Battle of the Washita River

In late November 1868, thousands of Southern Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche, and Kiowa-Apache people were camped in a series of winter villages stretching ten to fifteen miles along the Washita River in Indian Territory. The westernmost of these was the roughly 50-lodge village of Southern Cheyenne chief Black Kettle, a leader who had survived the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and had continued to seek peace with U.S. authorities. On November 20, 1868, Black Kettle and other chiefs met with Colonel William B. Hazen at Fort Cobb to request permission to move his people to safety; Hazen told them he could not make peace on Sheridan's behalf and that they would have to deal with the military campaign already underway.

Black Kettle returned to his village on the Washita on the evening of November 26, the same day a raiding party's trail was discovered by Custer's Osage scouts. Custer's 7th Cavalry, part of a broader winter offensive ordered by General Philip Sheridan against Cheyenne and allied bands, followed the trail through the night and attacked Black Kettle's village at first light on November 27, 1868. Cavalry troops converged on the camp from four directions as the regimental band played "Garryowen." Warriors, women, and children fled into ravines and behind trees under fire. Black Kettle and his wife, Medicine Woman, were shot in the back and killed while attempting to flee on a pony.

Custer's forces took control of the village, destroyed food and lodges, killed approximately 675 ponies and horses, and captured 53 women and children, later used according to multiple historians as hostages and human shields to help extricate the regiment as warriors from nearby camps advanced. A detached command of about 20 troopers under Major Joel Elliott was separated from the main force and killed by warriors converging from downriver villages; Custer withdrew without determining Elliott's fate, a decision that caused lasting resentment within the regiment.

The number of Indian dead has remained disputed since the earliest reports. Custer initially reported 103 warriors killed based on officers' recollections rather than an actual battlefield count; he later revised the total loss estimate upward to around 300 based on information from Kiowa prisoners at Fort Cobb. Cheyenne survivors and interviewed prisoners gave much lower figures, describing roughly 13 Cheyenne men, two Sioux, and one Arapaho killed, alongside additional women and children. Scouts attached to the regiment separately reported roughly 20 warriors and about 40 women and children killed. Contemporary press coverage, the Indian Bureau, and Indian Agent Edward Wynkoop (who resigned and called it a massacre) criticized the attack as directed at a band that had been seeking peace. Historians remain divided on whether to characterize the engagement as a battle or a massacre, and the event's disputed casualty counts and historical framing continue to be discussed, including within the modern Cheyenne community's efforts regarding the historic site's naming.