Hayfield Fight - Background

Background

Fort C.F. Smith was founded in 1866 as one of three forts established by the United States to protect emigrants on the Bozeman Trail which led from Fort Laramie in Wyoming to the gold fields of Montana. The trail ran through the Powder River country occupied by the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arapaho, and Crow. The first three tribes bitterly opposed the existence of the Bozeman Trail and the presence of American soldiers along the trail. In Red Cloud's War the Indians repeatedly attacked the soldiers and civilians traversing the trail. In the Fetterman Fight on December 21, 1866, the Indians scored a major victory, killing all 81 men in Fetterman's command.

Indian attacks near Fort Smith resumed in summer 1867. In June Indians captured 40 mules and horses from the fort, drove away the livestock of a military supply train, and harassed Crow villages near the fort. On July 12, Crow scouts told the soldiers that Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors were gathering in the Rosebud valley, 50 miles east of the fort. On July 23, two companies of infantry, commanded by Lt. Col. Luther P. Bradley, arrived to reinforce the fort. Bradley brought with him breech-loading Springfield Model 1866 rifles to replace the obsolete muskets the soldiers were armed with. The new rifles had a rate of fire of 8 to 10 rounds per minute, compared to 3 rounds per minute for the old muskets and could be reloaded easily from a prone position. The garrison of the fort, now commanded by Bradley, consisted of about 350 soldiers and a number of civilian contractors. Most of the civilians were armed with 7-shot Spencer repeating rifles.

A major activity at Fort Smith was cutting and drying grass for hay to feed livestock during the long, cold winters. Two and one-half miles from the fort, a corral had been built for defense of the civilian hay cutters. The corral was 100 feet by 60 feet in size (about 30 by 18 mts). Large logs had been laid on the ground over which a lattice framework was erected. Trenches were dug at each corner for defense. Tents and a picket line for livestock were inside the corral. Outside the corral were three rifle pits.

In late July 1867, after their annual sun dance, bands of Oglala Lakota under Red Cloud and the other Powder River Sioux joined with Northern Cheyenne on the Little Bighorn River, where they resolved to attack soldiers at Fort C.F. Smith and Fort Phil Kearny. Unable to agree which to attack first, the bands split into two large groups, with several hundred moving against Fort C.F. Smith and a similar number, including Red Cloud, headed to Fort Phil Kearny.