[5] The battle came about when General James Henry Carleton, commander of the military District of New Mexico, decided to punish severely the plains tribes of the Kiowa and Comanche, whom he deemed responsible for attacks on wagon trains on the Santa Fe Trail.

[4] As the American Civil War drained available troops, attacks on the Great Plains worsened, leading in the later part of 1863 to cries from settlers for protection.

Carleton wanted to put an end to the raids, or at least to send a sharp signal to the Indians that the Civil War had not left the United States unable to protect its people.

Carson took command of the 1st Regiment New Mexico Volunteer Cavalry, with orders to proceed against the winter campgrounds of the Comanches and Kiowas, which were reported to be somewhere in the Palo Duro Canyon of the southern Panhandle area, on the south side of the Canadian River.

On November 10, 1864, Carson started from Fort Bascom with 260 cavalry, 75 infantry and 72 Ute and Jicarilla Apache scouts that he had recruited from Lucien Maxwell's ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico.

On November 12 Carson's force, accompanied by two mountain howitzers under the command of Lieutenant George H. Pettis, 27 wagons, an ambulance and with 45 days rations, proceeded down the Canadian River into the Texas Panhandle.

On November 24 the 1st Cavalry reached Mule Springs in Moore County, approximately 30 miles (48 km) west of Adobe Walls.

The chief Dohäsan and his people fled, passing the alarm to allied Comanche villages nearby; Guipago led the warriors to protect the fleeing women and children.

[9] Pettis, who wrote the most complete report of the battle, estimated that 1,200–1,400 Comanche and Kiowa attacked the soldiers and Indian scouts who numbered 330 (75 men had been left behind to guard the supply train).

After six to eight hours of fairly continuous fighting, Carson realized he was running low on howitzer shells and ammunition in general, and he ordered his forces to retreat to the Kiowa village in his rear.

When twilight came, Carson ordered about half his command and his Indian scouts to burn the lodges of the village, which also resulted in the death of the Kiowa Apache chief Iron Shirt, who refused to leave his tipi.

[4] The soldiers confiscated many "finely finished buffalo robes" and burned the rest, and the Indian scouts killed and mutilated four Kiowas too decrepit to flee.

[20] The First Battle at Adobe Walls would be the last time the Comanche and Kiowa forced American troops to retreat from a battlefield,[6] and it marked the beginning of the end of the plains tribes and their way of life.

The Second Battle is historically significant because it led to the Red River War of 1874–75, resulting in the final relocation of the Southern Plains Indians to reservations in what is now Oklahoma.