Given the number of combatants, the Battle of the Rosebud was one of the largest confrontations waged in the Indian Wars. To historians of the battle as well as Native Americans today, the Rosebud is acknowledged as a positive chapter in the Lakota and Cheyenne defense of their lands and lifeways. However, it was not a simple fight between whites and Indians. To the Crows and Shoshones who scouted for the Americans, it was their battle too, against the Lakotas and Cheyennes who were encroaching on their lands and lifeways.
Below is a brief overview of the battle by Combat Studies Institute of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. Note that this is an overview and not a definitive account off the engagement. Below is the Order of Battle and the primary source accounts of the battle. In fact, as you read them and the counter narrative of the Native Americans, you should read the CSI's account with a more critical eye.
Battle_of_the_Rosebud.pdf | |
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Reporter John Finetry of the Chicago Tribune was accompanying Crook during the battle. His account can be found here:
Link to Finetry's Account
Later Recollections
3rd Cavalry
Lieutenant John Bourke (1891)
Link to Finetry's Account
Later Recollections
3rd Cavalry
Lieutenant John Bourke (1891)
Order of Battle
United States
Department of the Platte – Brigadier General George Crook
Link to Crook's Official Report
Link to Major Arthur Evans' (Acting Adjutant General, 3rd Cav) Official Report
2nd United States Cavalry Regiment.
Companies A, B, D, E, and I. (Capt. Henry Noyes)
Link to the Official Report of Noyes' Command
3rd United States Cavalry Regiment.
Companies A, E, M (Acting as a Battalion - Capt. Anson Mills)
Link to the Official Reports of Mills' Command
Companies D, F, I, L (Acting as a Battalion – Lt. Col. W.B. Royall)
Link to Official Reports of Royall's Command
Company B (Capt. Charles Meinhold)
Link to Official Reports of Meinhold's Command
Companies C and G (Acting as Battalion - Captain Frederick Van Vliet)
Link to Official Reports of Van Vliet's Command
4th United States Infantry Regiment.
Companies D and F (with Co. C 9th U.S. Inf acting as a Battalion – Major Alex Chambers)
Link to Official Reports of Chambers' Command
9th United States Infantry Regiment.
Companies C (working with Companies D and F, 4th U.S. Inf as a Battalion)
Companies G, and H (working as a Battalion – Capt. T.B. Burrowes)
Link to Official Reports of Burrowes' Command
Crow Scouts.
Shoshone Scouts.
Civilians.
Native American Coalition
Crazy Horse
Sioux: Lakota, Oglala, Hunkpapa, Itazipco, Sihasapa (Black Feet band of Lakota), Minicoujou, Oohenumpa, Sicangu, Dakota.
Lazy White Bull's Account of the Battle (Sioux)
Short Bull's Account of the Battle (Sioux)
Northern Cheyenne.
Link to Wooden Leg's Account of the Battle (Cheyenne)
Link to Little Hawk's Account of the Battle (Cheyenne)
Sioux: Lakota, Oglala, Hunkpapa, Itazipco, Sihasapa (Black Feet band of Lakota), Minicoujou, Oohenumpa, Sicangu, Dakota.
Lazy White Bull's Account of the Battle (Sioux)
Short Bull's Account of the Battle (Sioux)
Northern Cheyenne.
Link to Wooden Leg's Account of the Battle (Cheyenne)
Link to Little Hawk's Account of the Battle (Cheyenne)
This drawing, from the Spotted Wolf-Yellow Nose Ledger, shows Buffalo Calf Road Woman rescuing her brother through a hail of bullets at the Battle of the Rosebud. Buffalo Calf Road Woman wears an elk tooth dress. Her brother, Comes in Sight, wears a war bonnet. According to the book We, The Northern Cheyenne People, the horse’s split ears indicates that it is a fast one. Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives, Bureau of American Ethnology