50
D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E
•
S U M M E R 2 0 2 5
T
HE BATTLE OF THE ROSEBUD, which occurred on June 17,
1876, is commonly perceived as merely a prelude to the Battle
of the Little Bighorn. Interest in the Rosebud fight certainly does
not match the last-stand mystique that historically surrounded
the demise of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and
Seventh Cavalry troops under his immediate command at the
Greasy Grass. However, Paul Hedren (2019) astutely observes, in
the definitive work on this engagement, that "no Indian wars bat-
tlefield in America is [as topographically] diverse and expansive
as Rosebud Creek, Montana."
It is also distinctly possible that the Rosebud fight was the larg-
est pitched battle ever fought between the U. S. Army and Plains
tribes. The Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition, command-
ed by Brigadier General George Crook, numbered some 1,300
men, which included 15 companies of cavalry, five companies of
mounted infantry, and an auxiliary force of 176 Crow and 86 Sho-
shone warriors.
Estimates of Lakota and Northern Cheyenne combatants are
derived from statistical extrapolations. Historians have painstak-
ingly chronicled the aggregation of villages involved in the Rose-
bud fight. Based on ratios for persons and warriors per lodge,
calculated from demographic data compiled by Harry Ander-
Rosebud Battlefield
by DOUGLAS A. SCHMITTOU
"Where the Girl Saved
