After three successful encounters in a week, General H.H. Sibley's column had driven the main body of the Sioux across the Missouri. Holding at Burnt Island, not far from present day Bismarck, he waited for three days in vain for the reinforcement of General Alfred Sully's column, and decided not to cross the Missouri in further pursuit. Almost two months of summer campaigning in difficult conditions had worn out his men, he decided, and he marched back to Minnesota, largely successful in his mission to punish and drive away hostile Sioux. (By John Osborne)