Although soldiers destroyed one Arapaho village and established Fort Connor to protect gold miners on the Bozeman Trail, the expedition is considered a failure because it failed to defeat or intimidate the Indians.

The Sand Creek massacre of Cheyenne people on November 29, 1864 intensified Indian reprisals and raids in the Platte River valley.

(See Battle of Julesburg) After the raids, several thousand Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho congregated in the Powder River country, remote from white settlements and confirmed as Indian territory in the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie.

[1] Major General Grenville M. Dodge ordered the Powder River Expedition as a punitive campaign against the northern plains tribes in the heart of their territory.

The "Center Column", consisting of 600 Kansas cavalrymen led by Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Walker, was to head north from Fort Laramie and traverse the country west of the Black Hills.

[3] The "Left" and "West" Columns of 675 men, personally commanded by Connor and composed of soldiers from California, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska and Ohio, along with Indian scouts and a wagon train, would move toward the Powder River with the goal of establishing a fort near the Bozeman trail.

"[5] Connor's superiors, Generals John Pope and Dodge attempted to countermand this order, but it was too late, as the three columns had already departed and were out of contact.

[7] Brigadier General Patrick E. Connor and his 675 soldiers, Indian scouts, and civilian teamsters, along with a wagon train full of supplies, left Fort Laramie, Dakota Territory on August 1, 1865, to unite with Cole's and Walker's columns.

Then, the Pawnees suddenly charged in on the surprised Cheyennes, quickly killing all 24, including Yellow Woman, the stepmother of George Bent.

The next day, August 29, Connor attacked the village, whose leader was Black Bear, with 215 California, Iowa, and Ohio cavalrymen and over 80 Pawnee, Omaha, and Winnebago Scouts.

He then marched north on the Tongue River into southern Montana Territory before returning to Fort Connor, harassed by the Arapaho en route.

[9][10][11] Meanwhile, an expedition commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James A. Sawyers consisting of train of 80 wagons, engineers, supplies, and escorting soldiers of Companies C and D of the 5th U.S. Volunteer Infantry was traveling toward the Powder River with plans to continue on to Montana.

The soldiers accompanying the train included a battalion of the 5th U.S. Volunteer Infantry, Companies C, and D, under the command of Captain George Williford.

In the evening near Pumpkin Butte, Cheyenne and Sioux Native American Warriors attacked the train, killing Nathaniel Hedges, a 19-year-old civilian employee.

Soldiers of the 5th U.S. Volunteer Infantry reported that at this time that the Cheyenne warrior George Bent was dressed in a United States military uniform.

Sawyers agreed to give the supplies, which included a wagon full of sugar, bacon, coffee, flour, and tobacco.

[12] On September 1, 1865, Arapaho warriors, infuriated by the destruction of their village on the Tongue River, attacked Sawyers' wagon train, killing three men.

His column followed the Loup River upstream and then marched across country to Bear Butte in the Black Hills, arriving there on August 13, 1865.

In the early morning, over 300 Hunkpapa, Sans Arc, and Miniconjou Lakota Sioux warriors attacked the camps' horse herd.

In desperate need of supplies, Colonel Cole and Walker decided to follow Powder River north, to search for Brigadier General Patrick E. Connor's column, and his wagon train.

There, the two Colonels decided to turn back around and retrace their steps south up the Powder River, to search for Connor's left column.

[15] On September 8, 1865, the over 2,000 United States soldiers and civilians of Colonel Cole's and Walker's column's were marching South, up Powder River in Montana Territory.

A snowstorm during the night of September 8–9, 1865, caused further problems for the soldiers, most of whom were now on foot, in rags, and reduced to eating raw horse meat.

The Cheyenne warrior, George Bent, a participant in the fighting on September 8, stated that the Lakota would have annihilated Cole's and Walker's columns had they possessed more good firearms.

[17] The most important consequence of the expedition was to persuade the United States government that another effort to build and protect a wagon road from Fort Laramie to the gold fields in Montana was desirable.

That conviction would lead to a renewed invasion of the Powder River country a year later and Red Cloud's War in which the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho would emerge victorious.