[7] Fort Sedgwick and Julesburg were attacked on January 7, 1865, by about 1,000 Cheyenne and Sioux men in retribution for the Sand Creek massacre (November 29, 1864).

[10] Upon orders by General William Tecumseh Sherman, George Armstrong Custer and six companies of the 7th Cavalry Regiment came to Colorado in June 1867 to stop attacks along the South Platte and Smoky Hill Trails, searching near Fort Sedgwick and part-way to Fort Wallace for Native Americans.

[4] Custer went in search of a group of men that were delayed in bringing a dispatch from General Sherman to him, and he found the evidence of the Kidder Massacre (June 26, 1867) near the present-day Bird City, Kansas.

[11] Records from the time show that due to the area's lifestyle and the mixture of peacemaking and instigating behaviors by the soldiers, life at the post was a "saga of fraud and corruption, bravery and daring-do…triumph and tragedy…where conditions were considered unlivable, pleasures were few and the nearest bath was the South Platte River.

He reported to the Quartermaster's Department, "The general character of post buildings was found to be bad, and is believed to be a fruitful source of discontent, desertions.

One post inspected had lost 25 men by desertion in one month, with their cavalry horses, accoutrements, Spencer carbines, complete, and many instances of this kind were reported to me.