Powder River Expedition ( 1865 ) The Powder River Expedition , or the Powder River War or Powder River Invasion , of 1865 , was a large and far - flung military operation of the United States Army against the Sioux , Cheyenne , and Arapaho Indians Montana Territory and what soon was to become Wyoming Territory . Although soldiers destroyed one Arapaho village and established Fort Connor to protect travelers on the Bozeman Trail , the expedition is considered a failure because it failed to defeat the Indians and secure peace in the region . Background . The Sand Creek massacre of Cheyenne in November 1864 intensified Indian reprisals and raids in the Platte River valley . ( See Battle of Julesburg ) After the raids , the Sioux , Lakota , Cheyenne and Arapaho congregated in the Powder river country , remote from white settlements and confirmed as Indian territory in the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie . The Indians also perceived that the Bozeman Trail , blazed in 1863 and traversing the heart of the Powder River country , was a threat . Although roads through Indian territory were permitted by the Fort Laramie Treaty , the Sioux , mostly Lakota , Cheyenne , and Arapaho harassed miners and other travelers along the trail in 1864 and 1865 . In July 1865 , 1 , 000 Indian warriors in the Battle of Platte Bridge attacked a bridge across the North Platte River near Fort Caspar and succeeded in temporarily shutting down travel on both the Bozeman and the Oregon Trail . After the battle the Indians broke up into small groups and dispersed for their summer buffalo hunt . A weakness of Indian warfare was that they lacked the resources to keep an army in the field for an extended period of time . Major General Grenville M . Dodge ordered the Powder River expedition as a punitive campaign against the Sioux , Cheyenne and Arapaho . It was led by Brigadier General Patrick E . Connor . Dodge ordered Connor to " make vigorous war upon the Indians and punish them so that they will be forced to keep the peace . " The Connor expedition was one of the last Indian war campaigns carried out by U . S Volunteer soldiers . One of Connor ' s guides was Mountain man Jim Bridger . Connor ' s strategy was for three columns of soldiers to march into the Powder River Country . The " Right Column " was composed of 1 , 400 Missouri soldiers , mostly mounted , led by Colonel Nelson Cole . It marched from Omaha , Nebraska and was to follow the Loup River in Nebraska westward to the Black Hills and meet up with Connor near the Powder River . The " Center Column " of 600 men was commanded by Samuel Walker of the 16th Kansas Cavalry and was to head north from Fort Laramie and traverse the country west of the Black Hills . The " Left Column " of 675 men was composed of the 6th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry Regiment under Colonel James H . Kidd , recently transferred from the Civil War battlefields of Virginia . This command included 95 Pawnee and 84 Omaha scouts and a wagon train full of supplies with 195 civilian teamsters . General Connor would personally accompany Kidd ' s column and would move along the Powder River with the goal of establishing a fort near the Bozeman Trail . All three columns were to unite at the new fort . Connor ' s orders to his commanders were , " You will not receive overtures of peace or submission from Indians , but will attack and kill every male Indian over twelve years of age . " Connor ' s superiors , Generals John Pope and Dodge attempted to countermand this order , but too late as Connor ' s expedition had already departed and was out of contact . The expedition was troubled from the start . The number of men to be involved in the campaign was reduced from 12 , 000 to 2 , 600 because many soldiers were mustered out of the army at the end of the Civil War . The remaining soldiers were " mutinous , dissatisfied , and inefficient . " Few of the men and officers had any experience fighting Indians or travel on the Great Plains . Procuring supplies were also a problem . Cole and Walker . Colonel Cole left Omaha on July 1 with his 1 , 400 men and 140 wagon - loads of supplies . They followed the Loup River upstream and then went cross country to Bear Butte , near present day Sturgis , South Dakota , arriving there on August 13 . Cole , during the 560 mile ( 900 km ) march didn ' t see a single Indian , but his command suffered from thirst , diminishing supplies , and near mutinies . Colonel Walker and his 600 men left Fort Laramie on August 6 and met up with Cole on August 19 near the Black Hills . He had likewise encountered no Indians and suffered from shortages of water . The two columns marched separately , but remained in contact as they moved westward to the Powder River . By this time the men were barefoot and horses and mules were dying — and they had still not encountered any Indians . In desperate need of supplies , Cole and Walker decided to follow the Powder River north , to search for Connor and his wagon train . On September 1 , on Alkali Creek , near Broadus , Montana , they had their first encounter with Indians . About 300 Hunkpapa , Sans Arc , and Miniconjou Lakota Sioux raided the soldiers ' horse herd . The soldiers guarding the horses " dropped their guns and run . " Six soldiers were killed . The soldiers continued north to the mouth of the Mizpah River east of Miles City , Montana . There , the two commanders decided to turn around and retrace their steps south along the Powder River to look for Connor . They were attacked again on September 5 near Powderville , Montana by 1 , 000 Cheyenne and Lakotas , the Indians hoping to lure the soldiers into an ambush . The Cheyenne war leader Roman Nose contributed to his legend of invincibility by racing his horse on several occasions in front of the soldiers ' guns and escaping untouched . Crazy Horse was among the Lakota attackers . The Cheyenne left the Indian army after this battle , but the Lakota continued to harass Cole and Walker as the soldiers retreated southward up the Powder River . They attacked again on September 8 and 9 , but were beaten off . A snowstorm caused further problems for the soldiers most of whom were now on foot , in rags , and reduced to eating raw horse meat . On September 13 , Connor ' s Pawnee scouts found Walker and Cole and led them to the newly established Fort Connor ( later Fort Reno ) on the Powder River east of Kaycee , Wyoming . Cole and Walker and their soldiers arrived there on September 20 . Connor deemed the soldiers unfit for further service and sent them back to Fort Laramie where most of them were mustered out of the army . Cole reported 12 men killed and two missing . Walker reported one man killed and 4 wounded . Cole claimed that his soldiers had killed 200 Indians . By contrast , Walker said , " I cannot say as we killed one . " Indian casualties were likely light . The Cheyenne warrior , George Bent , a participant in the battles , only mentioned one Indian killed and said that the Lakota would have annihilated Cole and Walker had they possessed more good firearms . Connor and Sawyers . General Connor and Colonel Kidd and their 675 soldiers , Indian scouts , and teamsters left Fort Laramie on August 2 to unite with the commands of Cole and Walker . The proceeded northward and established a fort on the upper Powder River which was named Fort Connor . On August 16 , Major Frank North and the Pawnee scouts discovered an Indian trail , followed it , attacked a group of 24 Cheyenne warriors , and killed them all . A few days later North had his horse shot from under him by Cheyennes but was rescued by the Pawnee . Connor marched north from Fort Connor and on August 28 his Pawnee scouts found an Arapaho village of about 600 people on the Tongue River near present day Ranchester , Wyoming . The next day Connor attacked the village , whose leader was Black Bear , with 250 cavalry and 80 Pawnee . The people in the village were primarily women , children , and old men . Most of the warriors were absent , engaged in a war with the Crow on the Bighorn River . The surprised Indians fled the village , but regrouped and counterattacked and Connor was dissuaded from pursuing them . The soldiers destroyed the village , captured about 500 horses , and 8 women and 13 children who were subsequently released . Conner claimed to have killed 35 Arapaho warriors , a probably exaggerated estimate , at a cost to himself of 5 dead . ( See Battle of the Tongue River ) Connor then turned around and returned to Fort Connor , harassed by the Arapaho en route . The Arapaho , who had not been overtly hostile before , now joined the Sioux and Cheyenne . Meanwhile , an expedition commanded by Lieut . Col . James A . Sawyers consisting of train of 80 wagons , engineers , supplies , and escorting soldiers of Companies C and D of the 5th U . S . Volunteer Infantry was en route to meet Connor on the Powder River with the plan to continue on to Montana . Sawyers ' group was to construct a new road for the use of emigrants to the Montana gold fields . At Pumpkin Butte , near present day Wright , Wyoming a band of Cheyenne and Sioux killed several men and surrounded the wagon train . After four days of sniping back and forth , Red Cloud , Dull Knife , and George and his brother Charles Bent negotiated with Sawyer a safe passage for the wagon train in exchange for a wagon load of supplies . George Bent , the soldiers reported , was dressed in a U . S . military uniform . The wagon train moved on but , on September 1 , Arapaho , infuriated by the destruction of their village on the Tongue River , attacked the wagon train , killing three men and losing two of their own , and holding the wagon train under virtual siege for two weeks when it was finally rescued by Connor ' s forces . ( See Sawyers Fight ) Aftermath . Connor finally united all the components of his expedition on September 24 at Fort Connor . However , orders transferring him to Utah were awaiting him when he arrived there . The 16th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry remained to staff Fort Connor and all other troops withdrew to Fort Laramie , most to be mustered out of the army . Although achieving some successes , the expedition failed to defeat decisively or intimidate the Indians . Indian resistance to travelers on the Bozeman Trail became more determined than ever . " There will be no more travel on that road until the government takes care of the Indians , " a correspondent wrote . The most important consequence of the expedition was to persuade the United States government that another effort to build and protect a wagon road from Fort Laramie to the gold fields in Montana was desirable . That conviction would lead to a renewed invasion of the Powder River country a year later and Red Cloud ' s War in which the Sioux , Cheyenne , and Arapaho would emerge victorious .