This event should not be confused with the Big Horn Expedition

Battle of Powder River

The Battle of Powder River occurred March 17, 1876, in the Montana Territory between the United States Army and a force of Cheyenne Native Americans during Crook's Big Horn Expedition in the Great Sioux War of 1876.-Overview:...

 during the Black Hills War.

The Powder River Expedition, or the Powder River War and Powder River Invasion, of 1865, was a military operation of the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 against native Americans in what soon became the Wyoming

Wyoming Territory

The Territory of Wyoming was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 25, 1868, until July 10, 1890, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Wyoming. Cheyenne was the territorial capital...

 and Montana

Montana Territory

The Territory of Montana was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 28, 1864, until November 8, 1889, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Montana.-History:...

 territories.

Expedition

In 1865, Major General

Major General

Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...

 Grenville M. Dodge

Grenville M. Dodge

Grenville Mellen Dodge was a Union army officer on the frontier and during the Civil War, a U.S. Congressman, businessman, and railroad executive who helped construct the Transcontinental Railroad....

 ordered the Powder River

Powder River (Montana)

Powder River is a tributary of the Yellowstone River, approximately long in the southeastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming in the United States. It drains an area historically known as the Powder River Country on the high plains east of the Bighorn Mountains.It rises in three forks in eastern...

 Expedition as a punitive campaign against the Sioux

Sioux

The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...

, Cheyenne

Cheyenne

Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...

 and Arapaho

Arapaho

The Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans historically living on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Sioux. Arapaho is an Algonquian language closely related to Gros Ventre, whose people are seen as an early...

 for raiding along the Bozeman Trail

Bozeman Trail

The Bozeman Trail was an overland route connecting the gold rush territory of Montana to the Oregon Trail. Its most important period was from 1863-1868. The flow of pioneers and settlers through territory of American Indians provoked their resentment and caused attacks. The U.S. Army undertook...

. It was led by Brigadier General

Brigadier General

Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...

 Patrick E. Connor

Patrick Edward Connor

Patrick Edward Connor was a Union General during the American Civil War. He was most famous for his campaigns against Native Americans in the American Old West.-Early life and career:...

, and was one of the last Indian war campaigns carried out by U.S Volunteer soldiers

United States Volunteers

United States Volunteers also known as U.S. Volunteers, U. S. Vol., or U.S.V.Starting as early as 1861 these regiments were often referred to as the "volunteer army" of the United States but not officially named that until 1898.During the nineteenth century this was the United States federal...

. One of the guides for Connor's forces was the legendary frontiersman Jim Bridger

Jim Bridger

James Felix "Jim" Bridger was among the foremost mountain men, trappers, scouts and guides who explored and trapped the Western United States during the decades of 1820-1850, as well as mediating between native tribes and encroaching whites...

.

Connor divided the expedition into three columns. The "Right Column" was composed of Missouri Volunteers led by Colonel Nelson Cole and was to operate along the Loup River

Loup River

The Loup River is a tributary of the Platte River, approximately long, in central Nebraska in the United States. The river drains a sparsely populated rural agricultural area on the eastern edge of the Great Plains southeast of the Sandhills...

 east of the Black Hills

Black Hills

The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, USA. Set off from the main body of the Rocky Mountains, the region is something of a geological anomaly—accurately described as an "island of...

 in Nebraska. Colonel Samuel Walker of the 16th Kansas Cavalry led the "Center Column" north from Fort Laramie west of the Black Hills. The "Left Column" was composed of the 6th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry Regiment

6th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry Regiment

The 6th Regiment Michigan Volunteer Cavalry was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was a part of the famed Michigan Brigade, commanded for a time by Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer.-Service:...

 under Colonel James H. Kidd recently transferred from the Civil War battlefields of Virginia. General Connor would personally accompany Kidd's column and would move along the Powder River with the goal of establishing a post near the Bozeman Trail.

To satisfy General Dodge's request Colonel Kidd established Fort Connor along the Powder River. General Connor left Kidd in command of the fort and continued on. The expedition encountered only minor skirmishing until it reached the camp of Arapaho Chief Black Bear along the Tongue River

Tongue River

The Tongue River may refer to:*The Tongue River , a tributary of the Red River of the North in North Dakota in the United States.*The Tongue River , a tributary of the Yellowstone in Wyoming and Montana in the United States....

. The Battle of the Tongue River

Battle of the Tongue River

The Battle of the Tongue River, sometimes referred to as the Connor Battle, was the major engagement of the Powder River Expedition of 1865, directed against the Southern Cheyenne, Arapaho and Lakota Sioux. It destroyed for a time the Arapaho capability to raid the Bozeman Trail and overland mail...

 was the only major engagement of the expedition and was a victory for the army.

A concurrent surveying expedition under James Sawyers failed in its mission to improve the Bozeman Trail as it was turned back in the face of Native attacks. The public became critical of these large and expensive expeditions against the Native Americans. The end of the Connor's expedition however came abruptly when the Volunteer regiments of his command were mustered out of service, the Civil War having ended.

Connor's victory at the Tongue River stopped attacks along the emigrant trails momentarily and he met his immediate goal of establishing the army's first fort along the Bozeman Trail. However the campaign did not make any lasting impressions on the Sioux and the fighting in the Powder River Country

Powder River Country

The Powder River Country refers to an area of the Great Plains in northeastern Wyoming in the United States. The area is loosely defined between the Bighorn Mountains and the Black Hills, in the upper drainage areas of the Powder, Tongue, and Little Bighorn rivers.During the late 1860s, the area...

 eventually grew into Red Cloud's War

Red Cloud's War

Red Cloud's War was an armed conflict between the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho and the United States in the Wyoming Territory and the Montana Territory from 1866 to 1868. The war was fought over control of the Powder River Country in north central present day Wyoming...

.