Yellowstone Command: Colonel Nelson A. Miles and the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877

The continuing popular fascination with Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn has obscured the role played by Colonel Nelson A. Miles in the Great Sioux War. "Yellowstone Command" provides a detailed account of the campaign of Colonel Miles in the winter of 1876-77 as he moved against the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in the aftermath of the Custer debacle. Drawing on previously unpublished materials and providing troop-movement maps, the author fills in a little-studied chapter in US military history. During the campaign, Miles's 5th Infantry engaged in five major battles with the Indians, as well as an almost constant series of skirmishes intended to restore American military power and morale. The text describes Miles' revitalization of army strategy and reconstructs battles - at Wolf Mountain and at Clear, Spring, Cedar, Bark, Ash and Muddy Creeks - that were decisive in closing the conflict in 1877.

History

Greene, Jerome A.

Americas

University Of Nebraska Press

Slim Buttes, 1876: An Episode of the Great Sioux War

University of Oklahoma Press

General George Crook’s controversial “Horsemeat March” culminating in the battle at Slim Buttes is considered the turning point of the Sioux Wars. After Lieutenant General George A. Custer’s shocking defeat at the Little Big Horn River, Montana Territory, in 1876, General Crook and the men of this Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition were given orders to pursue and subjugate restive tribes of the Northern Cheyenne and Teton Sioux Indians in the area.General Crook, an able and experienced Indian campaigner, insisted that his men travel light and fast. This tactic nearly proved disastrous. Provisions ran out, and, with the nearest settlements still far away in the Black Hills, Crook’s troops were forced to abandon, and later to devour, their exhausted and stringy mounts.When a detachment under Captain Anson Mills was dispatched to bring provisions from the settlements ahead, Mills accidentally came across a large Indian village at Slim Buttes. Lured as much by supplies of food in the village as by a desire to subjugate the Indians, Mills attacked, Crook arrived with reinforcements, and by the evening of the second day, September 9, 1876, the battle was over.The climax of General Crook’s career and of one of the most arduous military expeditions in American history, this battle was the first of a series of blows that ultimately broke the Indians’ resistance and forced their submission.The victory was not without irony. Crook’s starvation march, his troops’ nearly unanimous criticism of his command, Mill’s account of an Indian child’s tears over her mother’s corpse, and doubts about whether the Indians involved had indeed had anything to do with Custer’s defeat combined to steal most of the glory from the victor.
Slim Buttes, 1876 presents in vivid detail the grisly realities of the Indian Wars and the suffering experienced by both sides. For the troops who campaigned in the lonely hinterlands of America, it was bloody, dangerous, and exhausting warfare fought, as General Crook said, “without favor or hope of reward.”

This volume offers accounts of the many battles and skirmishes in the Great Sioux War as they were observed by participating officers, enlisted men, scouts, surgeons, and newspaper correspondents. The selections-some rendered immediately after the encounters and some set down in reminiscences years later - are important and little-known sources of information about the war. By their personal nature, they give a compelling sense of immediacy to the actions.
The editor’s introduction and commentary on each of the accounts help readers understand the interrelationship of events and appreciate the entire spectrum of the conflict.

Battles and Skirmishes of the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877: The Military View

The Great Sioux War of 1876-1877 is memorable to most Americans because of Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer’s last stand at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. But to the Lakotas (Western Sioux) and Northern Cheyennes who won that battle but lost the war, the experience of those fifteen months was truly a "last stand" - a cultural catastrophe that led to the reservation experience they had fought so long and hard to avoid.
In writings about the history and import of the Great Sioux War, the perspectives of its Native American participants often are ignored and forgotten. In this volume Jerome A. Greene corrects that oversight by presenting a comprehensive overview of America’s largest Indian war from the point of view of the Lakotas and Northern Cheyennes. A counterpoint to his earlier volume, which advances the military view of the skirmishes and battles - including the Little Big Horn - this book presents the Indians’ report on the actions that ended their traditional way of life for all time. The accounts, by both men and women, afford fresh insights into the war.
The Indian recollections provide personal, individualistic descriptions of significant events as the people struggled to protect their homelands, families, and tribal cultures. Most Sioux and Cheyenne accounts of the engagements remained within their own societies for many years. Those that were published during or soon after the war were colored by the defeat and often by mistranslation. This book presents a first-time compilation of the best of the Indians’ recollections. The editor’s introduction gives readers insight into the significance of Indian testimonial sources. Separate introductions place the Indians’ accounts in the context of the war and enable readers to understand interrelationships among the events and thus gain a more complete appreciation of the war and its impact upon the Lakota and Cheyenne people.

Lakota and Cheyenne: Indian Views of the Great Sioux War, 1876–1877

From a recognized authority on the High Plains Indians wars comes this narrative history blending both American Indian and U.S. Army perspectives on the attack that destroyed the village of Northern Cheyenne chief Morning Star. Of momentous significance for the Cheyennes as well as the army, this November 1876 encounter, coming exactly six months to the day after the Custer debacle at the Little Bighorn, was part of the Powder River Expedition waged by Brigadier General George Crook against the Indians. Vital to the larger context of the Great Sioux War, the attack on Morning Star’s village encouraged the eventual surrender of Crazy Horse and his Sioux followers. Unbiased in its delivery, Morning Star Dawn offers the most thorough modern scholarly assessment of the Powder River Expedition. It incorporates previously unsynthesized data from the National Archives, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Army Military History Institute, and other repositories, and provides an examination of all facets of the campaign leading to and following the destruction of Morning Star’s village.

Morning Star Dawn: The Powder River Expedition and the Northern Cheyennes, 1876 (Campaigns and Commanders Series, Volume 2)

An evenhanded account of a tragic clash of cultures On November 27, 1868, the U.S. Seventh Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer attacked a Southern Cheyenne village along the Washita River in present-day western Oklahoma. The subsequent U.S. victory signaled the end of the Cheyennes’ traditional way of life and resulted in the death of Black Kettle, their most prominent peace chief. In this remarkably balanced history, Jerome A. Greene describes the causes, conduct, and consequences of the event even as he addresses the multiple controversies surrounding the conflict. As Greene explains, the engagement brought both praise and condemnation for Custer and carried long-range implications for his stunning defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn eight years later.

Washita: The U.S. Army and the Southern Cheyennes, 1867–1869 (Volume 3) (Campaigns and Commanders Series)

The 1864 Sand Creek Massacre is one of the most disturbing and controversial events in American history. While its historical significance is undisputed, the exact location of the massacre has been less clear. Because the site is sacred ground for Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, the question of its location is more than academic; it is intensely personal and spiritual. In 1998 the National Park Service, under congressional direction, began a research program to verify the location of the Sand Creek site. The team consisted of tribal members, Park Service staff and volunteers, and local landowners. In Finding Sand Creek, the project’s leading historian, Jerome A. Greene, and its leading archeologist, Douglas D. Scott, tell the story of how this dedicated group of people used a variety of methods to pinpoint the site. Drawing on oral histories, written records, and archeological fieldwork, Greene and Scott present a wealth of evidence to verify their conclusions. Greene and Scott’s team study led to legislation in the year 2000 that established the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site.

Finding Sand Creek: History, Archeology, and the 1864 Massacre Site

Scott, Douglas D.

Shortly after Custer’s defeat in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Colonel Nelson A. Miles and his Fifth Infantry launched several significant campaigns to destroy the Lakota–Northern Cheyenne coalition in the Yellowstone River basin. Miles’s expeditions involved relentless pursuit and attack throughout the winter months, culminating in the Lame Deer Fight of May 1877, the last major engagement of the Great Sioux War. Yellowstone Command is the first detailed account of the harrowing 1876–1877 campaigns. Drawing from Indian testimonies and many previously untapped sources, Jerome A. Greene reconstructs the ambitious battles of Colonel Miles and his foot soldiers. This paperback edition of Yellowstone Command features a new preface by the author.

Yellowstone Command: Colonel Nelson A. Miles and the Great Sioux War, 1876–1877

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Greene, Jerome A.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Greene, Jerome A.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Greene, Jerome A.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Yellowstone Command: Colonel Nelson A. Miles and the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877

Yellowstone Command: Colonel Nelson A. Miles and the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877

Slim Buttes, 1876: An Episode of the Great Sioux War

Slim Buttes, 1876: An Episode of the Great Sioux War

Battles and Skirmishes of the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877: The Military View

Lakota and Cheyenne: Indian Views of the Great Sioux War, 1876–1877

Morning Star Dawn: The Powder River Expedition and the Northern Cheyennes, 1876 (Campaigns and Commanders Series, Volume 2)

Washita: The U.S. Army and the Southern Cheyennes, 1867–1869 (Volume 3) (Campaigns and Commanders Series)

Finding Sand Creek: History, Archeology, and the 1864 Massacre Site

Yellowstone Command: Colonel Nelson A. Miles and the Great Sioux War, 1876–1877