Free The Indian Ring by Don Bendell

ate again, Chris Colt explained what had happened at Rosebud Creek after Joshua left and got dry-gulched.
    As Joshua well knew, January 1, 1876, all Indians who had not joined reservations were declared “hostile.” The commanding officer in charge of the campaign to return members of the Plains tribes to reservations or kill or imprison them was General George Crook, with a complement of twelve companies, ten companies of cavalry and two companies of infantry, and two main commanders: Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and Brigadier General Alfred H. Terry, who was the overall commander of that column. On March 1, the main column left from Fort Lincoln. They were besieged by blizzards from the get-go.
    Initially, the Crook’s Crow and Shoshone scouts spotted Sioux and Cheyenne along the Powder River. Colonel Joseph Reynolds had them follow some Lakota and then attacked their village on the bluffs over the Powder River. Reynoldshad to retreat, however, because of heavy long-range rifle fire by Lakota warriors. When he rejoined Crook, the general returned the command to base and promptly court-martialed Reynolds for his failure.
    The Lakota victory at Powder River really motivated the warriors and increased participation as more warriors joined Sitting Bull. That was why so many were at the giant encampment when Joshua went through the sun dance and more were joining each day, with Cheyenne and Arapaho joining the swelling Lakota ranks. By the end of May, Crook set out with his column again with more than a thousand cavalry and infantrymen and more than fifty officers, as well as 262 Crow and Shoshone scouts. Crook’s force was just one of three columns planning on serving as attacking and blocking forces to squeeze the warriors into unwinnable battles. Crook neared Sitting Bull’s encampment at about the same time Joshua Strongheart joined the giant circle.
    Crook had stopped and fortified his forces at the Tongue River. At that point, Sitting Bull had not had his vision yet and he, Joshua, and several more were preparing for the sun dance. Sitting Bull sent a warrior volunteer with a coup staff with white cloth tied to it. He took a message from Sitting Bull warning Crook not to come any closer to the Lakota forces and their allies. The warrior said that Sitting Bull said to tell the general if he advanced, he would have a big fight on his hands. General Crook ignored the warning and pushed on, wanting a fight anyway.
    On the morning of the 17th of June, the day after Strongheart left Sitting Bull, Cook’s soldiers were taking a meal break along the Rosebud Creek, and were attacked by Cheyenne and Sioux being led by Crazy Horse. The first attack was repulsed, not by the cavalry but by Crook’s scouts, the Lakota’s enemies, the Shoshone and Crow scouts who foughthard trying to impress Crook and his men. Crook was still being naïve about the Lakota, however, thinking they would flee if he attacked in force. He did not know how many thousands of Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho had assembled and banded together. On Crooks orders, Captain Anson Mills led his Cavalry companies up Rosebud Creek and attacked the Lakota satellite camp that Crook believed lay just ahead.
    Crook was shocked when the warriors attacked his column in the area Mills’s unit had been in instead of fleeing. Crook then sent a courier to fetch Mills, who actually ran into the rear of another Lakota force and surprised them from behind, putting them in the midst of two forces, Mills’s and Crook’s. The Lakota, however, ran around Crook’s force and made an escape, so Crook was already claiming he had won the Battle of the Rosebud. Strategically, he’d gotten whipped, as his men had shot more than twenty-five thousand rounds of ammunition and only killed thirteen Lakota, but he lost twenty-eight men, and had well over four dozen wounded. Crook was forced to return to his base camp on Goose Creek.