Places: Battlefield of the Rosebud, June 17, 1876

Almost everyone knows what happened at the Battle of the Little Bighorn/Greasy Grass, June 26, 1876.  Units of the 7th Cavalry under Bvt. Maj. Gen./Col. George Armstrong Custer were overwhelmed by Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapahoe warriors and died where they stood, or fled.  However, days earlier, many of these same warriors had scored another significant victory, against a much larger army and an arguably more skilled opponent. 

On June 17, 1876, Crazy Horse of the Oglala Lakota led an army of over 1,000 warriors, some sources estimate almost 1800, in an attack on Gen. George Crook's 950 soldiers supplemented by 175 Crow, 86 Shoshone and a scatter of 100 armed civilians.  Totals killed or wounded included, 13-36 killed and 65-100 wounded on the Sioux side and U.S. 14-28 killed, 43-46 wounded and, for the Crows and Shoshones, 1-5 and 1-8 killed respectively.  It wasn't the total wipeout that Little Bighorn was, but it did force Crook to await reinforcements before resuming hostilities in August, something Custer should've done when his turn came to face Crazy Horse in battle.

The site of the Battle of the Rosebud is now Rosebud Battlefield State Park, in Bighorn County, Montana.  It's one the National Register of Historic Places and designed a National Historic Landmark as of 2008. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did It Happen: Custer's Cheyenne Family

Image
Despite popular legends to the contrary, when Col. George Armstrong Custer's body was found after the Battle of the Little Bighorn/Greasy Grass in June 1876, he wasn't scalped or mutilated.  However, the corpses of many of the men nearby, including George's brother Thomas, were mutilated.  Although some White commentators at the time believed the lack of mutilation might have been the Natives way of showing respect to a brave enemy anyone who had rode and fought with Custer knew this idea held no water whatsoever.  No Native respected George Custer.  He had the blood of the Washita Massacre of 1868 on his hands.  There would have been plenty of Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors on the battlefield who would have taken the chance to show their disdain for him.  Other specular insists that it was because Custer wasn't in military dress, or that he'd cut his famous long, curly yellow hair prior to battle.  Still, someone could've recognized him and pointed him...
Read more

Trapper and Guide: Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, 1805-1866

Image
The only son of Sacajawea of the Shoshone and Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian fur trapper who may have been mixed-race himself, became a man of many talents.  Throughout his life, Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, 1805-1866 was a trapper, trader, scout, guide and interpreter as well as a mayor, prospector and hotel operator.  He was also educated, well-traveled in Europe and America, and spoke English, French, Spanish, German and several Native languages including his mother's Shoshone. The life of this remarkable man began in 1805 at Fort Mandan, near present-day Washburn, North Dakota.  Toussaint Charbonneau had signed on with the Lewis and Clark expedition as a hunter, interpreter and guide, but the real draw was his pregnant teenaged wife, Sacajawea, a Shoshone by birth.  Lewis and Clark knew they would need to trade horses from the Shoshone to make it over the Rocky Mountains and they would need an in with the tribe when the time came.  Sacajawea went i...
Read more

Cameahwait and Sacajawea

Image
The story of Sacajawea's reunion with her family and tribe during the Lewis and Clark Expedition is a familiar one, told from her vantage point.  However, her brother, Cameahwait, by this time chief of the Salmon Eater band of the Lemhi Shoshone would have also had feelings in the matter. Little is known of Cameahwait's life or how he rose to a position of authority among his people.  Apparently, he was several years older than Sacajawea.  In their society, siblings and cousins are often considered the same relationship and spoken of in the same words.  Some sources suggest that they may have been cousins, or even half-siblings.  No matter what the exact familial rank, their actions when they met up again suggested a close family bond.  When Sacajawea was 12 and her brother much older and already an established warrior, the Hidatsa raided their hunting camp.  Four men, four boys and some elderly and children were killed.  Sacajawea and some othe...
Read more