The Odds Were Not in Their Favor

Farmers, townspeople, miners, and ranchers expected the end of the Civil War would mean the Army would return to subdue the unruly tribes of Indians in the West.  Instead the Army's budget was reduced drastically and only a fraction of the remaining troops served a hundred or more forts scattered from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.

There were at least 300,000 Indians, at least half of them with hostile intentions, and all with superior fighting ability compared to a garrison of maybe 40 indifferent Army men at each fort.  Logistical support complicated the Amy's tasks.  Indian ponies lived off the grassland while the cavalry's  horses needed feed that had to be carried along into battles, slowing down progress.  Wagon trains supplied most of the troops, and the wagons limited operations to well-traveled roads and open countryside.  The Indians could retreat through rugged country, mountains and woods where the Army just couldn't go.  In addition, the infantry spent most of their time defending the supply lines.  It didn't go well for the Army against the Indian.

Then in the 1870s, General George Crook corrected the Army's lack of mobility by the use of pack mule trains who were sure-fitted in rugged country.  Mules may have been good on rugged terrain but they were not popular with the troops.  One soldier wrote, "the animal is unapproachable in devilment, fathomless in cunning, born old in crime, of disreputable paternity and incapable of learning."
The mule might have been unlovely to look at and hard to handle, but they kept the army supplies moving in country where horses could never go.

Could the Army, so outnumbered and hampered by logistics, subdue the more agile, free-moving Indian who was obviously more adept at fighting in the West? 

Next time...An Unwitting Ally
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On January 1, 1863, a farmer named Daniel Freeman submits the first claim under the new Homestead Act for a property near Beatrice, Nebraska. 

Happy New Year!