Patrick Edward Connor - Powder River Expedition

Powder River Expedition

See main article: Powder River Expedition (1865)

After the Bear River Battle (or massacre), Connor was appointed brigadier general in the Volunteer Army. From July to September 1865, he led the punitive Powder River Expedition against the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians, who were attacking travelers along the Bozeman Trail and overland mail routes. Connor's 2,600 men were organized into three widely separated units which traversed hundreds of miles of what would become Montana and Wyoming. The soldiers were harassed by Indians who avoided pitched battles. Connor established Fort Connor, later Fort Reno, and destroyed an Arapaho village at the Battle of the Tongue River. His Pawnee scouts also ambushed and killed a band of 24 Cheyenne warriors. Most of the time, however, Connor's three units were on the defensive, fending off Indian raids on their horses and supply wagons which left many soldiers on foot, in rags, and reduced to eating raw horse meat. On the whole, the expedition was " a dismal failure" carried out with "large, ungainly columns filled with troops anxious to get home now that the Civil War was over."

As the expedition began, Conner's orders to his officers were, "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 countermanded this order.