SEPT 9: 3rd Cavalry Strikes Back After Little Bighorn

On Sept. 9, 1876, the Battle of Slim Buttes was fought on the Great Sioux Reservation in current-day South Dakota between the U.S. Army and Miniconjou Sioux. It marked the first significant victory for the army since the stunning defeat of Lt. Col. George A. Custer and the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn in late June.

Gen. Anson Mills (circa 1900). (Credit: Library of Congress)

Captain Anson Mills and 150 troopers from the 3rd U.S. Cavalry attacked 37 lodges under Chief American Horse. Three soldiers and about a dozen Sioux were killed, including American Horse.

Following Little Bighorn, Lt. General Philip H. Sheridan, commanding the Department of Missouri, ordered the U.S. Army to convince hostile Indians to return to their reservations.

Mills, who was dispatched with 150 troopers to Deadwood, a Black Hills mining town, to find supplies, stumbled onto American Horse’s village.