Powder River Expedition (1865) - Background

Background

The Sand Creek massacre of Cheyenne in November 1864 intensified Indian reprisals and raids in the Platte River valley. (See Battle of Julesburg) After the raids, the Sioux, Lakota, 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 also perceived that the Bozeman Trail, blazed in 1863 and traversing the heart of the Powder River country, was a threat. Although roads through Indian territory were permitted by the Fort Laramie Treaty, the Sioux, mostly Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho harassed miners and other travelers along the trail in 1864 and 1865. In July 1865, 1,000 Indian warriors attacked a bridge across the North Platte River near Fort Caspar and succeeded in temporarily shutting down travel on both the Bozeman and the Oregon Trail. 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 Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho. It was led by Brigadier General Patrick E. Connor. Dodge ordered Connor to "make vigorous war upon the Indians and punish them so that they will be forced to keep the peace." The Connor expedition was one of the last Indian war campaigns carried out by U.S Volunteer soldiers. One of Connor's guides was the legendary frontiersman Jim Bridger.

Connor's strategy was for three columns of soldiers to march into the Powder River Country. The "Right Column" was composed of 1,400 Missouri soldiers, mostly mounted, led by Colonel Nelson Cole. It marched from Omaha, Nebraska and was to follow the Loup River in Nebraska westward to the Black Hills and meet up with Connor near the Powder River. The "Center Column" of 600 men was commanded by Samuel Walker of the 16th Kansas Cavalry and was to head north from Fort Laramie and traverse the country west of the Black Hills. The "Left Column" of 675 men was composed of the 6th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry Regiment under Colonel James H. Kidd, recently transferred from the Civil War battlefields of Virginia. This command included 95 Pawnee and 84 Omaha scouts and a wagon train full of supplies with 195 civilian teamsters. General Connor would personally accompany Kidd's column and would move along 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, "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 too late as Connor's expedition had already departed and was 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 2,600 because many soldiers were mustered out of the army at the end of the Civil War. The remaining soldiers were "mutinous, dissatisfied, and inefficient." Few of the men and officers had any experience fighting Indians or travel on the Great Plains. Procuring supplies were also a problem.