Colonel George Custer massacres peaceful Cheyennes by the Washita River

On November 27, 1868, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an early morning attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne living with Chief Black Kettle near the Washita River, just outside of present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma.

After the government convicted Custer of desertion and mistreatment of soldiers earlier that year in a military court, it suspended him from rank and command for one year. Ten months into that punishment, in September 1868, General Philip Sheridan reinstated Custer to lead a winter campaign against Cheyenne Indians who had been making raids in Kansas and Oklahoma that summer. Sheridan was frustrated by the inability of his other officers to find and engage the enemy, and despite his poor record and unpopularity with some men of the 7th Cavalry, Custer was a good fighter.

Sheridan determined that a campaign in winter might prove more effective, since the Indians could be caught off guard while in their permanent camps. On November 26, Custer located a large village of Cheyennes and Arapahoes encamped near the Washita River, led by Peace Chief Black Kettle. There was even a white flag flying from one of the main dwellings, indicating that the inhabitants were actively avoiding conflict.

Having surrounded the village the night before, at dawn Custer called for the regimental band to play “Garry Owen,” which signaled for four columns of soldiers to charge into the sleeping village. The band tried to play the attack song, but their instruments froze. Outnumbered and caught unaware, scores of Cheyenne people were killed in the first 15 minutes of the “battle,” though a small number of the warriors managed to escape to the trees and return fire. Within a few hours, the village was destroyed—the soldiers had killed 103 Cheyenne, including the peaceful Black Kettle and many women and children.

The Battle of Washita helped to restore Custer’s reputation and succeeded in persuading many Cheyenne to move to the reservation. However, Custer’s reckless habit of charging Native American encampments of unknown strength would eventually lead him to his death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.