Battle of the Rosebud: 145th Anniversary

[Absalom]

A little history reminder, about one of the most under-appreciated battles of the Plains Wars, even though it was numerically the largest.

Everybody knows about Custer and the Little Bighorn. But nine days earlier, on June 17, 1876, on the banks of Rosebud Creek, the same warriors that fought Custer confronted General George Crook's column about 50 miles to the South.

You can find the details on Wikipedia and in many good books.

A day of heavy but dispersed fighting left Crook's troops (about 950, plus a couple hundred Indian scouts and armed civilians) in control of the field with only about 20-30 dead, and the Sioux and Cheyenne withdrew.

But it was a strategic victory for the tribes, as Crook decided not to advance and instead to turn back and resupply. The decision haunted his career ever since.

Had he continued as planned, the Battle of the Little Bighorn would have either not happened or at least turned out differently, as it would have fundamentally affected the movement of the tribal villages over the next week.

At the very least, a communications and intelligence failure may have doomed Custer. All indications are that the information about the battle did not reach Custer's command before his attack. Custer could be rash, but he wasn't stupid. Had he been aware that he wasn't just capturing some villages, but that the tribes he was tracking were in an aggressive mode and large and confident enough to seek out and attack a force more than times-and-a-half the size of his, and fight it to a standstill, his dispositions would almost certainly have been different.

 

[bigwheelzip]

It's funny how sometimes I read something here which gets me to check something else out. Your post made me think of an interesting young native American high school student that was our neighbor in NY back in the 70's. He disappeared one day, and many years later, I read he'd gone back to his roots with the Plains Indians. Because of your post, I looked him up again just now, and read that he passed on to the Spirit World this past New Years Eve.

Steven Emery Obituary - PINE RIDGE, SD | Sioux Funeral Home

I mention him because he was the fourth grand-nephew to Chief Red Cloud, the leader of the band that won the Fetterman Fight, the worst U.S. military loss on the plains, until Custer's loss a decade later.

Fetterman Fight - Wikipedia

 

[Absalom]

…
I mention him because he was the fourth grand-nephew to Chief Red Cloud, the leader of the band that won the Fetterman Fight, ….

Most significantly, Red Cloud didn't just win that fight, but his entire war for the Powder River country. It was the only "political", not just battlefield victory that any of the tribes achieved.

Not in the long run, of course, but the 2. Treaty of Ft. Laramie in 1868 was a de facto acknowledgment that the Sioux had won. The Army withdrew from the Powder River and abandoned the forts along the Bozeman Trail, including Ft. Phil Kearny from which Fetterman had marched out.

Of course, that only held until Custer was sent into the Black Hills in 1874, precipitating the chain of events ultimately leading to the Great Sioux War of 1876/77.

 

[bigwheelzip]

Most significantly, Red Cloud didn't just win that fight, but his entire war for the Powder River country. It was the only "political", not just battlefield victory that any of the tribes achieved.

Reading that makes me feel that in some way, Red Cloud's spirit was in that young man we knew. He was very alert and we'll spoken, polite with us but you always got the feeling he was out-of-place and ready for a fight.
So fitting that he left Harvard Law and represented his plains peoples in legal battles.
Sad to read of his passing, but his spirit undoubtedly continues in his 20 grandchildren.


Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

 

[jag312]

It is very interesting about Pvt. Charles Anderson, C Company, of the 7th Cavalry. The day before Custer was ordered to leave to meet with Reno's scouting party, Anderson saddled his horse and rode off, never to be seen again. Premonition of what would happen in a few days? Had he been at The Little Big Horn, he would have been killed with the rest of C Company. I have his Springfield Model 1873 Cavalry Carbine.


Red Cloud; As many of you know, I collect paintings by Astley David Middleton Cooper (A.D.M. Cooper). Cooper lived with Red Cloud's group of Sioux and maintained friends with them for the rest of his life. Many of Cooper's paintings are what he saw while with Red Cloud. Such as The Buffalo Hunt, The Buffalo Inquest, Sunset At The Watering Pool.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

If you do much research into the Little Big Horn fiasco, you will read that Custer's own Indian scouts told him there were lots of Ponies eating the grass! But Custer refused to believe them! Why? He had intelligence that was unrefutably that they were wrong! The Bureau of Indian Affairs', had agents on every reservation reporting on how many had left and gone on "The War Path!" The Interior Department assured Custer in several dispatched, that all told there were no more than 500 warriors and their families out there! (The agents were the same ones that pocketed money for cattle and were starving the various tribes! They didn't want if found out how bad they screwed the Indians, so they "Grossly Underestimated the numbers!) By the time Custer saw how correct his scouts had been there were several thousand Very angry Indians coming to give him a haircut!

The wisdom of splitting his regiment into the 3 battalions is questionable, until you understand, He and a few old sergeants and troopers knew what combat with anything bigger that a Battalion even looked like and those memories were over 20 years old! NONE of his subordinates actually knew what they were doing! One senior officer after first contact abandoned his wounded and fled the field. His wounded were accidentally rescued by the other battalion as they abandoned Custer's Battle Plan (and orders) and went to cross the river. Custer's force was cut off and unsupported, then reduced piecemeal until all were lost. On the battle field you can actually see the smaller and smaller rings as the 7th shrank into a true Legion of the Damned!

All those Medals of Honor, were give to men that were nowhere near where they belonged!

That very last and inner most position at Custer's Last Stand, was maned by 3 privets that hadn't been in the Army single year! No Bands or medals for them! They were gathered into a single mass grave on a lonely wind blown hill. They followed and died with their officers, going down a path they didn't deserve, While Cowards and Thieves lived to testify lies under oath!

Ivan

 

[j38]

I've visited the Rosebud battlefield twice. It covers a pretty large physical area and it helps a lot if you read up on it beforehand so you can more easily visualize the movement of the participants when on-site. Thanks for the post!

Jerry