SEPT 25: Saved By the Cavalry

On Sept. 25, 1868, a company of civilian frontiersmen and Army scouts under the command of Major George A. Foster is saved when Lt. Col. Louis H. Carpenter and troopers from the 10th Cavalry Regiment arrive at the scene of the Battle of Beecher Island near present-day Wray, Colorado.

Cheyenne war leader Roman Nose. (Credit: New York Public Library)

On the morning of Sept. 17, hundreds of Cheyenne and Oglala Sioux warriors attacked Forsyth’s camp along the Arikaree River (later changed to the Republican River.) At one point, Forsyth directed his men to cross the river’s shallows and take a new position on a sandbar. The Army scouts killed their horses to form breastworks and dug pits in the soft sand behind them. Their Spencer rifles proved accurate as well as deadly, holding off multiple warrior charges.

That’s where they waited it out for nine days until help from came from Fort Wallace, more than 70 miles to the east.

Among those killed during the battle was Roman Nose, a prominent Cheyenne warrior and military leader.