Thursday, June 1

The snow that had begun to fall overnight on the Dakota Column’s camp continued all throughout the day today, and General Terry elected to remain in place, his men hunkered down against the elements. The General would write his sisters that he was most comfortable, with two tents set up side by side with one serving as a sitting room and another as a bedroom, with a warm Sibley stove heating both. The conditions for his men were doubtless less so, but were likely glad to be spared marching in such conditions. The same storm likewise kept the men of Gibbon’s Montana Column in their bivouac, with little of note today.

An encampment of the 7th Cavalry at an unknown date, sans snow

Foul weather also beset Crook and his men in Wyoming, with Bourke reporting rain turning to sleet in the morning as they continued to march northwest past Pumpkin Butte. Game and wood was scarce, and when camp was made along a fork of the Powder River after a march of just over twenty miles fires were built immediately, as water began to freeze in buckets. The first major destination, the abandoned Fort Reno, was now less than ten miles distant, and the column intended to arrive there on the morrow.

1. Dakota Column - CUSTER/TERRY - North Dakota Badlands/Andrews Creek

2. Wyoming Column - CROOK - Powder River

3. Montana Column - GIBBON - Yellowstone River/Rosebud Creek

4. Sioux Encampment - SITTING BULL - Rosebud Creek