Brevet Major General, Colonel Joseph Jones Reynolds
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 1874, the discovery of gold in the Black Hills caused the United States to attempt to buy the Black 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."[5]
In bitterly cold weather, Brigadier GeneralGeorge Crook, commander of the Department of the Platte, marched north with the Big Horn Expedition from Fort Fetterman near present-day Douglas, Wyoming, on March 1. General Crook's objective was to strike against the Indians while they were at their most vulnerable in 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 a newspaper reporter.[6] Crook's highly valued chief scout was Frank Grouard, who had lived among the Lakota and spoke their language.[7]
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 deposited over a foot of snow and significantly delayed Crook's progress. Temperatures fell so low that the thermometers of the day could not record the cold. Crook's column slowly followed the Bozeman Trail north to Old Fort Reno, reaching it on March 5. There, the expedition established its supply base, leaving the wagons and Infantry accompanying the column, Companies C, and I, of the 4th U.S. Infantry, under Captain Edwin M. Coates. The five Cavalry battalions then marched to the head of Otter Creek. On March 16, scout Frank Grouard saw two Indian warriors observing the soldiers. He identified them as Oglala Lakota and believed that the camp of Crazy Horse might be nearby. This was reported to Crook, and at 5 p.m. 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 383 men, with rations for one day, following the trail of the two Oglalas southeast toward Powder River. Crook kept with him about 300 men. That night Frank Grouard and the other scouts followed the two Oglala Sioux's trail in the snow. It led right to what they were looking for, an 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.[8]
Plan of attack
In frigid weather, Reynolds' plan was for one battalion, Companies I and K, of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry under the command of Captain Henry E. Noyes, to descend the steep hills south of where the second field hospital would be established to the valley floor. One company, (K) under Captain James R. Egan, was to attack the southern end of the village. The other company (I), under Captain Noyes, was to capture the Indian pony herd estimated at 1,000 animals, grazing and spread out through the valley on both sides of the river. A second battalion, Companies E and M of the 3rd U.S. Cavalry, under the command of Captain Anson Mills, was to attack the village simultaneously from the west, and the remaining Cavalry battalion, Company E, of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry, and Company F of the 3rd U.S. Cavalry, under the command of Captain Alexander Moore, was to occupy the ridges north and west of the village, to prevent the Indians from escaping in that direction.
Battle
The village, however, was further north than anticipated, with the result that only Captain James R. Egan's 2nd Cavalry Company K of 47 men, accompanied by Second Lieutenant John G. Bourke and newspaper reporter Robert E. Strahorn, charged into the village from the south, while the other companies were delayed by the distance and rough terrain.[9]
According to Captain Egan's watch, the battle began at 9:05a.m. on the morning of Friday, March 17. The Indians, now identified as Northern Cheyenne and a few Oglala Sioux, were surprised. Wooden Leg, an eighteen-year-old Cheyenne warrior in the village remembered the attack: "Women screamed. Children cried for their mothers. Old people tottered and hobbled away to get out of reach of the bullets singing among the lodges. Braves seized whatever weapons they had and tried to meet the attack."
The Cheyennes hurried their women and children to shelter while retreating northward out of the village, then took positions on the bluffs overlooking the village. They then directed fire toward the soldiers now in the village. Several cavalrymen of Company K, 2nd Cavalry were wounded early in the battle and a number of the company's horses were killed or wounded. Captain Egan was reinforced in the village by several more companies. When Colonel Reynolds arrived, the soldiers were still under fire. He ordered everything in the village destroyed, including dried buffalo meat. During this time, Privates Peter Dowdy of Company E, 3rd Cavalry and George Schneider of Company K, 2nd Cavalry were killed. The village and supplies proved difficult to burn, and when fire reached the gunpowder and ammunition stored in the tipis, they exploded. First Lieutenant John Gregory Bourke, General Crook's aide-de-camp, commented on the richness of the goods in the village: "bales of fur, buffalo robes, and hides decorated with porcupine quills". Some soldiers went against orders and took buffalo robes from the village, as they were freezing. Bourke later estimated that 66 men suffered from frostbite, including himself.[10]
The Indian village area is slightly west (left) of the upper left side of the photo. Company I, 2nd Cavalry gathered Indian ponies on both sides of the river, and the surviving soldiers withdrew from the battlefield across the frozen stream from left to right. Photograph taken from hospital bluff looking north, October 16, 2012.
Throughout the day, soldiers gathered in over 700 Indian ponies. The battle had lasted five hours when, at approximately 2:00p.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. Private Michael I. McCannon of Company F, 3rd Cavalry was killed around this time. During the retreat, Private Lorenzo E. Ayers of Company M, 3rd Cavalry, was seriously wounded in his right arm and leg, and was left behind in the Indian village. Although saddler Jeremiah J. Murphy of Company F, and blacksmith Albert Glawinski of Company M, 3rd Cavalry attempted to rescue Ayers, he was subsequently "cut limb to limb" by vengeful Indians. By the end of the battle, four soldiers had been killed and six wounded. For their actions, Jeremiah J. Murphy and Albert Glawinski would later be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on October 16, 1877. Hospital Steward William C. Bryan would also be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in the battle.
The last action of the battle took place about 1 mile (1.6km) south of Hospital bluff, when First Lieutenant William C. Rawolle, commanding the rear guard, Company E, 2nd Cavalry, dismounted eight of his men in a defensive skirmish line. Lieutenant Rawolle's line remained in place for only a short time, although First Sergeant William Land reported that during this time he shot an Indian warrior from his horse. In Reynolds' premature haste to withdraw, he left behind the bodies of three dead soldiers, with one in the village, and two at the second field Hospital as well as the badly wounded Private Ayers. The soldiers withdrew approximately 21 miles (34km) south that afternoon and evening, crossing and recrossing the frozen Powder River as needed, up the river to the confluence of the Powder River and Lodge Pole Creek (now called Clear Creek), arriving there after 9:00p.m. in an exhausted condition. However, General Crook with the other four companies and the pack train was not there, as he had camped ten miles to the northeast and had failed to inform Colonel Reynolds of his location.[11]
The Cheyenne recaptured over 500 of their horses the next morning, March 18, as no guards for them had been posted. It was not until approximately 1:30p.m. that day that Reynolds finally rendezvoused with General Crook. The reunited column returned to Fort Fetterman, Wyoming Territory, arriving on March 26, 1876.[12]
Although the Cheyenne and Lakota only suffered several warriors killed, and two to three wounded during the battle, they lost most of their property, and in the words of the warrior Wooden Leg: "The Cheyennes were rendered very poor. I had nothing left but the clothing I had on... My eagle wing bone flute, my medicine pipe, my rifle, everything else of mine, were gone." The women and children walked several days to reach the Oglala Sioux village of Crazy Horse farther north near the Little Powder River, where they were given shelter and food. On the way, several Cheyennes 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. The number of warriors involved in the engagement was from 100 to 250, while there were around 383 United States soldiers and civilians present.[13]
Aftermath
Colonel Reynolds was accused of dereliction of duty for failing to properly support the first charge 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. 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 culminating battle of the Great Sioux War at the Little Bighorn. Crook's and Reynolds' 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]
Medals of honor
Three Medals of Honor were awarded to soldiers for their actions during the battle:
Hospital StewardWilliam C. Bryan, attached to Company K, 2nd United States Cavalry Regiment, "...having his horse killed under him. He continued to fight on foot, and under severe fire and without assistance conveyed two wounded comrades to places of safety, saving them from capture."
Saddler (Private) Jeremiah J. Murphy, Company F, 3rd United States Cavalry Regiment, "..for trying to save a wounded comrade."
Blacksmith (Private) Albert Glawinski, Company M, 3rd United States Cavalry Regiment, "During a retreat Blacksmith Glavinski selected exposed positions, he was part of the rear guard."
Unknown elderly woman, Oglala Lakota, "left in the village"
United States Army
Killed in action
Private George Schneider, Company K, 2nd Cavalry
Private Peter Dowdy, Company E, 3rd Cavalry
Private Michael I. McCannon, Company F, 3rd Cavalry
Private Lorenzo E. Ayers, Company M, 3rd Cavalry
Wounded in action
First Lieutenant William C. Rawolle, Company E, 2nd Cavalry
Sergeant Charles Kaminski, Company M, 3rd Cavalry
Corporal John Lang, Company E, 2nd Cavalry
Farrier Patrick Goings, Company K, 2nd Cavalry
Private John Droege, Company K, 2nd Cavalry
Private Edward Eagan, Company K, 2nd Cavalry
Battlefield
In the early 20th century, a schoolteacher named Frank Theodore Kelsey filed a desert claim for land along the Powder River, land that encompassed the Reynolds battle site. Kelsey would later become a Montana state senator, and helped to get the soldiers' monument placed near the village site in 1934, but died in 1937. Since then, the battlefield has changed hands over five times. Now, the Powder River / Reynolds Battlefield, located on private land at [45 05 18 N 105 51 28 W], is accessible by Montana Secondary Highway 391 (Moorhead Road), along the Powder River, in Powder River County, Montana. It is about 1 mile (1.6km) north of the present-day unincorporated community of Moorhead, Montana, and about 34 miles (55km) southwest of the present-day town of Broadus, Montana.
Monuments
In 1919, a historian named Walter M. Camp learned that while the four soldiers killed in the battle had been left on the field, no headstones had been erected. With help from Major H. R. Lemly and General Anson Mills (Mills had commanded the 1st Battalion, 3rd Cavalry at the Battle), headstones were prepared by the Quartermaster Corps and shipped by train to Arvada, Wyoming on the Powder River.
In a January 1920 address by Camp to the Order of the Indian Wars in Washington, D.C., he stated that the headstones would "be placed on the battlefield next summer." Despite this, the headstones would remain in storage in Wyoming for another 14 years.
In October 1933, Camp's 1920 address was reprinted in "Winners of the West," and came to the attention of D.C. Wilhelm of Gillette, Wyoming, who informed the writer that the headstones were still in storage. In early 1934, with help from the American Legion, Montana State Senator Frank T. Kelsey, and others, a stone and concrete monument embedded with the soldiers' headstones was placed on the Powder River Battlefield. The monument was dedicated on Memorial Day, May 30, 1934, and it still stands today.[15]
Northern Cheyenne flag, painted on the Cheyenne monument
Across the county road from the soldiers' monument is the Cheyenne monument, a sandstone boulder painted with the flag of the Northern Cheyenne tribe.
Second Lieutenant Charles Morton, Acting Regimental Adjutant and Quartermaster of Cavalry, Co. A, 3rd Cavalry
In popular culture
In 1951, Hollywood produced a fictional movie starring Van Heflin, Yvonne De Carlo, Jack Oakie, and Rock Hudson, released in the United States under the name Tomahawk. In the United Kingdom and elsewhere, it was given the name Battle of Powder River, although the plot was actually based on events of Red Cloud's War (also known as the Powder River War) of 1866–8, rather than on the Reynolds battle of 1876.
Vaughn, J. W., The Reynolds Campaign On Powder River, University of Oklahoma Press, 1961.
Eckroth, David; Kallevig, Rebecca; Penfold, Michael; Held, Jaeger R.; The Powder River Fight, March 17, 1876, American Battlefield Protection Program, National Park Service, 2018.
Dillon, Richard H., North American Indian Wars 1983.
Greene, Jerome A. (editor), Battles and Skirmishes of the Great Sioux War, 1876–1877: The Military View, University of Oklahoma Press, 1993. ISBN0-8061-2535-7.
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. It took place on June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River in the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana Territory. The battle, which resulted in the defeat of U.S. forces, was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876.
Red Cloud's War was an armed conflict between an alliance of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho peoples against the United States and the Crow Nation that took place in the Wyoming and Montana territories from 1866 to 1868. The war was fought over control of the western Powder River Country in present day north-central Wyoming.
Crazy Horse was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by White American settlers on Native American territory and to preserve the traditional way of life of the Lakota people. His participation in several famous battles of the Black Hills War on the northern Great Plains, among them the Fetterman Fight in 1866, in which he acted as a decoy, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, in which he led a war party to victory, earned him great respect from both his enemies and his own people.
The Battle of the Rosebud took place on June 17, 1876, in the Montana Territory between the United States Army and its Crow and Shoshoni allies against a force consisting mostly of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne Indians during the Great Sioux War of 1876. The Cheyenne called it the Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother because of an incident during the fight involving Buffalo Calf Road Woman. General George Crook's offensive was stymied by the Indians, led by Crazy Horse, and he awaited reinforcements before resuming the campaign in August.
The Sioux Wars were a series of conflicts between the United States and various subgroups of the Sioux people which occurred in the later half of the 19th century. The earliest conflict came in 1854 when a fight broke out at Fort Laramie in Wyoming, when Sioux warriors killed 31 American soldiers in the Grattan Massacre, and the final came in 1890 during the Ghost Dance War.
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.
The Dull Knife Fight, or the Battle on the Red Fork, part of the Great Sioux War of 1876, was fought on November 25, 1876, in present-day Johnson County, Wyoming between soldiers and scouts of the United States Army and warriors of the Northern Cheyenne. The battle essentially ended the Northern Cheyennes' ability to continue the fight for their freedom on the Great Plains.
The Horsemeat March of 1876, also known as the Mud March and the Starvation March, was a military expedition led by General George Crook in pursuit of a band of Sioux fleeing from anticipated retaliation for their overwhelming victory over George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Poorly rationed and hampered by muddy conditions, the soldiers eventually had to butcher and eat their horses and mules as they became lame or injured. The Horsemeat March ended with the Battle of Slim Buttes and the capture and looting of American Horse the Elder's richly stocked village.
Spotted Tail was a Sichangu Lakota tribal chief. Famed as a great warrior since his youth, warring on Ute, Pawnee and Absaroke (“Crow”), and having taken a leading part in the Grattan Massacre, he led his warriors in the Colorado and Platte River uprising after the massacre performed by John M. Chivington's Colorado Volunteers on the peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho camping on Sand Creek, but declined to participate in Red Cloud's War.
The Battle of Slim Buttes was fought on September 9–10, 1876, in the Great Sioux Reservation between the United States Army and Miniconjou Sioux during the Great Sioux War of 1876. It marked the first significant victory for the army since the stunning defeat of General George Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in June.
American Horse was an Oglala Lakota warrior chief renowned for courage and honor. American Horse is notable in American history as one of the principal war chiefs allied with Crazy Horse during Red Cloud's War (1866–1868) and the Battle of the Little Bighorn during the Great Sioux War of 1876–1877. Chief American Horse was a son of Old Chief Smoke, an Oglala Lakota head chief and one of the last great Shirt Wearers, a highly prestigious Lakota warrior society. He was a signatory to the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, along with his brothers Chief Red Cloud and Chief Blue Horse. A month or so after the Treaty, American Horse was chosen a "Ogle Tanka Un" along with Crazy Horse, Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses and Man That Owns a Sword. On September 9, 1876, American Horse was mortally wounded in the Battle of Slim Buttes fighting to protect his family and defending against the white invasion of the "Paha Sapa" Black Hills.
Wooden Leg was a Northern Cheyenne warrior who fought against Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Joseph Jones Reynolds was an American engineer, educator, and military officer who fought in the American Civil War and the postbellum Indian Wars.
The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations that occurred in 1876 and 1877 in an alliance of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne against the United States. The cause of the war was the desire of the US government to obtain ownership of the Black Hills. Gold had been discovered in the Black Hills, settlers began to encroach onto Native American lands, and the Sioux and the Cheyenne refused to cede ownership. Traditionally, American military and historians place the Lakota at the center of the story, especially because of their numbers, but some Native Americans believe the Cheyenne were the primary target of the American campaign.
The Battle of Platte Bridge, also called the Battle of Platte Bridge Station, on July 26, 1865, was the culmination of a summer offensive by the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne Indians against the United States army. In May and June the Indians raided army outposts and stagecoach stations over a wide swath of Wyoming and Montana. In July, they assembled a large army, estimated by Cheyenne warrior George Bent to number 3,000 warriors, and descended upon Platte Bridge. The bridge, across the North Platte River near present-day Casper, Wyoming, was guarded by 120 soldiers. In an engagement near the bridge, and another against a wagon train guarded by 28 soldiers a few miles away, the Indians killed 29 soldiers while suffering at least eight dead.
The Battle of Prairie Dog Creek, also known as the Skirmish at Tongue River Heights, or the Battle of the Tongue River (1876), part of the Great Sioux War of 1876, occurred on June 9, 1876, at the confluence of Prairie Dog Creek and the Tongue River primarily in Wyoming Territory.
William C. Bryan was a United States Army soldier and athlete who received the Medal of Honor. His award came for gallantry during the American Indian Wars. He was also a professional baseball player, sprinter, and coach.
The Big Horn Expedition, or Bighorn Expedition, was a military operation of the United States Army against the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in Wyoming Territory and Montana Territory. Although soldiers destroyed one Northern Cheyenne and Oglala Lakota village at the Battle of Powder River, 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.
The Yellowstone Expedition of 1873 was an expedition of the United States Army in the summer of 1873 in Dakota Territory and Montana Territory, to survey a route for the Northern Pacific Railroad along the Yellowstone River. The expedition was under the overall command of Colonel David S. Stanley, with Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer second in command.
The Powder River Battles were a series of battles and skirmishes fought between September 1–15, 1865 by United States soldiers and civilians against Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors. The fighting occurred along the Powder River in Montana Territory and Dakota Territory, in present-day Custer and Powder River counties, Montana and northeastern Wyoming.
↑ Greene, Jerome A. Lakota and Cheyenne: Indian Views of the Great Sioux War, 1876–1877, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994, p. xvi
↑ 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.
↑ Collins, Jr., Charles D. Atlas of the Sioux Wars, Second edition, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2006, Map 14, 15
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