🦅The American Indian Wars1876
Dull Knife Fight
Following Little Bighorn, General Crook dispatched Colonel Ranald Mackenzie's cavalry to destroy the Northern Cheyenne village of Dull Knife and Little Wolf in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. Mackenzie's force of 1,100 soldiers and 400 scouts located the village of approximately 183 lodges in a sheltered canyon and attacked at dawn in bitter cold. The village was destroyed, 500 horses captured, and the Cheyenne were driven into the mountains with inadequate clothing and no food. Many froze to death.
The destruction of the Northern Cheyenne's winter camp was a deliberate strategy to eliminate the material basis of resistance. Without horses, food stores, and shelter in the Wyoming winter, further fighting was impossible. This battle, combined with the relentless winter campaign following Little Bighorn, forced the Northern Cheyenne toward surrender.
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