Department of the Missouri commander General Winfield Scott Hancock marched 1,400 men, including George Armstrong Custer's recently organized Seventh Cavalry, to Fort Larned in Kansas. His orders were to negotiate the security of the Santa Fe Trail and he met with Cheyenne and Sioux leaders in their village near Fort Larned in the evening of this day. He had arrived with a strong force that frightened the families there and the tribes left the village the next day. Hancock assumed this flight meant warlike intent, sent Custer in pursuit, and burned the abandoned village on April 19,1867. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Randy Smith, Heroes of the Santa Fe Trail (Raliegh, NC: Boson Books, 2006), 77.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Battles/Soldiers
