Big Horn Expedition

Big Horn Expedition
Part of the Great Sioux War of 1876, Indian Wars

The Big Horn Expedition returning to Fort Fetterman, March 26, 1876, Leslie's Illustrated News
DateMarch 1–26, 1876
LocationWyoming Territory, Montana Territory
Result Inconclusive
Belligerents
Cheyenne
Oglala Lakota Sioux		  United States
Commanders and leaders
Two Moon
He Dog		 George R. Crook
Joseph J. Reynolds
Strength
~250 883
Casualties and losses
4–6 killed, including women and children
1–3 wounded		 4 killed
8 wounded
66 frostbitten[1]


This event should not be confused with the Powder River Expedition (1865).

The Big Horn Expedition, or Bighorn Expedition, was a military operation of the United States Army against the Sioux, and Cheyenne, Indians in Wyoming Territory, and Montana Territory. Although soldiers destroyed one Cheyenne and Oglala Sioux village, the expedition solidified Lakota Sioux and northern Cheyenne resistance against the United States attempt to force them to sell the Black Hills and live on a reservation, beginning the Great Sioux War of 1876.[2]

Background

The Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) granted the Lakota Sioux and their northern Cheyenne allies a reservation, including the Black Hills, in Dakota Territory and a large area of "unceded territory" in what became Montana and Wyoming. Both areas were for the exclusive use of the Indians, and whites except for government officials, were forbidden to trespass. In August, 1874, soldiers of the Black Hills Expedition under Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer confirmed the discovery of gold in the Black Hills. This caused the United States to attempt to buy the Hills from the Sioux. The U.S. ordered all bands of Lakota and Cheyenne to come to the Indian agencies on the reservation by January 31, 1876 to negotiate the sale. Some of the bands did not comply and when the deadline of January 31 passed, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Q. Smith, wrote that "without the receipt of any news of Sitting Bull's submission, I see no reason why...military operations against him should not commence at once." On February 8, 1876, General Phillip Sheridan telegraphed Generals George R. Crook and Alfred Howe Terry, ordering them to undertake winter campaigns against the "hostiles".[3]

March 1

In bitterly cold weather, Brigadier General George Crook, commander of the Department of the Platte, marched north from Fort Fetterman near Douglas, Wyoming on March 1, 1876. General Crook's objective was to strike against the Indians while they were at their most vulnerable in their winter camps. Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and their followers were thought to be on the Powder, Tongue, or Rosebud rivers. Crook's force consisted of 883 men, including United States Cavalry and Infantry, civilian packers, scouts, guides, and one newspaper reporter, Robert Edmund Strahorn of Denver's Rocky Mountain News.[4] Crook's highly valued chief scout was Frank Grouard, who had lived among the Lakota and spoke their language.[5]

Cattle herd skirmish

On March 2, 1876 north of Fort Fetterman, the Big Horn Expedition's Cattle Herd was attacked by Sioux and Cheyenne Warriors. The soldiers and civilian employees with the herd fired at the warriors, and the Sioux and Cheyenne returned fire. One of the government employees, a cattle herder named John Wright was severely wounded by a bullet in the brisk gunfire. Warriors then drove away and captured most of the soldiers cattle. The Cattle Herd Skirmish was significant for being the first engagement of the Great Sioux War of 1876, making John Wright the first casualty of that war. Wright would die on April 9, 1876.[6]

March 3–4

The soldiers had to heat their forks in the coals of their fires to prevent the tines from freezing to their tongues. A blizzard on March 5, 1876 deposited over a foot of snow and significantly delayed Crook's progress. Temperatures fell so low that the thermometers could not record the cold. General Crook's column slowly followed the Bozeman Trail north to Old Fort Reno, reaching it on March 5, 1876. There, the expedition established its supply base, and General Crook decided that the expedition would leave the wagons and Infantry accompanying the column, Companies C, and I, of the 4th United States Infantry Regiment, under the command of Captain Edwin M. Coates. The camp for the night was established on the east bank of the Powder River opposite the site of Fort Reno, that had been abandoned by the army eight years earlier.[7]

Fort Reno skirmish

By 8:00 p.m. on March 5, 1876, the soldiers' pickets were on duty and the camp was asleep, when firing suddenly broke out along the pickets' lines from Native American Warriors hiding around the camp. The soldiers on guard answered fire, being a dark night, all either side had to aim at were the guns' flashes. The sleeping camp quickly awoke and many of the men went to where the firing was occurring. In the firefight that ensued, Corporal James M. Slavey, of Company I, in the 4th United States Infantry Regiment was wounded in the cheek by a bullet. The skirmish lasted for less than an hour. One thing that made the engagement rare was that it was a night battle, which was not a common event during the American Indian Wars.[8]

March 6–16

On March 6, 1876, the five Cavalry battalions set out on the march overland from Fort Reno on the Powder River to the confluence of Prairie Dog Creek and the Tongue River. After reaching that point on March 12, the expedition and it's ten cavalry companies rode to the headwaters of Otter Creek, reaching it on March 16. On the 16th, Major Stanton's Indian scouts spotted two Oglala Lakota warriors observing the soldiers. Because of this, the scouts believed that the Oglala Lakota camp of the war chief Crazy Horse might be nearby. Crook affected indifference to the Oglala, but at 5 p.m. on March 16, he divided his command and sent Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds (a West Point classmate of President Ulysses S. Grant, and a combat veteran of both the Mexican-American War, and Civil War) on a night march with about 379 men, supplying them with rations for one day, and following the trail of the two Oglala's southeast toward the Powder River. General Crook kept with him about 504 of the expedition's men. That night Frank Grouard and the other scouts in Colonel Reynolds advance, followed the two Oglala Sioux warriors's trail in the snow. The trail led right to what they were looking for, a Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux Indian village, which they described as containing more than 100 lodges, on the west bank of Powder River. The scouts immediately reported this information back to Colonel Reynolds.[9]

Battle of Powder River

The village, however, was a mile further distant north than anticipated, with the result that only Captain James Egan's 2nd Cavalry Company K, of 47 men, including Liet. John G. Bourke, charged into the village from the south, while the other companies were delayed by the distance and rough terrain. The soldiers were under fire for five hours when, at 2:30 p.m., with the destruction of the village complete, Reynolds ordered his soldiers to withdraw, and the men made their way across to the east side of the frozen Powder River.[10]

The soldiers withdrew 20 miles (32 km) south that afternoon and evening, crossing and recrossing the frozen Powder River as needed, up the Powder River to the confluence of the Powder River and Lodge Pole Creek, arriving there at 9:00 p.m. in an exhausted condition. However, General George Crook was not there as he had camped 10 miles (16 km) to the northeast and had failed to inform Reynolds of his new location. In Reynolds's premature haste to withdraw, he left behind the bodies of three dead soldiers, with one in the village, and two at the field Hospital as well as a badly wounded private who was killed by vengeful Indians.[11]

Although the Cheyenne had only two to three men killed and one to three wounded in the battle, they lost most of their property and, in the words of one Cheyenne, were "rendered very poor." The women and children walked three days to reach the Oglala Sioux village of Crazy Horse farther north on the Powder River, where they were given shelter and food. On the way, several of the Cheyenne's froze to death. The army stated that the village consisted of about 104 lodges, including tipis and wikiups, while Cheyenne accounts said the village had about 40-65 tipis, and about 50 other structures. So one can assume that there were around 100 total structures making up the Cheyenne village that day. The number of warriors involved in the engagement was between 60 to 250, while there were around 379 United States soldiers and civilians present.[12]

March 18–26

The Cheyenne recaptured 600 ponies, and all but about 100 of their horses on the morning of March 18, and when learning of this, Colonel Reynolds ordered his men not to pursue the Cheyenne. At about 1:00 p.m. the same day, Reynolds command rendezvoused with General Crook and the pack train. The soldiers of Reynolds six companies were eager to receive their rations and blankets from the pack train. The reunited column returned to the supply base at Old Fort Reno, where the wounded soldiers were placed in wagons, and Captain Edwin Coates two companies of the 4th Infantry rejoined the Big Horn Expedition. On March 26, 1876, the entire Big Horn Expedition except for the four soldiers killed on March 17, returned to Fort Fetterman, Wyoming Territory, ending the 26 day campaign.[13]

Aftermath

Crook's column returning to Fort Fetterman, Leslie's Illustrated News, 1876

In all the Big Horn Expedition covered about 410 miles (660 km) over five present-day counties, in two present-day United States states, Wyoming and Montana. It suffered about 78 casualties out of the 883 men involved, with 4 men killed, 8 men wounded, and 66 frostbitten in the March, of 1876. Colonel Reynolds was accused of dereliction of duty for failing to properly support the first charge at the Battle of Powder River with his entire command; for burning the captured supplies, food, blankets, buffalo robes, and ammunition instead of keeping them for army use; and most of all, for losing hundreds of the captured horses. In January, 1877, his court-martial at Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory found Reynolds guilty of all three charges. He was sentenced to suspension from rank and command for one year for his conduct. His friend and West Point classmate, President Ulysses S. Grant remitted the sentence, but Joseph J. Reynolds never served again. He retired on disability leave on June 25, 1877, exactly one year after the Battle of Little Bighorn. Crook's and Reynolds's failed expedition and their inability to seriously damage the Lakota and Cheyenne at Powder River probably encouraged Indian resistance to the demands of the United States.[14]

Casualties

Native Americans

Killed in action-

Wounded in action-

United States Army

Killed in action-

Mortally wounded-

Wounded in action-

Frostbitten-

Officers Accompanying the Bighorn Expedition

Orders of battle

Native Americans, Chief's Two Moon, He Dog, and Little Coyote (Little Wolf). About 60 to 250 warriors.

Native Americans Tribe Leaders

Native Americans
    

 Northern Cheyenne


  
Lakota Sioux


  

United States Army

Big Horn Expedition, March 1–26, 1876, Late Major General, Brigadier General George R. Crook, commanding, Late Major General, Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds, second in command.

Big Horn Expedition Battalion Companies and Others


     Brigadier General George Crook, commanding

 1st Battalion


   Captain Anson Mills
2nd Battalion


   Captain William Hawley
3rd Battalion


   Captain Henry E. Noyes
4th Battalion


   Captain Thomas B. Dewees
5th Battalion


   Late Lieutenant Colonel, Captain Alexander Moore
6th Battalion


   Captain Edwin M. Coates
Pack Train


   Thomas Moore, Chief Packer
  • Thomas McAuliff, 1st Battalion Pack Train
  • Richard "Uncle Dick" Closter (Kloster), 2nd Battalion Pack Train
  • Mr. Foster, 3rd Battalion Pack Train
  • Mr. Young, 4th Battalion Pack Train
  • Edward DeLaney, 5th Battalion Pack Train
Medical Department


   Assistant Surgeon Curtis E. Munn

Scouts, Guides, Unattached Soldiers, and Civilians


   Major Thaddeus Stanton, Chief of Scouts

United States Army, Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds, 3rd United States Cavalry Regiment, in command. Brigadier General George Crook following as an observer.

In popular culture

In 1951, Hollywood produced a fictional movie loosely based upon the Battle of Powder River of the Big Horn Expedition, starring Van Heflin, Yvonne De Carlo, Jack Oakie, and Rock Hudson. The movie was released in the United States under the name Tomahawk, and entitled Battle of Powder River in the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ 1876 Annual Report of the Secretary of War .p.29
  2. ↑ Greene, Jerome A. Lakota and Cheyenne: Indian Views of the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877 Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994, p. xvi
  3. ↑ Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Secretary of the Interior, January 31st, 1876; Secretary of the Interior to the Secretary of War, February 1st, 1876; Colonel Drum to Gen. Terry and Gen. Crook, February 8th, 1876, National Archives.
  4. ↑ Collins, Jr., Charles D. Atlas of the Sioux Wars, Second edition, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2006, Map 14, 15
  5. ↑ Vestal, Stanley (2008). New Sources of Indian History 1850-1891. Read Books. p. 339. ISBN 1-4437-2631-1. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
  6. ↑ Vaughn, J. W. (1961). The Reynolds Campaign On Powder River. University of Oklahoma Press.
  7. ↑ Vaughn, J. W. (1961). The Reynolds Campaign On Powder River. University of Oklahoma Press.
  8. ↑ Vaughn, J. W. (1961). The Reynolds Campaign On Powder River. University of Oklahoma Press.
  9. ↑ Porter, Joseph C. Paper Medicine Man: John Gregory Bourke and his American West Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986, pp. 30-32
  10. ↑ Porter, pp, 32-35
  11. ↑ "Reynold's Attack on Crazy Horse's Village on Powder River, March 17, 1876" , accessed 8 Jan 2013
  12. ↑ Porter, p. 36; Green, pp. 3, 7, 12
  13. ↑ Bourke, John Gregory On the Border with Crook Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1971, pp. 279-280
  14. ↑ Vaughn, J. W. (1961). The Reynolds Campaign On Powder River. University of Oklahoma Press.
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