When Lt. John Love departed St. Louis with 80 raw recruits in mid-May, 1847, it was as an experienced officer with many years on the fringes of the American frontier. He had been with Capt. P. St. George Cook on June 30, 1843, when his First Dragoons captured Texian forces operating in American territory near present-day Larned, Kan. The arrest of Col. Jacob Snively and 107 troops became a celebrated event among the dragoons.

In 1844, Love, as part of five companies of the First Dragoons under Maj. Clifton Wharton, visited the Pawnee and other tribes of southeast Nebraska. A year later in 1845, Col. Stephen W. Kearney led five companies of dragoons on a grand circuitous route up the Oregon Trail to the Rocky Mountains, south along the front range to the Arkansas River, returning on the Santa Fe Trail to Fort Leavenworth. Every dragoon who took part in the 90-day, 2,200-mile march returned to the post.

Lt. Love was part of the expedition to Santa Fe in Kearney’s massive Army of the West from 1846 to 1847. Lt. Love apparently returned early to receive new recruits at St. Louis.

Toward the end of May, 1848, George F. Ruxton, a British traveler witnessed Love’s command of new recruits as they were approaching Fort Leavenworth after an overland journey through Missouri. Ruxton noted that they were superbly mounted on excellent horses but, “The dragoons themselves, being all new recruits, and neither soldier-like in dress nor appearance.”

They definitely needed Lt. Love riding at the head of Company B, First U. S. Dragoons.

Company B left Fort Leavenworth on July 7, 1847. Their primary mission was to escort paymaster Maj. Charles Bodine, “who had in charge nearly $350,000 in specie for the troops in New Mexico.

Famed guide Thomas Fitzpatrick joined the command at Council Grove on July 10. Fitzpatrick had been on the plains and in the mountains since the early 1820s. He was missing two fingers from an exploding rifle during an Indian fight.

On the plains he was known as “Broken Hand.” He was also serving as Indian Agent of all the tribes on the headwaters of the Arkansas, Platte, and Kansas Rivers. Lt. Love was well acquainted with Fitzpatrick from previous operations.

As Company B passed the Big Bend of the Arkansas River, Kiowas and Comanches were disrupting traffic. At Pawnee Fork (near present-day Larned, Kan.) on June 23 wagon trains were under attack.

The Pawnee was raging with floodwaters, halting the trains. The westbound wagons were both government and merchants on the way to Santa Fe. The eastbound trains were a combination of government wagons and private traders with wagons full of buffalo robes and other animal pelts.

The attacks were mostly directed at running off the oxen that were grazing on the prairie. The west-bound trains were able to save their cattle but the east-bound trains were not so lucky. One hundred sixty head were stampeded and “wantonly killed, with lances, cutting off the tails for trophies.” Twenty-six wagons were abandoned. Most of the contents were cached (hidden or buried) and some had to be burned. One trader estimated his loss at $9,000.

Lt. Love arrived with Company B the next day, meeting the greatly diminished east-bound wagon train as it was leaving the scene of devastation. Love promised revenge, and taking the west-bound wagons under his protection started them across Pawnee Fork on the 25th.

The column of wagons and soldiers made about 12 miles, going into camp along the Arkansas River in the vicinity of Coon Creek (near present-day Garfield, Kan.). Company B was between the government train to the west and trader wagons to the east. At about sunrise the cattle that had been corralled within the circle of government wagons were being driven out on the prairie to graze when about 200 to 300 “Comanches and Mexicans” charged out of Coon Creek, driving off 160 head of cattle and wounding three herdsmen.

Sgt. Ben Bishop and 25 dragoons rode in pursuit in an attempt to retake the cattle. As they crossed the river to the south the dragoons were surrounded. Although inexperienced the dragoons “put up a gallant fight.” In the confusion, some of their horses became unmanageable. The attackers were repelled, but five dragoons were killed and six wounded.

Lt. Love was forced to remain camped at Coon Creek with a government train that had no oxen to move forward. When the wounded were able to travel Company B and teamsters moved on to Fort Mann (near present-day Dodge City) leaving 17 wagons and six graves to mark the location that became known as “Love’s Defeat” on the Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, KS. Contact Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st Road, Geneseo, Kan. Phone: (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.