Day 100, May 6

The Buffalo Soldier Tragedy, also known as the "Staked Plains Horror,"  occurred when a combined force of Buffalo Soldier troops of the 10th Cavalry and local buffalo hunters wandered for days in the dry Llano Estacado region of northwest Texas and eastern New Mexico during July of a drought year.

The groups had united forces for a retaliatory attack on regional Indian tribes who had been staging raids on white forces in the area, during what came to be called the Buffalo Hunters' War.  Over the course of five days in the near-waterless Llano Estacado, four soldiers and one buffalo hunter died.

Due to the telegraph, news of the ongoing event and speculation reached Eastern newspapers where it was erroneously reported that the expedition had been massacred. Later, after the remainder of the group returned from the llano, the same papers declared them "back from the dead."