Battle of Powder River

Battle of Powder River
Part of the Big Horn Expedition, Great Sioux War of 1876

The Powder River looking north on the battlefield
DateMarch 17, 1876 (148 years ago) (1876-03-17)
Location
Powder River, Montana Territory

45 05 18 N 105 51 28 W

Southwest of Broadus in present-day Powder River County, Montana[1][2]
Result Native American victory
Belligerents
Northern Cheyenne
Oglala Lakota Sioux
 United States
Commanders and leaders
Two Moon
He Dog
Little Wolf
Wooden Leg
United States Joseph J. Reynolds
United States Anson Mills
United States Henry E. Noyes
United States Alexander Moore
Strength
100–250 383
Casualties and losses
3 killed, several people later died of exposure
3 wounded
4 killed
6 wounded
66 frostbitten[3]

The Battle of Powder River, also known as the Reynolds Battle, occurred on March 17, 1876, in Montana Territory, United States, as part of the Big Horn Expedition. The attack on a Northern Cheyenne and Oglala Lakota Indian encampment by Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds initiated the Great Sioux War of 1876. Although destroying a large amount of Indian property, the attack was poorly carried out and solidified Northern Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux resistance to the U.S. attempt to force them to sell the Black Hills and live on a reservation.[4]

  1. ^ "Reynolds Battlefield". Visitmt.com. Retrieved 2019-02-02.
  2. ^ "Reynolds Battlefield Monument, Powder River County, Montana". Rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved 2019-02-02.
  3. ^ 1876 Annual Report of the Secretary of War. p.29
  4. ^ Greene, Jerome A. Lakota and Cheyenne: Indian Views of the Great Sioux War, 1876–1877, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994, p. xvi