Department of the Missouri commander General Winfield Scott Hancock had 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 had met with Cheyenne and Sioux leaders in their village near Fort Larned on April 12, 1867. He had brought a strong force with him and this so frightened the families there that 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 this day, further souring relations between the government and the Native American tribes. (By John Osborne)
Randy Smith, Heroes of the Santa Fe Trail (Raliegh, NC: Boson Books, 2006), 77.
