Battle of the Badlands
Battle of Badlands | |||||||
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Part of the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United States of America |
Yanktonai | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Alfred Sully | Sitting Bull | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
2,200 | ~ 1,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
~13 dead and wounded | ~U.S. estimate 100 dead and wounded (but probably only a few) |
The Battle of the Badlands was fought in
Background
In the aftermath of the Dakota War of 1862, the U.S. government continued to punish the Sioux, including those who had not participated in the war. Large military expeditions into Dakota Territory in 1863 pushed most of the Sioux to the western side of the Missouri River and made safer the frontier of white settlement in Minnesota and the eastern Dakotas. An important impetus to another military campaign against the Sioux was the desire to protect lines of communication with recently discovered goldfields in Montana and Idaho. The lifeline for the American gold miners were steamboats plying the Missouri River through the heart of Sioux territory.[3]
During the winter of 1863–1864, Sully's superior,
Sully established Fort Rice on the Missouri River in what is now North Dakota on July 7, 1864. From there, he led 2,200 men into western Dakota Territory. In the Battle of Killdeer Mountain on July 28, Sully defeated about 1,600 Sioux warriors. After the battle the Sioux, along with their women and children, scattered into the Badlands west of Killdeer Mountain, near where the present-day South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park is located. The Dakota badlands are characterized by "deep, impassable ravines" and "high rugged hills."[5]
Although running short of rations, Sully decided to continue his pursuit of the Sioux. A
Lakota leader Sitting Bull described the Indians in the Battle of the Badlands as Hunkpapas, Sans Arcs, and Miniconjou Lakota, Yanktonai, and others.[9]
The battle
On August 6, Sully and his men camped on the banks of the
Despite the opposition of the Sioux, Sully and his men advanced about 10 miles on August 8. The next day, Sully was again confronted by a large number of Indians at his front who harassed his passage. About noon Sully broke out of the Badlands onto a large, level plain. With room to maneuver and deploy artillery, he soon dispersed the Indians and the battle was over. Sully found the remains of a large, recently vacated Indian camp. The Indians had apparently scattered in all directions.[11]
Sully estimated the Indian loss in the battle at 100 killed. That seems much exaggerated as the Indians remained at long distance. Sully's losses were probably only the Blackfoot scout and a dozen soldiers wounded.
Aftermath
The Sioux strategy in the Battle of the Badlands, which was more of a running skirmish than a battle, appeared to have been to harass the soldiers, retard their advance, and deprive them and their horses of water. That strategy came close to working after the end of hostilities as Sully and his men struggled across parched desert to reach the Yellowstone River, some 50 miles (80 km) distant. The men were on short rations and only a pint of coffee each, made with alkaline water, per day; the livestock of the expedition died of thirst in large numbers. On August 12, the soldiers reached the Yellowstone and found there the two steamboats loaded with supplies. With great hardship because of lack of grass for horses and low water, Sully then marched downstream, finding on his arrival at
The Sully expedition of 1864 pushed the majority of the hostile Sioux west of the Missouri River into their last strongholds of the
Opposing Forces
United States
Division | Brigade | Regiments and Others |
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1st Brigade
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2nd Brigade Col Minor T. Thomas |
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Native Americans
- Yanktonai) Sioux: Sitting Bull
See also
- History of North Dakota
- Plains Indians Wars
- List of battles fought in North Dakota
- "Battle of the Badlands Interpretive Site". United States Department of Agriculture.
Notes
- ^ "The US Army and the Sioux - Part 2: Battle of the Badlands". National Park Service. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-2726-0. Retrieved 7 April 2012.
- ^ Clodfelter, p. 156
- ^ Barsness, John and Dickinson, William. "Cannoneer's Hop: The Sully Campaign, 1864 Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Summer 1966), p. 29
- ^ United States War Department. The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the official Records of the United States and the Confederacy, Series 1, Vol 41 (part l), p. 135
- ^ Clodfelter, pp172-176
- ^ Clodfelter, p. 178
- ^ Barsness and Dickinson, p. 27
- ^ Clodfelter, p. 186
- ^ Clodfelter, pp 183-185
- ^ Clodfelter, pp 187-188
- ^ Clodfelter, pp 189-190
- ^ Sully's Official Report