Very late that evening as the Confederates were mounting up for the last leg of the pursuit, Captains R.S. Barnes, William Culver, and Gillitine of Totton’s command rode into camp on worn-out horses. Totton had found the note and sent them ahead to ask Fossett to wait for him. Fossett sent them back with one of his scouts who knew the location of the Indians’ camp and the message that he would wait for him in a dry gulch about three miles north of the Indian encampment.

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Having only fifty miles to travel–Totton had eighty–the regulars reached the rendezvous about 2:00 the morning of the eighth. The men were ordered to get some rest before the planned surprise dawn attack, but the excitement was too great for most of them. They sat together in their companies and talked quietly of the coming battle. I.D. Ferguson of Company G said they naturally discussed the possibility that some of them would be killed, but each thought it would be the other fellow. The only man who correctly predicted his own death was Private Jim Gibson.

The sky lightened: Totton did not show up. The sun appeared; Totton still was not there. Just as Fossett was about to give up on him and begin the attack alone, he saw the mile-long line of Totton’s command far in the distance.

The militiamen had ridden all night in the face of a cold south wind, exhausting themselves and their already weakened horses. By the time they linked up with the Confederates at nine o’clock, only 220 of them were on hand. The others with their exhausted mounts had been left miles behind with the pack train. Although ordered to come up when they could, they turned back without ever reaching Dove Creek.

The attack was already three hours late, and Fossett was impatient. When Totton arrived, they exchanged only a few words. Although Fossett ranked Totton, he refused command. Totton took charge without viewing the battlefield.

The Indian encampment would have given paused to even the rashest commander. Located in an almost impenetrable, 100-acre thicket of live oak and green briar, it was protected on the west by Dove Creek, on the north and east by two dry branches and a bluff, and on the south by a steep hill. Totton admitted later that the Indians “were completely concealed by brush and briars, forming the very best of rifle pits. Their position was such that it was impossible to ascertain its strength until the attack was made.” Fossett added that the camp was “well fortified by nature.” But the commanders gave no thought to postponing the attack and scouting the position further.

The battle plan was too simple for the Indians’ strong position. Totton would advance with his 220 men to the left of a small peak on the west side of the creek, cross on horses, and charge the main part of the camp. Fossett and his 161 men would move to the right of the peak, capture the horse herd, and then attack across the creek in support of the militia. As Brigadier General J.D. McAdoo stated in a critical report of the action, “. . .without any formation of a line of battle, without any preparation, without any inspection of the camp, without any communication with the Indians or inquiry as to what tribe or party they belonged to, without any knowledge of their strength or position, the command ‘forward’ was given. . . .”

They made a deadly mistake.

Since before the days of the Lone Star republic, Texans had paid little attention to the odds in an Indian fight. Generally the conflict was on horseback with the whites in pursuit of Indians who had stolen horses. As the Indians broke up into groups that rode off in all directions, few whites or Indians were engaged at one time. Even if frontiersmen were attacked by a war party greatly outnumbering them, they still did not worry unduly, as they fought from cover in more or less prepared positions and could therefore outlast the hostiles who had to expose themselves. In addition, the whites were almost always better armed than the Indians. At Dove Creek, it was as if the usual positions were reversed. But the Texans were confident. They had been whipping Indians for thirty years.

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