Battle of Slim Buttes - Background

Background

Following the Little Bighorn debacle, Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, commanding the Department of Missouri, ordered the U.S. Army to convince the hostile Indians to return to their reservations. Generals Alfred Terry and George Crook took up an unsuccessful late summer chase of the Lakota and Cheyenne. The campaign resumed on August 5, and on August 10 the combined force, leaving its wagon train behind to unencumber the pursuit, moved east toward the Black Hills. Bad weather, extreme muddy conditions on the trail, and overtaxed men and animals led to the combined force breaking up on August 18, with Terry's men returning to their bases.

General Crook’s force continued the pursuit but soon began running short of supplies. The general ordered his men to go on half rations. Soon, many of the men resorted to eating mule and horseflesh. A column under Capt. Anson Mills was dispatched to Deadwood, a Black Hills mining town, to find supplies, and en route stumbled onto the Miniconjou Sioux village of American Horse.

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