Wyoming History: Battle Of The Rosebud Started Great Sioux Wars Of 1876

In the shadow of the infamous Battle of the Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876, was another confrontation between U.S. soldiers and native warriors eight days earlier.

It would bring troops stationed at Fort Fetterman, near what is now Douglas, Wyoming, up to the Sheridan area.

When joined by Crow and Shoshone scouts, the group would move across the Montana border to Rosebud Creek, encounter Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors, and end up in a retreat after a daylong battle June 17, 1876.

It’s called the Battle of the Rosebud by historians, and the Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother by the Cheyenne and other native tribes.

On one side were more than 1,100 soldiers, civilians and native scouts led by Brigadier Gen. George Crook, who was assisted by Shoshone Chief Washakie, and on the other more than 1,000 native warriors led by Oglala Lakota Chief Crazy Horse, and Cheyenne Chiefs Two Moon, Young Two Moon and Spotted Wolf.

“It was an extremely important event that seems to get lost because of Little Big Horn,” said Bob Stottler, historian and former curator of the Washakie Museum & Cultural Center in Worland, Wyoming. “There couldn’t have been a Little Big Horn without the Rosebud as far as the Indians were concerned.

“They were filled with confidence because they had not only stopped, but driven back Crook, so they felt extremely confident and quite aggressive. So, instead of waiting for Custer to attack at the Little Big Horn, they attacked him once they discovered he was there.”

The battle would also lead to a delay of the U.S. government deadline and agenda to put all Native Americans on reservations and allow Sioux territory under treaty in the Black Hills to be illegally opened up to gold miners and settlers.

‘Opening Salvo’

“I think that it was the opening salvo in the Great Sioux Wars of 1876, and it started badly," Stottler said. "The leaders in Washington underestimated the number of Indians that were available for combat. They didn’t pay attention to what Indian agents were telling them about Indians that were leaving the reservation to join the summer roamers and the hostile elements of the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho. So, they didn’t really dedicate enough resources to that.”

At Wyoming’s Fort Fetterman State Historic Site, Superintendent and Curator Jenna Thorburn said that in 1876, the fort represented a key location to provide logistical support and house troops for the government’s planned campaign.

Crook was the commander of the Department of the Platte, and Fort Fetterman, built in 1867, was his primary supply depot, Thorburn said. The fort consisted of several buildings located on a high bluff on the south side of the North Platte River. There was no stockade.

“His encampment was across the river, and from my understanding, it was about 1,100 men that he had gathered for this,” she said. “We were more like the hub and the last fort standing. It was important to the Army at that point to have the fort.”

To meet the goals of the government’s campaign to put the natives on reservations, the Army leadership devised a three-pronged plan to surround the holdouts and forcibly bring them in.

Stottler said the original plan from Washington was that Crook would come from the south, Col. John Gibbons would come from the west with Montana-based troops, and Gen. Alfred Terry with Lt. Col. Custer would come from Fort Lincoln in Dakota Territory. They were to meet in or around the Little Big Horn area to try to trap the Indians there.

Preparations

The Cheyenne Weekly newspaper on June 3, 1876, published a story datelined from Fort Fetterman on May 26. The reporter detailed that there were 14 cavalry companies and three infantry companies preparing for the expedition.

“The train of expedition will consist of 100 wagons, 100 teamsters and 10 wagon masters, besides 320 pack mules with 70 packers … the capacity of the wagons is 3,500 pounds and the pack mules 120 pounds each,” the newspaper reported. “The infantry companies average 50 men each and the cavalry 55 men each, making the effective force of the expedition about 1,150 men.”

The expedition set off Monday, May 29, 1876. Five journalists were among those traveling with the soldiers.

The contingent arrived at the Tongue River and camped at its convergence with Prairie Dog Creek northeast of what is now Sheridan. A skirmish with 200 natives happened there, but that was just a warm-up for what was to come.

On June 11, 1876, the force moved to a location on Goose Creek where Crook set up his camp. A reporter with Crook reported miners who accompanied the force were panning gold out of Clear Fork and Crazy Woman’s Fork.

About 250 scouts from the Shoshone and Crow tribes arrived possibly on June 15, based on newspaper and historical accounts. Chief Washakie, who was at least 70 at the time, led his band. The contingent sans wagons then headed for Rosebud Creek on June 16.

“The Shoshone and the Crow scouts were more alert than the soldiers," Stottler said. "And when they got to the Rosebud the soldiers kind of took a day out. They were tired and they unsaddled their horses and kind of relaxed around the Rosebud Creek.

“The Indians went forward to scout, which was what they were paid to do, and it was them who detected the movement of the Sioux and Cheyenne encroaching up Crook’s position. At that point they rushed back to alert Crook that the Indians were coming, and then they turned around and attacked the Sioux and Cheyenne to stall them long enough to allow the soldiers to get ready.”

Native War Council

Rosebud Battlefield State Park Recreation Specialist Spencer Morris said that on the Native American side, he believes there were between 900 and 1,500 combatants who traveled from the Little Big Horn River encampment, or “Greasy Grass,” to confront the Crook forces.

He said a hunting party discovered the troops, went back to the Little Big Horn to inform the others and a war council was convened.

“There was a lot of talking according to oral tradition, ‘Do we fight, do we flee?’” he said. “After they go into their council, the Native Americans decided they were going to attack, this is our way of life. And they traveled all night to get to the Battle of the Rosebud.”

Spencer said the battlefield encompasses 10 to 14 square miles and the state park features a couple of highlights. One is Limpy’s Rock. Limpy was a Cheyenne warrior who had one leg shorter than the other.

“In the battle he was knocked off his horse and was able to get on some rocks and leap on Young Two Moon’s horse and be able to fight again,” he said.

There was also a Cheyenne chief named Comes-in-Sight who rode up a valley called the Gap and challenged infantry soldiers on higher ground. Comes-in-Sight then had his horse shot out from under him and was pinned down, Spencer said.

“Up to the west in this high hill are some Cheyenne warriors, and one warrior sees what is going on and hops on their horse and just runs down this hill, circles around Comes-in-Sight,” he said. “He gets on and they ride out through the Northern Cheyenne battle line.

“And it comes out that the warrior that saved Comes-In-Sight was his sister, named Buffalo Calf Road Woman, and because of her bravery, Native American tribes … know it as the ‘Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother.’”

Natives ‘Magnificently Mounted’

Journalists embedded with Crook reported that the native warriors were skilled.

“General Crook had not anticipated that the Sioux would fight a pitched battle, so that this had in it many elements of surprise. The battlefield during the heat of the fray was a most exciting spectacle,” the Cheyenne Daily Leader reported June 24, 1876, with a dateline of June 17 at Rosebud Creek. “The Indians completely surrounded our command … from every point on which they poured in a galling fire. They were magnificently mounted, armed with the finest long-range rifles, had an almost impregnable position, and were in the best possible shape for a long hard fight.”

Spencer said the native warriors did not use traditional weapons, but were well armed with Winchester lever-action and Henry repeating rifles, while the Army had single-shot breech-loading weapons.

The reporter for the Cheyenne Daily Leader said the encounter lasted form 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., when the “Sioux drew off and left us in possession of the field.”

Stottler said Crook and his whole command retreated to Goose Creek, where he dispatched messengers trying to get reinforcements as well as take care of his wounded, and replenish his stocks and provisions and ammunition, which were running low.

“So, it took him completely out of the fight,” he said. “There was no way he could get resupplied and reengage until much later. Gibbons was stalled a little bit east of Billings, Montana, and he couldn’t go any further. And Custer and those with him had no idea that the other two weren’t coming to their aid because they were completely out of the fight. It’s not like they had radios or anything.”

Largest Number Of Combatants

Spencer calls the battle the largest in terms of numbers during the Great Sioux Wars of 1876.

He said the early part of the battle from the Native American side was a divergence from typical guerilla warfare. There were repeated attacks by warriors directly on Crook’s troop positions and lines creating some confusion for the general about how to respond.

Then, about halfway through the battle, the natives switched back to hit-and-run tactics.

Estimates of those killed on either side vary widely, from nine to 28 men killed and up to 56 seriously injured on Crook’s side, and up to 36 Cheyenne and Lakota deaths and 63 wounded.

Stottler said the battle represented a win for the Indians.

“It was a victory for the native Americans, for the Sioux, Cheyenne and those folks, the Arapaho, because they stopped Crook from moving forward,” he said.

Spencer said that at one point Crook and Custer’s commands were only 26 miles apart. But that distance in 1876 represented a long day’s ride over difficult terrain.

“But I always wonder, had Rosebud not happened, had Crook met with Custer, I think we would have seen a completely different outcome of Little Bighorn and subsequently how the federal government dealt with, in 1876 terminology, ‘the Indian question.’”

For Thorburn, Rosebud and other battles of the Great Sioux Wars leave her with an obvious conclusion.

“They all underestimated the power of what the Native Americans could do,” she said. “The Army got their way in the end, but not without a lot of casualties.”

Contact Dale Killingbeck at dale@cowboystatedaily.com

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.