Battle of the Tongue River

Battle of the Tongue River
Part of the Indian Wars
Date August 29, 1865 Location Sheridan County, Wyoming Result U.S. victory
Belligerents
United States	Arapaho Indians
Commanders and leaders
Patrick E. Connor Jim Bridger Frank North	Chief Black Bear
Strength
200 soldiers, 70 Indian scouts two artillery pieces	500, including women and children
Casualties and losses
5 killed 2 wounded	~ 63 killed, including women and children 18 women and children captured

Connor Battlefield
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Location	City park on the Tongue River, Ranchester, Wyoming
Area	1.2 acres (0.49 ha)
Built	1865 (1865)
NRHP Reference #	71000891
Added to NRHP	August 12, 1971

The Battle of the Tongue River, sometimes referred to as the Connor Battle, was an engagement of the Powder River Expedition of 1865, directed against the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Lakota Sioux. In the engagement, Soldiers and Indian Scouts attacked and destroyed an Arapaho village.

Major General Grenville M. Dodge assumed command of the Department of the Missouri in 1865. Dodge ordered a punitive campaign to suppress the Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho Indians who had been raiding overland mail routes, wagon trains, and military posts along the Oregon and Overland trails. He gave tactical command of the Powder River Expedition, as it was called, to Brigadier General Patrick Edward Connor, commander of the District of Utah.

The expedition was a multi-pronged affair involving 2,600 soldiers, civilians, and Indian scouts. Three columns of soldiers were to descend upon the Powder River Country of Wyoming and Montana, unite, and "make vigorous war upon the Indians and punish them so that they will be forced to keep the peace." Connor was in overall command and led the westernmost or left prong of the expedition. The forces under his direct command consisted of 380 soldiers: 14 men of the 2nd Missouri Light Artillery, 6 companies of the 6th Michigan Cavalry, Company F of the 7th Iowa Cavalry, and Companies E, and K of the 11th Ohio Cavalry. Also included were civilian guides headed by mountain man Jim Bridger, 95 Pawnee scouts under Captain Frank J. North, 84 Omaha and Winnebago scouts under Captain E. W. Nash, and 195 civilian teamsters. Connor left Fort Laramie on July 30, 1865, marching north. He established a fort on the upper Powder River which he named Fort Connor (later called Fort Reno) and left some of his men there to staff the fort.