In 1848, a battle between U.S. troops and Plains Indians took place near this area along the Santa Fe Trail when an army train of 60 wagons was traveling through Comanche and Apache hunting grounds on its way to Fort Mann, about 6 miles west near the present site of Dodge City. The small company of U.S. troops, armed with rifles and cannons, fought a larger group of Plains Indians armed only with bows and arrows. Eyewitnesses reported an American Indian woman on horseback at the front of their line encouraging the men; wearing a scarlet dress decorated with silver ornaments, she rode about giving directions about the wounded. The Indians sustained heavy losses, and when a courageous Apache teenager returned to recover the body of one of the fallen, U.S. soldiers held their fire. One legend held that this young man was Geronimo, who later became an Apache leader.