- Battle of Powder River
Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of the Powder River
caption=Crook's column returning to Fort Fetterman.
"Leslie's Illustrated News", 1876.
partof=theBlack Hills War
date=March 17 ,1876
place=Montana Territory
result=Tactical U.S. victory
combatant1=
combatant2=
commander1=Little Wolf
commander2=Col. J. J. Reynolds
strength1=225
strength2=300
casualties2=4 killed
6 wounded
casualties1=1 killed
1 wounded + several women/children froze to deathThe Battle of Powder River occurred
March 17 ,1876 , in theMontana Territory between theUnited States Army and a force ofCheyenne Native Americans during Crook's Big Horn Expedition in theBlack Hills War .Overview
Maj. Gen.
George Crook , commander of theDepartment of the Platte , had been ordered to locate the camps of several bands of Sioux andCheyenne that had left their reservations and appeared to be preparing to go on the warpath. The camps ofSitting Bull andCrazy Horse were thought to be located in the region of the headwaters of the Powder, Tongue, and Rosebud rivers. Crook was concerned that as spring progressed and the weather improved, hundreds more Indians might leave the reservations to join the war bands, and he wanted to locate and destroy the camps and villages as soon as possible.Accompanied by a handful of newspaper reporters, Crook left
Fort Fetterman onMarch 1 with 883 men from a variety of cavalry regiments, along with civilian and friendly Indian scouts and a herd of 45 beef cattle. Ablizzard onMarch 5 deposited over a foot of snow and significantly delayed Crook's progress. Temperatures fell so low that thethermometers of the day could not record the cold. The soldiers had to heat their forks in the coals of their fires to prevent the tines from freezing to their tongues. Crook's column slowly followed oldBozeman Trail to the head of Otter Creek, where onMarch 16 , Crook divided his command. At 5 p.m., in freezing weather, he sent Col.Joseph J. Reynolds (aWest Point classmate of PresidentUlysses S. Grant and a combat veteran of both theMexican-American War and Civil War) on a night march with about 300 men with rations for one day, following the trail of two Indians southeast toward the Powder River.Shortly before dawn on
March 17 , scouts located a large Indian village on the west bank of Powder River. The camp was 600 to 1,000 feet below the soldiers, who were on a high plateau. It proved to be a Cheyenne village of 105 lodges, containing about 600 Northern Cheynne, with perhaps 225 warriors and an immense pony herd (estimated at 800 to 1,500 in number). However, gaining access to the hostile village proved problematic, as the ground was snow covered and icy, and broken up by numerous steep ravines andcoulee s. With great difficulty, Reynolds led his men and horses down the bluffs. He ordered Company K to make a pistol charge through the village. However, he failed to support this attack with the rest of his command, and the warriors quickly escaped. The Cheyenne, including Wooden Leg, led them from the danger and occupied the bluffs to the north, where his warriors retaliated with a galling fire. From positions on ledges and behind rocks, the Indians held the soldiers at bay until all the women and children escaped across the river, and Cheyenne withdrew to the relative safety of Sitting Bull's and Crazy Horse's villages further up the Powder River where they were given shelter, food, and clothing.By 9:00 a.m., Reynolds had full possession of the abandoned village, which proved to be full of guns, ammunition, war supplies, and vast stores of food, confirming military fears that Crazy Horse planned to go on the warpath. The colonel gave orders for his men to destroy it and then withdraw twenty miles southward to the mouth of Lodge Pole Creek, where he was to rejoin General Crook. The village and supplies proved difficult to burn, and the resulting exploding ammunition was hazardous to the troopers. By 2:30 p.m., Reynolds had finally accomplished that task and his men withdrew to Lodge Pole Creek, arriving at 9:00 p.m., in a greatly exhausted condition. However, Crook was not there, as he had camped ten miles to the northeast and had failed to inform Reynolds of his new location. In Reynolds's premature haste to withdraw, he left behind three dead soldiers, as well as a badly wounded private who was subsequently "cut limb to limb" by vengeful Indians. For listing of dead cavalrymen see [ [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nalakota/wotw/military/reynoldsattackcrazyhorsevillage_wotw043034.html] {Possibly the remains of the unfortune Private were those of a human skull and cavalry uniform found in a Powder River Indian Camp by Custer as he described in a letter of June 17, 1876 to his wife; "Boots and Saddles".Chapter 34}.]
Reynolds had captured a large portion of Cheyenne ponies. However, Indians soon recaptured them during another snowstorm early on the morning of
March 18 , as the exhausted guards were negligent and sleepy. It was not until noon that day that Reynolds finally rendezvoused with General Crook. The reunited column finally arrived back at Fort Fetterman onMarch 26 .Colonel Reynolds was accused of dereliction of duty for failing to properly support the first charge with his whole 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 the 800 captured ponies. In January 1877, he was
court-martial led at Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, and found guilty. He was sentenced to suspension from rank and command for one year for his conduct. His friend, President Grant, remitted the sentence, but Reynolds never served again. He was retired on disability leave onJune 25 ,1877 , exactly one year after theBattle of Little Bighorn . Crook's and Reynolds's failed Big Horn Expedition and their inability to destroy Crazy Horse's fighting ability at Powder River had contributed to that embarrassing defeat.The Powder River battle site is near present-day
Broadus, Montana .In 1951, Hollywood produced a fictional movie loosely based upon the historical battle, starring
Van Heflin ,Yvonne De Carlo ,Jack Oakie , andRock Hudson . The movie was released in the United States under the name "Tomahawk," and entitled "Battle of Powder River" in theUnited Kingdom and elsewhere.Order of Battle
U.S. Army (Col J. J. Reynolds, 3rd U.S. Cav., in command)
* Troops A, B, E, I, and K, 2nd U.S. Cavalry
* Troops A, D, E, F, and M, 3rd U.S. CavalrySioux and Cheyenne (Crazy Horse and Little Wolf in command)
* war band of approximately 225 warriors
References
* 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. ISBN 0-8061-2535-7.
* Marquis, Thomas, "Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer". 1920.
* [http://www.rootsweb.com/~nalakota/wotw/military/reynoldsattackcrazyhorsevillage_wotw043034.html Voices from the Western Frontier]
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