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Retreating to the river they were attacked trying to find an alternate route downstream. Heading back upstream
Sawyers corralled the wagons, but two members of his team were killed and he decided to move and corral his wagons for a third time. Sawyers was in desperate measures by nightfall. The next morning the Arapaho leaders met with Sawyers. The Arapaho had been part of the group recently attacked by General Connor and believed Sawyers’ expedition was military reinforcements. The Arapaho chiefs stated Connor's troops had captured their ponies and they wanted them back. The Arapaho and Sawyers agreed to send 3 men each to find Connor. While the Arapaho were hoping to have their animals back, Sawyers was looking for military reinforcements to continue his expedition. For several days Sawyers’ men and the Arapaho faced off at each other through bad weather. On September 12 with no word from Connor the men of Sawyer’ expedition mutinied and replaced Sawyers in command. Under new command the expedition broke away from the Arapaho and began its return to Fort Connor on September 13.
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just 4 days prior. As the wagons crossed the river, Arapaho warriors attacked and scattered the expedition's cattle herd. The cavalry unlimbered a howitzer while
Sawyers corralled the wagons. The Arapaho appeared to have left and Sawyers continued along the trail but was attacked a second time.
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The withdrawal did not last long as reinforcements sent from Connor arrived along the road back to Fort Connor under the command of
Captain Albert E. Brown. With Brown's help Sawyers reasserted his authority over the expedition and turned back toward Virginia City. This third attempt to reach
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was part of a surveying expedition in late 1865 to improve the emigrant trails from
Nebraska to Montana. Not a military venture, the expedition was named for and led by James A. Sawyers. The expedition was attacked by Arapaho warriors in retribution for losses at the
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as a new escort for
Sawyers to continue his expedition. Sawyers left the fort and followed the military road recently blazed by General Connor's troops until it intersected with the
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251:. Secretary of the Interior James Usher appointed Lt. Col. James A. Sawyers head of this expedition with a military escort of two companies of "Galvanized Yankees" of the
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287:. On August 31, Captain Osmer Cole from the 6th Michigan was killed by Arapaho warriors. Sawyers’ wagon train nevertheless continued to a ford on the
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and began crossing
September 1. Unbeknownst to Sawyers, just a few miles from the ford, Connor had
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Journeys to the Land of Gold: Emigrant
Diaries from the Bozeman Trail, 1863-1866
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Colonel James H. Kidd, commander at Fort Connor, detached a portion of the
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In 1865 Congress approved an expedition to build a road from the
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The Bloddy
Bozeman: The Perilous Trail to Montana's Gold
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Virginia City encountered almost no hostile
Natives.
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Wars between the United States and Native
Americans
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393:Battles and Massacres of the Indian Wars
281:6th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry Regiment
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312:A battlefield monument stands along
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43:31 August – 13 September 1865
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253:5th U.S. Volunteer Infantry
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233:battle of the Tongue River
421:1865 in the United States
332:2000 Johnson, Dorothy M.
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314:U.S. Route 14 in Wyoming
261:Powder River Expedition
177:Powder River Expedition
249:Virginia City, Montana
102:Commanders and leaders
200:Powder River Massacre
130:Casualties and losses
293:attacked the Arapaho
215:Powder River Battles
190:Crazy Woman's Fork
120:civilian surveyors
265:Gillette, Wyoming
257:Patrick E. Connor
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205:Tongue River
76:Belligerents
24:Part of the
365:Doyle p.350
356:Doyle p.347
347:Doyle p.345
269:Fort Connor
405:Categories
239:Background
30:Sioux Wars
304:Aftermath
275:The Fight
135:3 killed
115:Strength
67:standoff
48:Location
324:Sources
125:unknown
110:unknown
97:Indians
95:Arapaho
57:Wyoming
318:Dayton
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64:Result
336:1983
316:near
226:The
40:Date
295:of
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167:e
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