The Battle of the Little Bighorn in United States History by Nancy Warren Ferrell

Author:Nancy Warren Ferrell [Ferrell, Nancy Warren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780766060999
Publisher: Enslow Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2014-08-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

CROOK’S ARM OF THE LITTLE BIGHORN CAMPAIGN

Image Credit: Enslow Publishers, Inc.

This map illustrates General Sheridan's plan. General Crook's troops moved north, while Colonel Gibbon led his men east then south, and Custer's troops headed west then south.

In 1876, the United States celebrated its 100th anniversary of the creation and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In that period of one hundred years, the population in the United States had grown from 3 million1 to approximately 44 million people.2 The population of Native Americans during the same period dropped from about one million to an estimated three hundred thousand.3 Disease and warfare proved the major causes. The northern Plains was like an island surrounded by a sea of people. It seemed to be the only place in America left almost unoccupied by white people. The interests of both the Sioux and the government focused on the Black Hills.

The federal government wanted to buy the Black Hills, but the Native Americans refused to sell. Red Cloud, who had seen the strength of the white man, was open to negotiation. Other leaders, including Gall, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse, would not consider a compromise. When officials in Washington, D.C., found that the natives would not give in, they issued a command: All tribes of Dakota and in the Wyoming Territory were to return to their agencies by the end of January 1876, or they would be considered “hostile.” The army then would drive them back. Government officials thought the threat would frighten the roving bands.

Over the next months, the tribes learned of this order. They had not been planning wholesale war, and they did not know what to make of the command. Time itself—like the calendar date of January 31, 1876—had little meaning for them.4 After all, they were an independent people, hunting freely as they had for generations. Besides, that winter was an especially cruel one. Time was not spent on traveling, but in surviving the zero degree temperatures and blowing winds.

Sitting Bull knew peace would not last. In March, he was reported saying he would fight the whites to keep his free life.

Lieutenant General Philip Sheridan was in command of the army on the north and south Plains. It was Sheridan’s responsibility to force the Native Americans back onto the reservations. He devised a three-prong plan to accomplish that aim.

General Sheridan’s plan was simple. Three columns would converge from three directions on an area thought to be occupied by hostile tribes.5 General George Crook (1829–1890), with more than one thousand men, was to go north from Wyoming country toward Montana. General Alfred Terry (1827–1890) commanded two columns: the Dakota, which he headed; and the Montana Column, headed by Colonel John Gibbon. Terry, with Custer and 925 soldiers, was to march west from Fort Abraham Lincoln in Dakota Territory toward the Yellowstone River in Montana. Colonel John Gibbon (1847–1896), with 450 infantry and cavalry troops, was to advance east from western Montana Territory toward the Yellowstone River. The idea was to put the rebels in a vice between these forces and defeat them.

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