The Battle of Rush Creek took place February 8–9, 1865, between about 185 soldiers of the U.S. Army and 1,000 warriors of the Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes. It was part of a series of retaliations by the Native American alliance after the U.S. army committed the Sand Creek Massacre. The inconclusive battle took place 4 mi southeast of present-day Broadwater, Nebraska, along both banks of the North Platte River.
Background
After the Sand Creek Massacre in November 1864 in Colorado, the Plains Indians of the three tribes in that region decided to move northward to the more isolated Powder River Country of Wyoming and Montana. En route, they sought revenge for Sand Creek, raiding along the South Platte River in Colorado and burning the settlement of Julesburg on February 2. From February 4–6, the Indians attacked a stagecoach station in the Battle of Mud Springs. Breaking off that battle to resume their journey northward, they crossed the North Platte River on the ice and camped among bluffs about 5 mi north of the river.
Lt. Col. William O. Collins and soldiers from his command, variously reported from 140 to 185, left Mud Springs on February 8 to find the Indians, who may have numbered, with women and children, from 4,000 to 5,000. The food and other provisions the Indians had collected in their raids enabled such a large number to remain together rather than divide into smaller groups for hunting. On Rush Creek (today Cedar Creek), Collins found their previous encampment scattered over several miles of the creek valley and littered with the plunder from their raids, including empty cans of oysters, meat, and fruit. He followed the trail northward to the North Platte, where across the river, he saw Indians grazing their large herd of horses.
The Indians had not anticipated that the outnumbered soldiers would pursue them, and had set up their camp intending to remain there four days to rest their horses before undertaking a waterless 40-mile passage through the Nebraska Sand Hills. The young men and women had spent all night dancing and were asleep, but were awakened suddenly at 2:00 pm, when a single Sioux warrior signaled from a hilltop that soldiers were approaching. About 1000 warriors mounted their horses and crossed the flat Platte Valley to engage the soldiers.
Battle
Collins saw the large number of Indians coming his way and formed up his wagons and horses into a corral, putting his soldiers to work digging rifle pits and establishing defense lines among the sandy ridges on the plain. The Indians crossed the North Platte above and below the troops and advanced, attempting to capture the soldiers' horses, forcing the soldiers to fight on foot. A long-distance shooting match ensued. Barrages from a howitzer kept the Indians at a distance, although many of the shells were defective.
One group of Indians crept close enough to be a danger and Collins ordered a detail of 17 men under Lt. Patton of the 11th Ohio Cavalry to charge and disperse them. Collins reported that the mounted charge was successful, although two men were killed, one of whom was Pvt. William H. Hartshorn of Company C, 11th Ohio Cavalry, whose body was recovered containing 97 arrows. George Bent, a Cheyenne warrior, said that the soldiers retreated in haste and with many casualties after a counter-charge by Indians (a young Cheyenne named Yellow Nose was wounded in the action. Eleven years later, Yellow Nose captured Lt. Col. George A. Custer's flag during the Battle of the Little Bighorn). The Indians withdrew in the late afternoon. Collins' force remained in their defensive positions overnight. The next morning, several hundred Indian warriors returned to resume the attack on Collins and to attempt again capturing his horses. After long-distance sniping for several hours, the Indians broke off the battle.
Collins reported two men killed and nine wounded, with another 10 men suffering frostbite. He estimated the Indian casualties at Mud Springs and Rush Creek at 100–150. Bent, by contrast, says only two Indians were wounded at Rush Creek. Collins, however, tells a detailed story of one Indian who died in the battle; Bent tells an equally detailed story of a third soldier, a courier, being killed.