Battle of Powder River was a Indian Wars and Frontier Conflicts engagement fought in Montana, 1876.
On March 17, 1876, forces engaged in what became known as the Battle of Powder River, sometimes called the Reynolds Battle, in Montana Territory. This clash formed part of the Big Horn Expedition and marked the opening action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds led the assault, striking a village of Northern Cheyenne and Oglala Lakota people. The strike laid waste to a substantial quantity of Indian belongings, yet the operation itself was bungled in execution. Rather than breaking the will of those attacked, the affair only hardened the resolve of the Northern Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux to resist the government's push to compel the sale of the Black Hills and confine them to reservation life.
On March 17, 1876, forces engaged in what became known as the Battle of Powder River, sometimes called the Reynolds Battle, in Montana Territory. This clash formed part of the Big Horn Expedition and marked the opening action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds led the assault, striking a village of Northern Cheyenne and Oglala Lakota people. The strike laid waste to a substantial quantity of Indian belongings, yet the operation itself was bungled in execution. Rather than breaking the will of those attacked, the affair only hardened the resolve of the Northern Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux to resist the government's push to compel the sale of the Black Hills and confine them to reservation life.
Three soldiers received the nation's highest military honor for their conduct in the fighting.
William C. Bryan, a hospital steward temporarily assigned to Company K of the 2nd United States Cavalry Regiment, kept fighting on foot after his horse was shot out from under him. Despite heavy enemy fire and no help from others, he managed to carry two wounded comrades to safety, keeping them from being captured.
Jeremiah J. Murphy, a saddler serving as a private in Company F, 3rd United States Cavalry Regiment, earned recognition for attempting to rescue a wounded comrade.
Albert Glawinski, a blacksmith holding the rank of private in Company M, 3rd United States Cavalry Regiment, deliberately took up exposed positions while serving with the rear guard during a withdrawal.
Colonel Reynolds soon faced accusations that he had shirked his duty by not throwing his full command behind the opening assault, that he had needlessly destroyed captured stores, food, blankets, buffalo robes, and ammunition rather than putting them to army use, and above all that he had allowed hundreds of captured horses to slip away. A court-martial convened at Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory in January 1877 and convicted him on every count. The punishment handed down was suspension from rank and command for a full year. President Ulysses S. Grant, who had known Reynolds since their days together at West Point, later set aside the punishment, yet Reynolds would never again hold active command. He left the service on disability on June 25, 1877, precisely one year removed from the climactic clash of the Great Sioux War at the Little Bighorn. The setback Crook and Reynolds suffered, and their failure to inflict lasting harm on the Lakota and Cheyenne at Powder River, likely emboldened Indian defiance against American demands.
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