Battle of Honsinger Bluff

Part of the Yellowstone Expedition of 1873

Date	August 4, 1873
Location	Custer County Montana 46°29′23″N 105°55′05″W / 46.48972°N 105.91806°W / 46.48972; -105.91806 (Big Hill)Coordinates: 46°29′23″N 105°55′05″W / 46.48972°N 105.91806°W / 46.48972; -105.91806 (Big Hill)
Result	Inconclusive

Belligerents

Lakota

United States

Commanders and leaders

Rain in the Face

George Armstrong Custer

Units involved

7th United States Cavalry

Strength

~200 Warriors

~91 Soldiers, 4 Civilians

Casualties and losses

3 wounded

3 killed, 1 wounded

The Battle of Honsinger Bluff was a conflict between the United States Army and the Sioux people on August 4, 1873 along the Yellowstone River near present-day Miles City, Montana. The main combatants were units of the U.S. 7th Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, and Native Americans from the village of the Hunkpapa medicine man, Sitting Bull, many of whom would clash with Custer again approximately three years later at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

The Battle of Honsinger Bluff took place at a point approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the confluence of the Tongue River and Yellowstone River. The battlefield, on a floodplain of the Yellowstone River, is dominated by a massive gravelly hill to the northeast, often referenced as the "Big Hill" in historical accounts of the battle, but referenced locally as "Yellowstone Hill". This hill is nearly 13 miles (21 km) long and between 1 and 3 miles (4.8 km) wide with steep slopes of 200 to 300 feet (91 m). It is the present location of the Miles City Airport. To the east and south lies the Yellowstone River. The floodplain, varying between 1 and 3 miles (4.8 km) in width, extends westerly upstream along the Yellowstone for nearly 13 miles (21 km) until it meets Locke Bluff near Hathaway, Montana. Key positions involved a bluff, Honsinger Bluff, on the southwesterly face of Yellowstone Hill, and two large groves of cottonwood trees on old channels of the Yellowstone, one approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) westerly of Yellowstone Hill and the second approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) westerly.

Custer and units of the 7th Cavalry were part of the military column commanded by Col. David S. Stanley accompanying the 1873 Northern Pacific Railway survey party surveying the north side of the Yellowstone River west of the Powder River in eastern Montana. Stanley's column consisted of a 1,300 man force of cavalry, infantry, and two artillery pieces (3" rifled Rodman guns). It traveled with 275 mule-drawn wagons and 353 civilians involved in the survey. 27 Indian and mixed-blood scouts supported the column.

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