August 30, 1841; Flomot: In 1841 Mirabeau B. Lamar, president of the Republic of Texas, wanted Texas to have a piece of the trade from the Santa Fe Trail and to establish Texas jurisdiction over the Santa Fe area. To accomplish this, Texans orga nized a political-military-commercial expedition to Santa Fe in June.
Volunteer soldiers gathered to transport and protect a large group of merchants and their goods. Brig. Gen. Hugh McLeod led the expedition, with Maj. George T. Howard second in command. They organized the recruits into five companies of infantry and one of artillery. Journalist George Wilkins Kendall and Englishman Thomas Falconer accompanied the 321-man expedition as guests. Twenty-one ox-drawn wagons carried supplies and merchandise valued at $200,000.
The company set out from Kenney's Fort, on Brushy Creek, on 19 June 1841. They headed north across the Brazos to the western Cross Timbers in present Parker County and continued north to the Wichita River, traveling upstream to its headwaters. On 17 August the company's Mexican guide deserted; they stumbled generally northwest, looking for the best paths. Along the way, Kiowas lurked about menacingly and stole some of their horses. Kendall recorded that on 28 June the Texans asked a Spanish-speaking Kiowa for directions, but he and his tribesmen gave only equivocal answers and said they knew nothing about the Colorado or Red Rivers. Soon the expedition began to run short of provisions and water.
In August, on Quitaque Creek in present Motley County, McLeod was unable to find a route for the wagons to ascend the caprock, so he sent out several parties to search for a path. Early in the morning of 30 August, Lt. George Hull and four men were riding north looking for water when about twenty Kiowas ambushed them. Hull formed a tight defensive circle and fought the charging Indians as well as he could, killing at least one Kiowa, called Adalhabakia (Sloping Hair). Another Texan saw the attack and sped back to the main camp, shouting a warning. About fifty volunteers mounted up and rode toward the sound of the gunfire, while the wagons formed up in a square. But before the Texans could reach the scene, the fight had ended and the Kiowas were gone. Hull and his four men lay dead in their tight circle, the bodies scalped and mutilated. Hull had thirty arrow and lance wounds in his body, and another man's heart had been cut out.
The Texans were furious, wrote Kendall, "and madly did our men spur their horses in pursuit, with the vain hope of avenging the death of their companions." The Kiowas kept just out of reach during the entire chase, until finally the Texans gave up. They buried Hull and his men on the prairie and continued their march to Santa Fe. About two weeks later, upon reaching New Mexico, the whole company was captured by New Mexican soldiers and marched to prison in Mexico City. Most were eventually released, but the episode increased the tensions between the United States and Mexico, which would ultimately erupt into the Mexican War.
