Battle of the Rosebud

On June 17, 1876, in the Montana Territory, soldiers of the United States Army joined with Crow and Shoshoni allies to face off against warriors made up mostly of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne fighters, part of the larger struggle known as the Great Sioux War of 1876. This clash became known to the Cheyenne as the Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother, a name drawn from an episode during the fighting that involved Buffalo Calf Road Woman. Crazy Horse led the Indians who blocked General George Crook's advance that day, forcing him to hold off and wait for reinforcements before he could continue his campaign in August.

Background

After emerging victorious from Red Cloud's War, the Lakota and their Northern Cheyenne allies secured a reservation under the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868. This grant encompassed the Black Hills within Dakota Territory as well as a vast stretch of unceded land later absorbed into Montana and Wyoming. These lands belonged solely to the Indians, and no non-Indian person, save government officials, could lawfully set foot there. That arrangement held until 1874, when gold turned up in the Black Hills and prompted federal officials to seek purchase of the land from its native inhabitants. Washington then demanded that every band of Lakota and Cheyenne report to reservation agencies by January 31, 1876, to hammer out terms of sale. Several bands refused, and once that deadline slipped by, the government moved to compel Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and those who followed them onto reservation land. A military campaign launched against the holdouts in March of that year collapsed, culminating in defeat at the Battle of Powder River.

By June 1876, the army mounted a fresh offensive, sending three columns converging on the Bighorn and Powder river region. Colonel John Gibbon approached from the west, General Alfred Terry (accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer) advanced from the east, and General George Crook pushed north from Fort Fetterman, situated near what is now Douglas, Wyoming. Together these forces aimed to locate the resisting bands and drive them onto the reservation. Crook commanded what became known as the Bighorn and Yellowstone Expedition, numbering 993 cavalrymen and mounted infantry riding mules, alongside 197 civilian packers and teamsters, 65 miners from Montana, three scouts, and five journalists. His most trusted scout was Frank Grouard, and hidden among the teamsters, disguised as a man, rode Calamity Jane.

Setting out from Fort Fetterman, Crook's column traced the long-abandoned Bozeman Trail, passing sites that had witnessed heavy fighting during Red Cloud's War a decade before. By June 8 his troops reached the Tongue River, close to present-day Sheridan, Wyoming. Crazy Horse had made clear he would resist if "Three Stars," as he called Crook, dared cross that river, and the following day Indian fighters mounted a long-range assault, sending shots into the army camp and wounding two soldiers. Crook then held his position along the Tongue for several days, awaiting reinforcement from Crow and Shoshoni allies. On June 14, Frank Grouard brought in 175 Crow and 86 Shoshoni warriors, well-armed men eager for a chance to strike old rivals, though they cautioned that the Lakota and Cheyenne numbered "as grass" in their multitude. Crook's reputation as an Indian fighter rested on the principle of turning Indians against Indians, and these allied warriors were vital to his plans.

On June 16, Crook left behind his wagons and pack train, guarded by most of the civilian personnel, and pushed northward past the Tongue with Crow and Shoshoni scouts leading the way toward the headwaters of Rosebud Creek, hunting for the Lakota and Cheyenne. Every soldier carried rations for four days and a hundred rounds of ammunition apiece. Any hope of a stealthy advance dissolved when the Crow and Shoshoni stumbled upon a buffalo herd and opened fire on it. Crook expected to soon locate a substantial Indian encampment along Rosebud Creek and strike it, but the village actually lay to the west, on Ash Creek. He also misjudged how fiercely his opponents would fight, anticipating scattered ambushes and hit-and-run skirmishes rather than a full pitched engagement.

Meanwhile, nearly a thousand Indian warriors had departed their village under cover of darkness on the night of June 16, riding out to find Crook's soldiers along the Rosebud. They traveled through the night, paused only briefly to rest their horses, then pressed onward, finally encountering Crook's scouts around 8:30 in the morning on June 17.

Attack on the Rosebud

Marching north beside the south fork of Rosebud Creek on June 17, 1876, Crook's men found none of the festive mood that had lingered since their Crow and Shoshoni scouts joined them two days before. Weariness weighed on the column, especially the infantry mounted on mules, worn down by a grueling 35 mile trek the day before and a 3:00 am wake-up call that morning. Around 8 am Crook called a halt so men and animals could recover, and despite being surrounded by enemy country, he took no particular precautions, simply letting the units stop where they stood in marching formation. While the troops rested, their native allies stayed watchful. Distant gunfire drifted down from bluffs to the north where the scouts had positioned themselves, and at first the soldiers assumed it was merely Crow hunters after buffalo. But as the shooting grew fiercer, two Crow scouts dashed into the resting camp yelling warnings of the Lakota. Within half an hour, at roughly 8:30, Sioux and Cheyenne fighters had fully engaged the allied scouts on the high ground above the main force. Outnumbered badly, the Crow and Shoshoni pulled back toward camp, though their stubborn resistance bought Crook precious time to organize his men.

What followed was six hours of chaotic combat, a shifting contest between Crook's soldiers and the warriors under Crazy Horse across a battlefield stretching some three miles. Both sides splintered into separate clusters as the fighting wore on, and although the cavalry could repel attacks and push the Lakota and Cheyenne back, catching and finishing them proved impossible.

Crook's first move was to claim the elevated ground flanking the creek on both sides. Captain Van Vliet took two troops of the 3rd Cavalry to hold the southern bluffs against any threat from that direction, while to the north, Major Chambers led two companies of the 4th Infantry along with three of the 9th, and Captain Noyes commanded three troops of the 2nd Cavalry, all forming a dismounted line that pushed toward the Lakota. Their advance crawled forward slowly, harassed by fire raining down from Indians holding high ground to the northeast.

Looking to speed things along, Crook turned to Captain Anson Mills, ordering his six troops of the 3rd Cavalry into a mounted charge. The assault rattled the warriors, who retreated along the ridge, and Mills quickly regrouped three troops for a second rush that pushed them back again to the next rise. Just as Mills prepared to press his advantage further, Crook called off the advance and told him to hold defensively instead. Chambers and Noyes hurried their men up in support, reaching Mills atop the ridge within minutes. Meanwhile the main body of Crook's force, together with packers and miners, took possession of a rise that came to be called Crook's Hill. There, around 9:30 in the morning, Crook set up his command post and weighed his options.

It was during Mills' push that the incident occurred which would give the Cheyenne their name for this fight. A warrior named Comes in Sight lost his mount to enemy fire and found himself fleeing on foot as Mills' troopers bore down. His sister, Buffalo Calf Road Woman, known also as Mutsimiuna, rode into the danger to save him, and he leaped onto her horse behind her as they made their escape together. Mills himself later marveled at the skill of the warriors surging toward his line, remarking that they ranked among the finest cavalrymen anywhere, exposing barely any part of themselves while riding, one arm hooked around the horse's neck and a leg draped over its back, firing and thrusting with lances from beneath the animal's neck so that no clear target ever presented itself.

Though Crook's charges won him useful ground, they inflicted little real harm. The warriors scattered under pressure but refused to abandon the fight, pulling back only to resume long-range fire and launch small strikes again and again. Whenever the cavalry countercharged, the Lakota and Cheyenne simply outran them on their fast ponies, and Crook began to recognize that his tactics were not working.

Convinced, mistakenly, that the warriors fought so hard because they were protecting a village nearby, Crook pulled Mills and Noyes off the high ground of Crook's Hill and sent them east along the Rosebud to hunt for the settlement he believed existed. He also called Van Vliet's battalion back from south of the creek to bolster his position. But while Mills and Noyes searched in vain for a village that was not there, matters

Historic site

Montana's Big Horn County is home to the protected grounds of this engagement, now maintained as Rosebud Battlefield State Park. Officials placed the location on the National Register of Historic Places back in 1972, and decades later, in 2008, it received the additional honor of National Historic Landmark status.