The Indians defeated the soldiers and over the next few weeks plundered ranches and stagecoach stations up and down the South Platte River valley.

In the meeting were the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, the Northern Arapaho, and two bands of Lakota Sioux, the Sichangu under Spotted Tail, and the Oglala under Pawnee Killer.

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.

[6] 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.

With more than 50 soldiers incapacitated by frostbite in the bitterly cold weather, Mitchell gave up the chase and returned to his base.

[8] 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.

Bent noted that nine recently discharged soldiers who had participated in the Sand Creek massacre were killed by Cheyenne and their bodies mutilated.

[11] 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.

They would have additional skirmishes with the army at Mud Springs (near present-day Dalton, Nebraska) and Rush Creek in early February 1865.