The Forgotten Heroes of the Santa Fe Trail: Valor at Little Coon Creek

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Gunfire echoes across the Kansas plains, where desperate men take cover behind a hasty barricade of battered wagons and lifeless horses. With their ammunition dangerously low and hope dwindling, the situation looks grim—until one valiant soldier boldly steps forward, ready to embark on what appears to be a suicide mission.

Welcome to the gripping tale of the Battle of Little Coon Creek, set in September 1868. This extraordinary tale chronicles how Corporal Patrick "Patty" Boyle’s unrivaled bravery turned the tides in what seemed like a certain death sentence for his comrades. Historian Jeff Broome unveils how a typical dispatch run between frontier forts transformed into a desperate struggle when Boyle and Corporal Leander Herron stumbled upon their fellow soldiers under fierce attack by warriors along the Santa Fe Trail.

As the drama unfolds, we see Boyle make a heart-wrenching choice—handing over his weapons with the unforgettable words, "Here, boys, you want them more than I do." He then charges headfirst into enemy lines, determined to seek reinforcements. Meanwhile, the defenders are locked in a harrowing battle that stretches through the night, their ammunition dwindling to a mere twelve rounds by dawn. Just when hope is all but lost, an unexpected sight emerges on the horizon: cavalry soldiers, gallantly charging to the rescue, clad only in their white underwear, appearing like ghostly apparitions on the battlefield.

What’s even more captivating is what happened after the battle. Decades later, while Corporal Leander Herron was awarded the Medal of Honor for his valor, the memory of Boyle—who had tragically passed away before he could receive recognition—remains unadorned despite his incredible heroism. In his extensive research, Broome unearthed a rare gem: a 1930 radio interview featuring the then 85-year-old Leander Herron sharing his vivid memories of that fateful night, connecting us to this often-overlooked chapter of frontier history.

This tale is more than just a recounting of a military skirmish; it delves into the profound themes of sacrifice, duty, and the complex nature of heroism through the ages. For enthusiasts of the American frontier, military history, or tales of remarkable courage, Patty Boyle’s midnight ride is a powerful testament to the extraordinary individuals whose stories have shaped the West.
Listen, share, and subscribe to our podcast for more hidden gems from America's frontier past—where everyday heroes made history through remarkable acts of bravery.

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Episode Transcript

Brad Smalley (00:16):
In early September of 1868, a few days before
Sully was ordered from FortDodge to find those hostiles
responsible for the Kansas raids.
During this time, a wagon guardfrom Fort Dodge, sent to Fort
Larned to secure the post mail,was struck by a large war party
near Little Coon Creek.
The men hastily threw up abarricade using the wagon and

(00:39):
several dead horses.
As the battle continued, threeof the men were seriously
wounded.
The attackers repeatedly sentwaves of horsemen against the
stronghold, but the little groupcontinued to hold out until
nightfall.
As darkness set in.
The only man not wounded,corporal Patrick O'Boyle.
The 7th Cavalry, volunteered totake the remaining horse and

(01:02):
ride to Fort Dodge for help.
On his departure he threw hisweapons to his fellow troopers
with the advice here, boys, youwant them more than I do.
After a hard ride during whichfour braves pursued the corporal
within a mile of the post, helpwas quickly gathered and the
wounded men were relieved fromattack.
Private James Goodwin hadreceived a gunshot wound in the

(01:24):
shoulder, private John O'Donnellhad suffered bullet wounds in
the thigh, neck and face, andPrivate Charles Fatten had
wounds in one arm and hisbuttocks.
Can you tell us thecircumstances behind the Battle
of Little Coon Creek and how oneman earned the Medal of Honor
for his bravery.

Dr. Jeff Broome (01:41):
This is a very interesting story that I
uncovered in my research and Iadded in my book Cheyenne War.
And then you know, after a bookcomes out you do further
research and I found descendants, leander Heron, and got further
information.
And this is just a fascinatingstory.
It's September 2nd and actuallyPeter Patrick O'Boyle Patty

(02:03):
O'Boyle was a friend of his inCompany B of the 7th Cavalry and
was stationed at Fort Dodd andLeander Heron was a corporal of
the 3rd Infantry stationed atFort Larned.
Now, while this outbreak'sgoing on all this stuff in
August this is less than a monthlater it's still going on.
War is all over the place.

(02:23):
Twenty-one people have reportedkilled in late August in
Colorado by the Coloradogovernor at that time and I know
the stories of many of them.
So there was no telegraphbetween Fort Larned and Fort
Dodge.
They were about 60, 65 milesapart.
The water source that connectedthe two posts was the Coon
Creek, about halfway betweenthem.

(02:44):
Little Coon Creek goes intoCoon Creek About halfway between
them.
Little Coon Creek goes intoCoon Creek and there was a kind
of a post, an outpost forprotection and stuff.
It had a sergeant and 10 menand they had.
There were no trees there wasonly buffalo chips for wood.
So wagon details wouldoccasionally when they could
bring on a wagon load of woodthat they could burn on their

(03:05):
camp stove for cooking, andthat's what the wood detail was
bringing up from Fort Dodge.
When Corporal Heron was sentwith dispatches down to Fort
Dodge you always went at night.
You waited till it was right atdusk.
You could take off then.
But you right, but the next day, the day of the fight, it's a
full moon.
So you know it's an easy nightto see somebody on the night

(03:28):
before September 1st.
But anyway, halfway up right atabout Little Coon Creek, he
runs into that detail bringingthe wood up Because they've left
it dark from Fort Dodge and,like I say, it's about the
halfway point.
So the two met just before theygot there and they were all
private, and so Corporal Herontalked to them for a little bit
and they said they weredelivering the wood and then

(03:49):
they were going to go back andhe told them to either stay for
a detail, because this isdangerous here, or wait for
night.
And so they did wait for night.
They took off at about dusk togo back to Fort Dodge.
Well, general Sully is nowcommanding at Fort Dodge and
he's got either a reply to thedispatch that Leander brought

(04:10):
down or something new and hewanted that sent up to Fort
Larned.
He slept in the day and then atnight he was allowed to pick a
companion.
You know for his danger.
So he picked his friend, pattyBoyle, who had the fastest horse
in Company B.
So they're coming up and thereare two routes that you can take
.
They're called the wet routeand the dry route.
The wet route follows the creek.

(04:32):
It's shorter but you can getmired in mud and that sort of
thing, and the dry route is upon the ground and it's about 10
miles longer.
Well, that's where they'regoing at night.
That's where the wagon train'sgoing the wood and all that.
They're going at night.
That's where the wagon train'sgoing, they're doing the wood
and all that, and Patty andLeander Heron are riding their

(04:52):
horses this is a full moon andthey hear gunfire down on the
wet route and they're, you know,probably about a half a mile
away from that, and so theycheck their weapons and they
load it and all that and makesure they're ready.
And they get a little closerand they observe Indians
circling around a wagon and theydecide to come from the back of
the Indians thinking that theycould get through them and get
to the rescue.
And they did.
And they got to the wagon andthey'd been fighting for just a

(05:15):
little bit, not too long.
But Leander Heron, being thecorporal in charge, recognized
this is a dangerous situationand Patty Boyle volunteered to
try to break through the Indiansand get back down and help from
Fort Dodge.
Now they give his weapons.
He didn't need it.
But he also gave something else.

(05:36):
Both men had filled theircanteens with alcohol.
Leander Heron said that thatwas in case of snakebite, which
was a common treatment.
But anyway, they had whiskey Inaddition to his weapon that he
gave to his fellow troopers.
Patty took a swig of thewhiskey and says I won't be
needing this, boys, you take it.
And they actually used thatwhiskey for good use after they

(05:57):
got wounded because there hadbeen no wounds to this time.
And so off he goes and the menhear all this firing and yelling
and then silence and theyfigured that Patty was dead and
then the attacks come, incessantall night long, circling.
And they'd already the wagonwas already had countless arrows
in it and stuff when Patty andLeander got there.

(06:19):
So it goes on, and on, and on,and as the night goes on and it
gets up, probably at 3, 4 in themorning, and each time that
they attack them they circle andthey're circling closer.
This is standard Indian warfare, because you're really wanting
the men to use up theirammunition.
And what they would do, asLeander told us the story is

(06:42):
they would circle, they wouldget on the backside of the horse
and fire underneath the horse.
So the only thing you could hitis a hand holding the horse and
maybe a leg on one side, orshoot the horse and they'd shoot
from underneath.
But they're trying to get themto use up the ammunition.
And sure enough, shortly beforedawn.
And now all these wounded menare there and all that.
In fact Leander Heron, one ofthose men, gunshot in his hand.

(07:03):
He couldn't load his pistol buthe would continue firing
because Leander would load hispistol when he needed it loaded,
but he'd fire with his lefthand.
So it's looking bad and they'redown to 12 rounds of ammunition
and they know that the Indiansare going to torture them if
they run out of ammunition.
So they're going to shootthemselves in the last attack

(07:24):
and they expect it.
It's right at dawn and all of asudden the Indians run away and
then coming behind them is agroup of men that they could see
in the dawn light, appearingall in white, and they thought
it was a ruse by the dog soldierIndians to get them to give up
or something and get them.
The Indians didn't know thatthey only had 12 rounds of

(07:46):
ammunition left, but they knewthey were getting lower and
lower with each charge.
That was, patty Boyle broughthis company.
He woke them up probably I'mguessing about three in the
morning and said hey, boys, wegot a big fight up here at
Little Coon, come on.
Well, they didn't get dressed.
They were in their underclothes, they were wearing their white
long you know long johns andwhite shirts and they look like

(08:07):
ghosts riding in to the rescue.
So here's how the Medal of Honorhappens and why Patty doesn't
get it.
And after all these incidents,sheridan issues an order
commending six different acts ofterrorism or something.
One of them is the Battle ofBeecher Island and this one's
noted so about, I don't know,maybe 1917 or something, when he

(08:29):
had to refile to continue apension claim.
Leander Heron read that peoplewith a Medal of Honor get $10
more a month.
And he remembered that beforehe got out of the service it had
been recommended and it hadbeen lost and he contacted the
War Department about that.
And sure enough, they found therecords and gave him the Medal

(08:50):
of Honor.
Well, patty Boyle was dead bythen, so they couldn't give him
one.
Well, they could today, and hewas to be recommended too and
should have had one, but he wasdead, and back then in 1917,
they generally did not giveMedals of Honor to dead people,
just that George ArmstrongCuster, who died.
Anyway, he died on June 25th1876, and he never got a medal

(09:13):
of honor.
General Carr got a medal ofhonor in the 1898 or something
like that for his action at PeaRidge, and that pales to
Custer's actions.
So Custer would have probablygot two, maybe three medals of
honor had he lived, but hedidn't and Patty Boyle didn't
and Patti Boyle didn't.
And there you know a little bitof the rest of the story.
I find it a fascinating story.

(09:33):
There's one other thing that Ican tell people about that I
found descendants of Lee Heronand learned that one lady had
inherited a recording of a 1930broadcast on the Eddie
Rickenbacker Chevrolet Presentsradio show.
Rickenbacker was a hero, medalof Honor winner as a fighter

(09:54):
pilot in World War I.
So the two are on this radiobroadcast that the family had
never listened to, had neverbeen played once.
That old 78 record that's howthey made tapes back then and
they sent it to me.
They and they sent it to me.
They trusted me and sent it tome and I had it converted to CD
and gave it to the familymembers so they could listen to

(10:14):
it.
I kept a copy.
I still listen to it every nowand then.
It's just fun to hear his voice.
And I worked to get a copy toFort Larned.
You can access it there butit's not the complete story.
It's an eight-minute story andthey only have about five
minutes there.
The Wild West magazine.
You can access it through themcalled historynet and find it

(10:37):
there.

Captain Rickenbacker (10:42):
But it's a fascinating story.
A Medal of Honor, the Theexploits of American scouts and
soldiers on the plains have anendless for to every American,
young and old.
Tonight I have the veryNebraska, a ing man of the old
Indian Wars nd the Civil War aswell o special honor Corporal
Leander Heron, retired CompanyA, 3rd US Infantry, now living
at St Paul, N nebraska.

(11:08):
Corporal Heron now in his 85thyear, is one of the few defend
still alive who of the old SantaFe Trail.
He fought worked, worked andplayed with Wild Bill Hickok and
Edward Dick, and is the onlyman in the state of Nebraska who
holds the Congressional Medalof Honor.
And so it gives me greatpleasure to introduce Corporal

(11:31):
Harrod, who will tell you aboutthat bit of Indian history which
won him his coveted decoration.

Leander Herron (11:39):
Harrod.
Thank you, captain Rickenbacker.
Back in the 60s, fort Dodge,kansas, was a distributing point
for supplies along the Santa FeTrail.
We were fighting with theIndians all the time and my
hardest scrap for them tookplace near Fort Dodge in

(11:59):
September 1868.
That was 62 years ago but Iremember as clearly as if it had
happened.
But yesterday, one evening, thecommanding officer at Fort Dodd
ordered me to choose a comradeand carry dispatches to Fort
Larned, 75 miles away.

(12:21):
I was a young fellow then and Ifelt honored by the assignment
Because such well-known scoutsas Wild Bill, hickok, california
Joe and Apache Bill were at thefort and might have been chosen
.
We could see the Indianssignaling with smoke and fire on

(12:44):
the hilltops in all directionsand that meant trouble.
So I picked Patty Boyle, atribe and true friend and a
brave man, to come along with me.
That sounds like a toughassignment, corporal.
It was Captain, it was Captain.

(13:10):
But that night we managed tosneak out of the fort and were
well on our way when, up nearLittle Coon Creek, we heard
rifle fires and theblood-curdling yells of the
Indians.
We swung away from the trailand there, hurled into the
ravine, were four men and a dualteam.
The crack and flash of riflesaround the edge of the ravine

(13:34):
showed that the Indians had beenin a pocket.
We were on an important mission.
Our orders were to proceed toFort La Fort Liners with all
possible speed, but I justcouldn't see those white men
massacred.
So we spurred our horses andcut through the circle of

(13:56):
Indians and joined the littlegroup in the ravine.
I sent Boyle, who had the besthorse.
I sent Boyle, who had the besthorse, back to the fort for help
.
The brave fellow plunged downthe ravine which opened out on
the plains and although it wasnight, the Indians somehow saw

(14:16):
him and went creeping after him.
We assumed he had been killedand we decided to sell our lives
at the highest possible cost.
The Indians kept rushing us ontheir horses, hanging on the far

(14:37):
side of the mount, so that wehad only a leg and an arm to
shoot.
At Soon they began to suffercasualties.
One of our men was Tomahawk.
In a hand-to-hand combat with ahusky blade, bullets and arrows
disabled the others, so thattwo of us had to bear the brunt

(15:01):
of the defense.
Then our ammunition began torun low.
The Indians were making smallerand smaller circles around us
and it looked like the end hadarrived.
Then, just as they seemed to bepreparing for the final rush, a

(15:22):
body of horsemen in whiteappeared.
At first we thought they wereIndians in disguise, but they
called out in English, and whenthe leader galloped up, it was
Boyle at the head of hissquadron from the 7th United
States Cavalry.
Why?

Captain Rickenbacker (15:40):
the white uniforms Corporal Herring.

Leander Herron (15:46):
It wasn't uniforms, captain.
The garrison of the fort hadbeen asleep when Boyle arrived
and they jumped from their boatsand rushed to our rescue in
their night shirts and underwear.
Strange to say, I came throughwithout a scratch.
I didn't count the number oftimes the wagon was struck, but

(16:10):
those who did told me that itwas hit 500 times with bullets
and arrows, and those arrowswere sticking out like quills on
a porcupine.

Captain Rickenbacker (16:21):
A truly wonderful story, Corporal Harrow
, and certainly one thatfulfills the Medal of Honor
provision as being above andbeyond the call of duty.

Brad Smalley (16:37):
Those early 20th century recordings like that,
rare as they are.
When you come across them,they're just fascinating, even
getting an insight to people wholived before our modern
technology.
Yes, talking about that, it's afascinating record.
Thank you very much, jeff.

(16:58):
That is a fantastic review.
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