The Powder River Expedition of 1865, also known as the Powder River War or Powder River Invasion, was a large and far-flung military operation of the United States Army against the Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians in Montana Territory and Dakota Territory. Although soldiers destroyed one Arapaho village and established Fort Connor to protect gold miners on the Bozeman Trail, the expedition is considered a failure because it failed to defeat or intimidate the Indians.
Background
The Sand Creek massacre of Cheyenne people on November 29, 1864 intensified Indian reprisals and raids in the Platte River valley. (See Battle of Julesburg) After the raids, several thousand Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho congregated in the Powder River country, remote from white settlements and confirmed as Indian territory in the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie.
The Indians perceived the Bozeman Trail, blazed in 1863 through the heart of their country, as a threat. Although roads through the Indian territory were permitted by the Fort Laramie Treaty, they harassed miners and other travelers along the trail. At the Battle of Platte Bridge in July 1865, over a thousand warriors attacked a bridge across the North Platte River and succeeded in temporarily shutting down travel on both the Bozeman and Oregon Trails. After the battle, the Indians broke up into small groups and dispersed for their summer buffalo hunt. A weakness of Indian warfare was that they lacked the resources to keep an army in the field for an extended period of time.
Major General Grenville M. Dodge ordered the Powder River Expedition as a punitive campaign against the northern plains tribes in the heart of their territory. Brigadier General Patrick E. Connor was chosen to lead the expedition. Dodge ordered Connor to "make vigorous war upon the Indians and punish them so that they will be forced to keep the peace." The campaign was one of the last Indian wars campaigns carried out by United States Volunteers.
Connor's strategy was for three columns of soldiers to march into the Powder River Country. The "Right column", composed of 1,400 Missourians and 140 wagons commanded by Colonel Nelson D. Cole, was to march from Omaha, Nebraska and follow the Loup River westward to the Black Hills, meeting up with Connor near the Powder River. The "Center Column", consisting of 600 Kansas cavalrymen led by Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Walker, was to head north from Fort Laramie and traverse the country west of the Black Hills. The "Left" and "West" Columns of nearly 1,000 men, personally commanded by Connor and composed of soldiers from California, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio, along with Indian scouts and a wagon train, would move toward the Powder River with the goal of establishing a fort near the Bozeman trail. All three columns were to unite at the new fort.
Connor's orders to his commanders were as follows, "You will not receive overtures of peace or submission from Indians, but will attack and kill every male Indian over twelve years of age." Connor's superiors, Generals John Pope and Dodge attempted to countermand this order, but it was too late, as the three columns had already departed and were out of contact.
The expedition was troubled from the start. The number of men to be involved in the campaign was reduced from 12,000 to less than 3,000 because many soldiers were mustered out of the army at the end of the American Civil War. The remaining volunteers were "mutinous, dissatisfied, and inefficient." The companies of the 6th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry Regiment commanded by Colonel James H. Kidd had recently been transferred from the Civil War battlefields of Virginia, and most of Cole's and Walker's men had been active in the Western Theater during the last years of the war. Few of the men and officers had any experience fighting Indians or traveling on the Great Plains. Procuring supplies was also a problem.
Connor's expedition
Brigadier General Patrick E. Connor and nearly 1,000 soldiers, Indian scouts, and civilian teamsters, along with a wagon train full of supplies, left Fort Laramie, Dakota Territory beginning on July 30, 1865, to unite with Cole's and Walker's columns. One of his guides was mountain man Jim Bridger. Connor's column proceeded northward, and in August established Fort Connor on the upper Powder River.
Crazy Woman's Fork
On August 13, 1865, Captain Frank J. North of the Pawnee Scouts was riding with some of his men near the Crazy Woman's Fork of the Powder River. North and his scouts spotted a small group of Cheyenne warriors, and commenced a chase. During the pursuit, North became separated from his men by about a mile, and the retreating warriors turned on him. One of the Cheyennes wounded North's horse, and the Captain got behind the downed animal and used it as a barricade, from which position he fought off his attackers. Scout Bob White came upon North and joined him in the fight. Several more Pawnees arrived, and the small party then shot and wounded several of the warriors who then quickly fled. The fight at Crazy Woman's Fork was the first engagement of the Powder River Expedition.
Powder River Massacre
For two days, Captain North and his Pawnee Scouts trailed a band of Cheyennes who were heading north. The trail showed that the Cheyennes had about 40 horses and mules, along with one travoi carrying a wounded warrior. At 2:00 a.m. on August 16, 1865, the Captain and his Scouts caught up with the group on the Powder River about 50 miles north of Fort Connor. The Cheyennes had made their camp for the night and were asleep, and North decided to wait until dawn to attack. In the morning, his group closed in on the camp. Spotting the scouts, the Cheyennes mistook North's party for friendly Cheyennes, and made no hostile moves. Then, the Pawnees suddenly charged in on the surprised Cheyennes, quickly killing all 24, including Yellow Woman, the stepmother of George Bent. The Pawnees lost 4 horses, but captured 18 horses and 17 mules, many with government brands showing they had been captured in the recent battles at Red Buttes and Platte Bridge Station on July 26.
The Battle of Tongue River
Connor marched north from Fort Connor, and on August 28, his Pawnee scouts discovered an Arapaho village of about 600 people encamped on the Tongue River. The next day, August 29, Connor attacked the village, whose leader was Black Bear, with 215 California, Iowa, and Ohio cavalrymen and over 80 Pawnee, Omaha, and Winnebago Scouts. The people in the village were primarily women, children, and old men. Most of the warriors were absent, engaged in a war with the Crow on the Bighorn River. The surprised Indians fled the village, but regrouped and counterattacked, and Connor was dissuaded from further pursuit. The soldiers destroyed the village, captured about 500 horses, and 8 women and 13 children who were subsequently released. Conner claimed to have killed 63 Arapaho warriors, a probably exaggerated estimate, at a cost to himself of 2 killed and five wounded. He then marched north on the Tongue River into southern Montana Territory before returning to Fort Connor, harassed by the Arapaho en route. The Arapaho, who had not been overly hostile before, now joined the Sioux and Cheyenne.
Sawyers' expedition
Meanwhile, an expedition commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James A. Sawyers consisting of train of 80 wagons, engineers, supplies, and escorting soldiers of Companies C and D of the 5th U.S. Volunteer Infantry was traveling toward the Powder River with plans to continue on to Montana. Sawyers' group was to construct a new road for the use of emigrants to the Montana gold fields.
The Battle of Bone Pile Creek
On August 13, 1865, the soldiers, civilians, and wagon train of the Sawyers Expedition were moving west. The soldiers accompanying the train included a battalion of the 5th U.S. Volunteer Infantry, Companies C, and D, under the command of Captain George Williford. In the evening near Pumpkin Butte, Cheyenne and Sioux Native American Warriors attacked the train, killing Nathaniel Hedges, a 19-year-old civilian employee. Later in the evening of the thirteenth, the wagons were corralled near Bone Pile Creek, and Hedges was buried at the center of the corral. The next morning, the warriors returned and attacked again. The warriors again attacked the corralled wagons on the fifteenth, but they could not overtake the wagon train. Chief Red Cloud of the Sioux, and Dull Knife of the Cheyenne, accompanied by George Bent and his brother, Charles Bent, of the Cheyenne negotiated with Lieutenant Colonel Sawyers for a safe passage of the wagon train in exchange for one wagon's load of supplies. Soldiers of the 5th U.S. Volunteer Infantry reported that at this time that the Cheyenne warrior George Bent was dressed in a United States military uniform. (Bent later reported that he had captured a major's uniform coat during the sack of Julesburg in January 1865 and wore it throughout this campaign.) Sawyers agreed to give the supplies, which included a wagon full of sugar, bacon, coffee, flour, and tobacco. When the wagons began moving again, the Natives attacked again, killing Privates Anthony Nelson, and John Rawze. The soldiers fired back, killing two warriors, and the Native Americans quickly withdrew from the corralled wagons. After burying Private Nelson beside Nathaniel Hedges, and being unable to locate the body of Private Rawze, the Sawyers Expedition continued on.
Sawyers' fight
On September 1, 1865, Arapaho warriors, infuriated by the destruction of their village on the Tongue River, attacked Sawyers' wagon train, killing three men. Two of the Arapaho warriors were killed. The wagon train was held under virtual siege for two weeks when it was finally rescued by Connor's forces.
Cole's and Walker's expeditions
The two columns set out
Colonel Nelson D. Cole left Omaha, Nebraska, on July 1, 1865, with over 1,400 Missourians and 140 wagon-loads of supplies. His column followed the Loup River upstream and then marched across country to Bear Butte in the Black Hills, arriving there on August 13, 1865. Cole's command, during the 560 miles (900 km) of traveling, suffered from thirst, diminishing supplies, and near mutinies. Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Walker and his 600 Kansas Cavalrymen left Fort Laramie, Dakota Territory on August 6, 1865, and met up with Cole's Expedition on August 19, 1865, near the Black Hills. He had likewise suffered from shortages of water, and had lost several of his soldiers of the 16th Regiment Kansas Volunteer Cavalry from bad water. The two columns marched separately, but remained in contact as they moved west to Powder River in Montana Territory. By this time, some of the men were barefooted and many of the horses and mules were growing weak.
March on Powder River
On the morning of September 1, 1865, the over 1,400 United States soldiers and civilians, of Colonel Nelson D. Cole's column of the Powder River Expedition, were encamped on Alkali Creek, a tributary of the Powder River. This was in Montana Territory, in present-day Custer County, Montana. In the early morning, over 300 Hunkpapa, Sans Arc, and Miniconjou Lakota Sioux warriors attacked the camps' horse herd. The first of the soldiers to respond were seven men of Battery K, in the 2nd Missouri Light Artillery Regiment. Shortly after leaving the camp, warriors ambushed this party, and in the following battle, five of these seven soldiers became casualties, with two killed, one mortally wounded, and two wounded. Later that night, two unknown U.S. soldiers in a hunting party were killed. The known Sioux Casualties during the battle of Alkali Creek, are four unknown warriors killed, and four unknown warriors wounded.