Kidder Massacre

Kidder Fight
Part of Hancock's War, American Indian Wars
Date 29 June 1867 Location present-day Sherman County, Kansas, near Goodland Result Cheyenne-Lakota victory
Belligerents
United States	Cheyenne Sioux
Commanders and leaders
Lyman S. Kidder†	Tobacco, Pawnee Killer
Strength
12 cavalry	>14 warriors
Casualties and losses
12 killed	2 killed

The Kidder Fight (or Kidder Massacre), of July 2, 1867 refers to a skirmish near what is now Goodland, Kansas involving a detachment of ten enlisted men and an Indian scout of the United States 2nd Cavalry under the command of Second Lieutenant Lyman Kidder which was attacked and wiped out by a mixed Lakota and Cheyenne force. Two Lakota, including chief Yellow Horse were also killed. The fight occurred during the period of the Indian Wars on the western plains and was an incident in the campaign known as Hancock's War.

Born in Vermont, Lt. Lyman Kidder was a son of politician and judge Jefferson P. Kidder. His family moved to the Dakota Territory, and he served in the American Civil War. In January 1867, he was appointed as a second lieutenant in the regular army. He was an uncle of Jeff Kidder, an Old West lawman.

In June 1867 Kidder and his men were ordered to take dispatches from General William Sherman to Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer, camped on the Republican River in Nebraska. Lt. Kidder's party reached the encampment, but prior to their arrival, Custer had become restless and moved his force to the south, then to the northwest. When Lt. Kidder discovered Custer's force had departed, he seemed to have thought Custer moved south to Fort Wallace.

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