and fall of the Comanches , the most powerful Indian tribe in American history . 1st Scribner hardcover ed . . New York : Scribner , 2010 . Thomas W . Kavanagh . Comanche political history : an ethnohistorical perspective , 1706 - 1875 . Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press in cooperation with the American Indian Studies Research Institute , Indiana University , Bloomington , 1996 .