: The Dull Knife Battle, 1876

Major Frank North—commanding, Pawnee Battlion

Captain Luther North—second in command, Pawnee Battlion

Lieutenant S. E. Cushing—Pawnee Battalion

Tom Cosgrove—commanding Shoshone battalion

Yancy Eckles—second in command, Shoshone battalion

Baptiste Pourier (“Big Bat”)

Bill Rowland (“Long Knife”)—Cheyenne squawman, interpreter for Powder River Expedition

“Old” Bill Hamilton—scout on Powder River Expedition

Lakota White Bull Sitting Bull One Horn Gall Long Feather Bear’s Face No Neck Red Skirt High Bear Jumping Bull Fire-What-Man Bull Eagle Black Eagle Rising Sun Small Bear Standing Bear Spotted Elk Red Cloud Pretty Bear Yellow Eagle John Sans Arc Red Shirt Jackass Three Bears Feathers on the Head Spotted Tail

Arikara/Ree Bear Plume White Antelope

Cheyenne

“Tse-tsehese-staeste”

“Those Who Are Hearted Alike” Crow Split Nose Last Bull Sits in the Night Morning Star Little Wolf Old Bear Young Two Moon Beaver Claws Wolf Tooth Brave Bear Wooden Leg Left Handed Wolf Beaver Dam Gypsum Hail Crow Necklace High Wolf Brave Wolf Black White Man Working Man Buffalo Calf Woman Braided Locks Black Hairy Dog Coal Bear Box Elder Medicine Top Spotted Blackbird Wrapped Hair Yellow Eagle Turtle Road Medicine Bear Long Jaw at ambush ravine: Curly Little Hawk Strange Owl Bull Hump Bobtail Horse Little Shield Two Bull High Bull Burns Red in the Sun Walking Calf Hawk’s Visit Four Sacred Spirits Old Bull Antelope Buffalo Chief Two Bulls Wooden Nose Charging Bear Tall Sioux Dog White Frog   with Little Wolf at mouth of the ravine: White Frog Two Bulls Bald-Faced Bull Walking Whirlwind Comes Together Yellow Nose White Horse Big Horse Little Horse Beaver Heart Big Head Walks Last White Buffalo Young Turkey Leg Sitting Bear Fox Stops in a Hurry   Cheyenne scouts and in-laws with Bill Rowland: Colonel Hard Robe Roan Bear Little Fish Old Crow Cut Nose Satchel/Wolf Satchel Hard Robe Bird Blown Away

Pawnee Ralph Weeks Frank White Peter Headman (“Boy Chief” / Pe- isk-le-shar) Rus Roberts

Shoshone Dick Washakie Anzi

Arapaho Sharp Nose Old Eagle Six Feathers Little Fork White Horse William Friday—interpreter

Casualties

Spring Creek Encounter:

Private John Donahoe—G Company, Twenty-second U.S. Infantry (wounded)

Sergeant Robert Anderson—G Company, Twenty-second U.S. Infantry (wounded)

Private Francis Marriaggi—G Company, Seventeenth U.S. Infantry (wounded)

Cedar Creek Encounter:

Private John Geyer—I Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry (wounded)

Sergeant Robert W. Phelan—E Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Dull Knife Battle:

*First Lieutenant John A. McKinney—M Troop, Fourth U.S. Cavalry

*Corporal Patrick F. Ryan—D Troop, Fourth U.S. Cavalry

*Private John Sullivan—B Troop, Fourth U.S. Cavalry (only soldier scalped in the battle)

*Private James Baird—D Troop, Fourth U.S. Cavalry (only soldier buried on battlefield)

*Private Alexander Keller—E Troop, Fourth U.S. Cavalry

*Private John Menges—H Troop, Fifth U.S. Cavalry

*Private Alexander McFarland—L Troop, Fifth U.S. Cavalry (died on November 28 of his wounds)

†First Sergeant Thomas H. Forsyth—M Troop, Fourth U.S. Cavalry

†Sergeant James Cunningham—H Troop, Third U.S. Cavalry

†Private Philip Holden—H Troop, Third U.S. Cavalry

†Private George Talmadge—H Troop, Third U.S. Cavalry

* dead

† wounded

The fact of the case is the operations of Generals Terry and Crook will not bear criticism, and my only thought has been to let them sleep. I approved what was done, for the sake of the troops, but in doing so, I was not approving much, as you know.

—Lieutenant General Philip H. Sheridan

(to General Wm. T. Sherman)

The [Battle of Cedar Creek] was no more bloody or decisive than the fight with Otis a week earlier, but it afforded Miles the chance to maneuver an entire regiment and laid the groundwork for much self- congratulation.

—Robert M. Utley

The Lance and the Shield

The encounter [at Cedar Creek] between the colonel [Miles] and chief [Sitting Bull] is one of the most striking episodes in the Indian Wars. It is as replete with imperious demands and arrogant challenges to combat as any knightly tale …

—Fairfax Downey

Indian Fighting Army

Neither the wild tribes, nor the Government Indian Scouts ever adopted any of the white soldiers’ tactics. They thought their own much better.

—Captain Luther H. North

Pawnee Battalion

The noble red man is not a fool. He is a cunning nomad, who hates civilization, and knows how to get all out of it that pleases him—whiskey, tobacco, rations and blankets, idleness in peace and a rattling fight whenever he is ready for it. And when he is beaten he returns to the arms of his guardians on the reservation, bringing his store of white scalps with him as pleasing memorials of the good time he had.

It is time to stop all that. The continent is getting too crowded.

—Editorial

New York Herald

This expedition was one of the best equipped that ever started on an Indian campaign … [The Cheyenne] were foemen worthy of Mackenzie’s or anybody else’s steel. The battle which ensued was in some respects one of the most terrible in Western history, and in its results exemplified, as few others have done, the horrible character of war.

—Cyrus Townsend Brady

Indian Fights and Fighters

Never again would Northern Cheyenne material culture reach the heights of richness and splendor that the people knew before that bitter day in the Big Horns.

—Peter J. Powell