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The Battle of the Rosebud (also known the Battle of the Rosebud Creek) occurred June 17, 1876, in the Montana Territory between the United States Army and a force of Lakota Amerind Native Americans during the Black Hills War. The Cheyenne called it the Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother because of an incident during the conflict.
Background
General George Crook commanded a mixed force of some 970 cavalry and infantry, 80 civilian teamsters and miners, and 260 Crow (or Absaroke) and Shoshone Indian scouts, traditional foes of the Lakota desiring to retake old hunting grounds. The expedition was part of a three-pronged campaign by some 2,400 soldiers to force roughly 2,500 Lakota and Northern Cheyenne warriors and thousands of noncombatants to return to their reservations. The battle began shortly after 8 a.m. when Crook, stopping his column along the Rosebud to rest his animals and men, failed to take ordinary security precautions.
The battle
The battle was waged on difficult terrain, fighting from ridge to ridge and in a deep canyon. As Crook related: "The sides were very steep, covered with pine and apparently impregnable.". The Indian attack initially took the soldiers by surprise and a desperate battle ensued for six hours. Hard fighting by Crook's Crow and Shoshone scouts helped to save isolated units from complete disaster several times during the action. Crook recalled a detachment sent to destroy the Lakota village and when this force re-appeared, the Lakota and Cheyennes broke off their attack and withdrew.
Results
The results of the Battle of the Rosebud were not especially shocking in terms of human loss, and although there are suggestions of mutilation carried out on the Indian dead, it was the first instance where different tribes had shown enough cohesion to fight alongside one another. Crook reported a loss of 10 dead and 21 wounded, but other accounts list the U.S. losses at 28 dead and 56 wounded. Crook's force was left in possession of the battlefield and he claimed a victory, but his Indian scouts refused to advance further, halting his advance and preventing him from joining up with the 7th Cavalry under George A. Custer, ensuring the latter's defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876.
The battlesite is preserved at the Rosebud Battlefield State Park in Big Horn County, Montana.
See also
References
- Dillon, Richard H. (1983). North American Indian Wars.
- Finerty, John F., War-path and Bivouac: or, the Conquest of the Sioux: a first-hand account by a Chicago newspaper reporter accompanying the Crook expedition and present at the Rosebud
1876 | Battles of the Black Hills War | Battles of the Cheyenne | History of Montana | Native American wars | Battles of the Sioux
"Battle of the Rosebud"