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The Battle of Platte Bridge, also called the Battle of Platte Bridge Station, on July 26, 1865 was the culmination of a summer offensive by the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne Indians against the United States army. In May and June the Indians raided army outposts and stagecoach stations over a wide swath of Wyoming and Montana. In July, they assembled a large army, estimated by Cheyenne warrior George Bent to number 3,000 warriors, and descended upon Platte Bridge. The bridge, across the North Platte River near present day Casper, Wyoming, was guarded by 120 soldiers. In an engagement near the bridge, and another against a wagon train guarded by 28 soldiers a few miles away, the Indians killed 29 soldiers while suffering at least eight dead. ==Background== The Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado in December 1864 catalyzed an uprising among the Plains Indians of the central Great Plains. About 4,000 Brulé Lakota, Southern Cheyenne, and Southern Arapaho, including about 1,000 warriors, moved north from Colorado and Kansas to join their northern relatives in the Powder River Country of the future states of Wyoming and Montana. Along the way they raided ranches and wagon trains, acquired a huge amount of plunder, and fought battles with the army at Julesburg, Mud Springs, and Rush Creek. With the coming of spring 1865, their horses recovering strength after the long winter, the Lakota and Cheyenne decided to attack along the North Platte River during the summer. Messages were sent to Sitting Bull and the Hunkpapa Lakotas in North Dakota and Montana and the Hunkpapa agreed to attack Fort Rice in North Dakota simultaneously. In the opinion of historian Stephen E. Ambrose, the plan was the closest the Lakota and Cheyenne ever came to a "concerted, unified offensive movement."〔Ambrose, Stephen E. ''Crazy Horse and Custer'' New York: Anchor Books, 1996, p. 159〕 As a military force, the Indians had serious weaknesses. "It was only in midsummer and early winter that they could raise a large force, and even then they could not hold their warriors together for a longer period than a week or ten days."〔Hyde, George E. ''Red Cloud's Folks'' Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1937, p. 118〕 The Indians had few guns and little ammunition, and their basic weapon, the bow and arrow, was nearly worthless against a well-fortified or entrenched enemy. The Indians had no command structure; individual Indian warriors followed only who they wished and fought only when they wished and they took the offensive primarily to acquire horses and to win personal, rather than collective, honors. Their fatal flaw was that they "were unable to turn a battle into a campaign."〔Ambrose, p.66〕 Moreover, the Indians were divided among themselves. Only a few Arapaho participated in the war, and about 1,500 Lakota, mostly Brulé under Spotted Tail, had taken up peaceful residence at Fort Laramie in Spring 1865. The Lakota living near the fort were known as the "Laramie loafers."〔Ambrose, pp. 154-155; McDermott, p. 69〕 The U.S. Army also had weaknesses. The soldiers arrayed against the Lakota and Cheyenne were primarily Civil War draftees or "galvanized Yankees"—Confederate soldiers captured by the Union who agreed to fight Indians on the frontier in exchange for their freedom. With the Civil War winding down in spring 1865, the soldiers wanted out of the army and were unenthusiastic about fighting Indians. Many soldiers deserted or threatened mutiny.〔Ambrose, p. 163〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Platte Bridge」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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