General Connor and Colonel Kidd and their six hundred and seventy-five soldiers, native scouts, and teamsters had left Fort Laramie on August 2 to unite with the commands of Cole and Walker.

Proceeding northward, they established a fort on the upper Powder River which is named Fort Connor.

On August 16, Major Frank North and the Pawnee scouts discover a native trail, follow it, attack a group of twenty-four Cheyenne warriors, and kill them all.

A few days later, North has his horse shot from under him by Cheyennes but is rescued by the Pawnee.

The Battle of the Tongue River is the most significant engagement of the Powder River Expedition.

Connor marches north from Fort Connor and on August 28 Frank North and his Pawnee scouts find an Arapaho village of about six hundred people on the Tongue River near present day Ranchester, Wyoming.

Connor sends in two hundred soldiers with two howitzers and forty Omaha and Winnebago and thirty Pawnee scouts, and march that night toward the village. (The Pawnee, Omaha, and Winnebago tribes are traditional enemies of the Arapaho and their Cheyenne and Lakota allies.)

With mountain man Jim Bridger leading the forces they charge the village, whose leader is Black Bear.

The people in the village are primarily women, children, and old men, as most of the warriors are absent, engaged in a war with the Crow on the Bighorn River.

The few warriors present at the camp put up a strong defense and cover the women and children as most escape beyond the reach of the soldiers and Indian scouts.

The surprised natives flee the village, but regroup and counterattack and Connor is dissuaded from pursuing them.

The battle is a U.S. victory, resulting in sixty-three Arapaho dead, mostly women and children.

After the battle the soldiers burn and loot the abandon tipis and capture eight women and thirteen children, who are subsequently released.

The Pawnee make off with the five hundred horses from the camp's herd as payback for previous raids by the Arapaho.

Connor, who singles out four Winnebago, including chief Little Priest, plus North and fifteen Pawnee for bravery, claims to have killed thirty-five Arapaho warriors, a total probably exaggerated, at a cost to his force of five dead.

Connor now turns around and returns to Fort Connor, harassed en route by the Arapaho.

The Arapaho, who had not been overtly hostile before, now join the Sioux and Cheyenne.

A train of eighty wagons, engineers, supplies, and three companies of soldier escorts led by James A. Sawyer is meanwhile en route to meet Connor on the Powder River with the plan to continue on to Montana.

Sawyer's group is to construct a new road for the use of emigrants to the Montana gold fields.

At Pumpkin Butte, near present day Wright, Wyoming, a band of Cheyenne and Sioux kill several men and surround the wagon train.

After four days of sniping back and forth, Red Cloud, Dull Knife, and George and his brother Charles Bent negotiate with Sawyer a safe passage for the wagon train in exchange for a wagon load of supplies.

George Bent, the soldiers report, is dressed in a U.S. military uniform.

The wagon train moves on but, on August 31, Arapaho, infuriated by the destruction of their village on the Tongue River, attack the wagon train, killing three men and losing two of their own.

Connor rescues Sawyer and the wagon train on September 4.

The soldiers had continued north to the mouth of the Mizpah River east of Miles City, Montana.

There, the two commanders had decided to turn around and retrace their steps south along the Powder River to look for Connor.

They are attacked again on September 5 near Powderville, Montana, by one thousand Cheyenne and Lakotas, the natives hoping to lure the soldiers into an ambush.

The Cheyenne war leader Roman Nose contributes to his legend of invincibility by racing his horse on several occasions in front of the soldiers' guns and escaping untouched.

Crazy Horse is among the Lakota attackers.

The Cheyenne had left the native army after the battle near Powderville, but the Lakota have continued to harass Cole and Walker as the soldiers retreated southward up the Powder River.

They had attacked again on September 8 and 9, but were beaten off.

A snowstorm had caused further problems for the soldiers most of whom are now on foot, in rags, and reduced to eating raw horse meat.

On September 13, Connor's Pawnee scouts had found Walker and Cole and led them to the newly established Fort Connor (later Fort Reno) on the Powder River east of Kaycee, Wyoming.

Cole and Walker and their soldiers had arrived there on September 20.

Cole had reported twelve men killed and two missing.

Walker had reported one man killed and four wounded.

Cole claims that his soldiers had killed two hundred natives.

By contrast, Walker says, "I cannot say as we killed one."

Native casualties are likely light.

George Bent, a Cheyenne warrior and a participant in the battles, only mentions one native killed and says that the Lakota would have annihilated Cole and Walker had they possessed more good firearms. (Hyde, George E. Life of George Bent: Written from his Letters Norman: University of Oklahoma press, pp. 240-241)

Connor finally unites all the components of his expedition on September 24 at Fort Connor.

However, orders transferring him to Utah are awaiting him when he arrives here.

The 16th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry remains to staff Fort Connor and all other troops withdraw to Fort Laramie, most to be mustered out of the army.

Although achieving some successes, the expedition has failed to defeat decisively or intimidate the natives.

Native resistance to travelers on the Bozeman Trail becomes more determined than ever.

"There will be no more travel on that road until the government takes care of the Indians," a correspondent wrote. (Brown, Dee. The Fetterman Massacre Lincoln: U of NE Press, 1962, p. 15).

The most important consequence of the expedition has been 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 is desirable.

This conviction will lead to a renewed invasion of the Powder River country a year later and Red Cloud's War, the first major military conflict between the United States and the Wyoming tribes, and one in which the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho will emerge victorious.

The U.S. has attempted to negotiate new treaties with the Lakota, who are legally entitled to the Powder River country, through which the Bozeman Trail leads, due to increasing demand of safe travel along the Trail to the Montana gold fields.

Several treaties had been negotiated with Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho leaders in autumn 1865.

The treaties provide monetary compensation for the natives in exchange for their agreement to withdraw from the overland routes, established and to be established, in the Powder River country.

However, the signatories to these treaties are "Laramie loafers"—natives who live near Fort Laramie and live off handouts.

For a treaty to be effective, the natives who had fought Patrick Connor, especially Red Cloud, must be engaged.

No white man can be found to undertake a dangerous mission to find Red Cloud and bring him to Fort Laramie for negotiations, so several of the loafers undertake the task and on March 12, 1866, Red Cloud and his Oglala ride into Fort Laramie.

Red Cloud commits to remain peacefully at the Fort until such time as the U.S.'s chief negotiator, E. B. Taylor, arrives with presents for the assembled Indians.

Negotiations between Red Cloud and other native leaders and the United States' representatives begin in June 1866.

On June 13, however, with the worst possible timing, Colonel Henry B. Carrington, commanding the 18th Infantry, arrives at Laramie with the two battalions of the regiment (approximately thirteen hundred men in sixteen companies) and construction supplies.

He has orders to establish forts in the Powder River country using the 2nd Battalion of the 18th Infantry.

The 3rd Battalion is to garrison posts along the old Oregon Trail, now the Platte Road.

Carrington has chosen the 2nd Battalion because it contains two hundred and twenty veteran soldiers consolidated after the American Civil War.

When Carrington appears at the negotiations the following day, Red Cloud refuses to acknowledge him and accuses the U.S. of bad faith in the negotiations.

Red Cloud, Young Man Afraid Of His Horses, and others withdraw from the negotiations and depart Fort Laramie.

Negotiations continue with a reduced number of native leaders.

The US offers a substantial inducement for their cooperation: seventy thousand dollars per year for the Lakota and fifteen thousand dollars per year for the Cheyenne, although the natives may have been aware that promises in treaties for annuities are often not honored.

On June 29, Taylor reports to Washington that a treaty has been concluded and that a "most cordial feeling prevails" between white and Indian.

He says that only about three hundred warriors, led by Red Cloud, object to the treaty.

Colonel Henry B. Carrington reinforces Fort Reno and establishes two additional forts further north (Fort Phil Kearny and Fort C. F. Smith) in the summer of 1866.

His strategy, based on his orders from higher headquarters, is to secure the road, rather than fight the natives.

At the same time Red Cloud and the other chiefs soon became aware that they are unable to defeat a fully defended fort, so they keep to raiding every wagon train and traveling party they can find along the road.

The US government expresses optimism that the treaty will be successful in keeping the peace.

In December, President Andrew Johnson in his State of the Union address says that the natives had "unconditionally submitted to our authority and manifested an earnest desire for a renewal of friendly relations."

Unbeknownst to Johnson, Carrington at this time is under virtual siege by native forces at Fort Phil Kearny.