Rosebud, June 17, 1876: Prelude to the Little Big Horn

by Paul L. Hedren

The Battle of the Rosebud may well be the largest Indian battle ever fought in the American West. The monumental clash on June 17, 1876, along Rosebud Creek in southeastern Montana pitted George Crook and his Shoshone and Crow allies against Sioux and Northern Cheyennes under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. It set the stage for the battle that occurred eight days later when, just twenty-five miles away, George Armstrong Custer blundered into the very same village that had outmatched Crook. Historian Paul L. Hedren presents the definitive account of this critical battle, from its antecedents in the Sioux campaign to its historic consequences.

Rosebud, June 17, 1876 explores in unprecedented detail the events of the spring and early summer of 1876. Drawing on an extensive array of sources, including government reports, diaries, reminiscences, and a previously untapped trove of newspaper stories, the book traces the movements of both Indian forces and U.S. troops and their Indian allies as Brigadier General Crook commenced his second great campaign against the northern Indians for the year. Both Indian and army paths led to Rosebud Creek, where warriors surprised Crook and then parried with his soldiers for the better part of a day on an enormous field. Describing the battle from multiple viewpoints, Hedren narrates the action moment by moment, capturing the ebb and flow of the fighting. Throughout he weighs the decisions and events that contributed to Crook’s tactical victory, and to his fateful decision thereafter not to pursue his adversary. The result is a uniquely comprehensive view of an engagement that made history and then changed its course.

Rosebud was at once a battle won and a battle lost. With informed attention to the subtleties and significance of both outcomes, as well as to the fears and motivations on all sides, Hedren has given new meaning to this consequential fight, and new insight into its place in the larger story of the Great Sioux War.
 

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, Military History, Native American

494 pages, Hardcover

Published April 11, 2019

About the author

A native Minnesotan, Paul Hedren retired from the National Park Service in 2007 after nearly thirty-seven years as a park historian and superintendent at such storied places as Fort Laramie National Historic Site, Wyoming, the Golden Spike National Historic Site in Utah, and the Niobrara National Scenic River in Nebraska.

Paul is also a lifelong writer and the author of scores of scholarly and popular articles plus eleven books, with stories largely focusing on the Great Sioux War of 1876-77 and particularly that conflict’s subtleties and consequences. Paul’s won numerous writing awards including a Spur from the Western Writers of America, the Vivian Paladin Award from the Montana Historical Society, and the Herbert Schell Award from the South Dakota State Historical Society. In 2011 his book After Custer: Loss and Transformation in Sioux Country won a prestigious Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, and also the Sills Book Prize from the Custer Battlefield Historical & Museum Association.

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little Bighorn isn't the only battle that June filled with what-ifs or if-onlys.
Hedren knows his battlefields and this work puts the reader there through excellent descriptions of terrain and troop/warrior movements.
I made ample use of the maps, as well as google earth as I progressed.
It's all here: the confusion, noise, dust, the smell of gunpowder thick in the air ...
This summer, I'll finally visit this sight for the first time before going to LBH (and the crowds) again; without the one ... well, that's that what-if thing again.

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and detailed

A wonderfully detailed, thoroughly researched and stylishly written book about a fascinating battle during the 1876 Sioux Wars. Somewhat neglected over the years and considered simply a preliminary to the Little Big Horn battle, Rosebud is shown here to be compelling chapter in US military and Native American history.

[andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly about the Army but very detailed and interesting