Battle of Julesburg The Battle of Julesburg took place on January 7 , 1865 near Julesburg , Colorado between 1 , 000 Cheyenne , Arapaho , and Lakota Indians and about 60 soldiers of the U . S . army and 40 to 50 civilians . The Indians defeated the soldiers and over the next few weeks plundered ranches and stagecoach stations up and down the valley of the South Platte River Background . The Sand Creek Massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho on November 29 , 1864 caused a large number of Indians on the Kansas and Colorado Great Plains to intensify hostilities against the U . S . army and White settlers . On January 1 , 1865 , the Indians met on Cherry Creek ( near present day St . Francis , Kansas ) to plan revenge . In the meeting were the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers , the Northern Arapaho , and two bands of Lakota Sioux , the Brulé under Spotted Tail , and the Oglala under Pawnee Killer . Roman Nose was probably among the Cheyenne warriors . The Indian army numbered about 1 , 000 warriors . They decided that their target would be Julesburg , Colorado , located along the South Platte River . Julesburg was a prominent way station on the Overland Trail . It consisted of a stagecoach station , stables , an express and telegraph office , a warehouse , and a large store that catered to travelers going to Denver along the South Platte . The residents were described as " Fifty men . . . all armed to the teeth with everything arranged so they could fight behind sod walls . One mile west was Fort Rankin ( later Fort Sedgwick ) with a complement of one company of cavalry , about sixty men , under Captain Nicholas J . O ’ Brien . The fort , although only four months old , was formidable , measuring 240 feet by 360 feet ( 75 by 110 mts ) , and ringed by a sod wall 18 feet ( 5 . 5 mts ) tall . Battle . The Julesburg Battle is unusual in that the main source of information about the battle comes from the Indian side , mostly from George Bent a half Cheyenne / half White warrior who participated in the battle . Bent later told the story to anthropologists George Bird Grinnell and George E . Hyde . The Indian plan was to lure the soldiers out of Fort Rankin into an ambush and overwhelm them . Big Crow , a Cheyenne , picked ten men as the decoys . They charged at the fort and retreated in haste . Captain O ' Brien led most of his men and a few civilian volunteers out of the fort to chase the Indian decoys . About three miles from the fort , O ' Brien had almost ridden into the ambush when young Indian warriors fired at the soldiers prematurely , alerting him to the presence of a large number of warriors hidden behind nearby bluffs . The soldiers fled back toward the fort with the Indians in pursuit . The Indians caught them about 300 yards from the fort . Some of the soldiers were cut off . They dismounted to defend themselves and were killed . The surviving soldiers and civilians , including Captain O ’ Brien , made it back to shelter in the fort . Fourteen soldiers and four civilians were killed in the battle . Bent says that no Indians were killed or wounded , although the soldiers claimed they killed about 60 . All the civilians in the community were sheltering in the fort and the Indians , unopposed , looted the stage station , store , and warehouse carrying away a large amount of plunder . The soldiers in the fort fired a couple of artillery rounds at the Indians without effect . Aftermath . Responding to the attack , General Robert Byington Mitchell gathered together 640 cavalry , a battery of howitzers , and 200 supply wagons at Cottonwood Springs ( near present day North Platte , Nebraska ) and marched southwest to find and punish the Indians who had attacked Julesburg . On January 19 , he found their camp on Cherry Creek , but the Indians had departed several days previously . With more than 50 soldiers incapacitated by frostbite in the bitterly cold weather , Mitchell gave up the chase and returned to his base . The only action during his expedition was when a small band of Indians rode through his camp at night , firing into the soldier ' s tents . The Sioux , Cheyenne , and Arapaho had decided to move north to the Black Hills and Powder River Country of South Dakota and Wyoming . En route , from January 28 to Feb 2 , the Indians raided ranches and stagecoach stations along 150 miles of the South Platte Valley between what are today the towns of Fort Morgan , Colorado and Paxton , Nebraska . The Sioux struck east of Julesburg , the Cheyenne west of Julesburg , and the Arapaho in between . At night , Bent said “ the whole valley was lighted up with the flames of burning ranches and stage stations , but the places were soon all destroyed and darkness fell on the valley . ” Bent participated in a raid near the Valley stagecoach station , near present day Sterling , Colorado . The Cheyenne captured 500 cattle and had a skirmish with a company of army cavalry . The army claimed they killed 20 Indians and recovered the cattle ; Bent said none were hurt , two soldiers were wounded , and only a few cattle were re - captured by the soldiers . Most of the Indian depredations were unopposed , although three Sioux warriors were killed in an attack on a wagon train . Bent noted that nine recently - discharged soldiers who had participated in the Sand Creek massacre were killed by Cheyenne and their bodies mutilated . On February 2 , the Indian caravan of several thousand women , children , and livestock crossed the frozen South Platte 25 miles ( 40 km ) west of Julesburg , heading north . The warriors raided Julesburg again , took the remaining supplies , and burned all the buildings . The 15 soldiers and 50 civilians sheltered in Fort Rankin did not venture outside the walls of the fort . Captain O ' Brien and 14 men , who had been away from the fort , returned during the raid . Their presence was concealed for a time by smoke from the fires . Nearing the fort , O ' Brien scattered the Indians with a round from his field howitzer ; the men in the fort fired another howitzer to aid him , and O ' Brien and his men dashed to safety inside the fort . With the Sioux leading , because they were more familiar with the route , the Indians left Julesburg behind and proceeded north across the divide between the South Platte and $ 3 rivers . They would have additional skirmishes with the army at Mud Springs ( near present day Dalton , Nebraska ) and Rush Creek .