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The Hayfield Fight on August 1, 1867 was an engagement of Red Cloud's War near Fort C. F. Smith, Montana between 21 soldiers of the U.S. Army, a hay cutting crew of nine civilians, and several hundred native Americans, mostly Cheyenne and Arapaho but including some Lakota Sioux. The soldiers held off the native warriors with newly issued breechloading Springfield Model 1866 rifles, inflicting significant casualties. ==Background== Fort C.F. Smith was founded in 1866 as one of three forts established by the United States to protect emigrants on the Bozeman Trail which led from Fort Laramie in Wyoming to the gold fields of Montana. The trail ran through the Powder River country owned by the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arapaho, and Crow. The first three tribes bitterly opposed the existence of the Bozeman Trail and the illegal presence of U.S Government forces along the trail. In Red Cloud's War, the Lakota responded to these intrusions by repeatedly attacking the soldiers and civilians traversing the trail. In the Fetterman Fight on December 21, 1866, the local people scored a major victory, killing all 81 soldiers in Fetterman's command.〔Green, Jerome A. "The Hayfield Fight: A Reappraisal of a Neglected Action" ''Montana: The Magazine of Western History'', Vol 22, No 4 (Autumn 1972), pp. 35-36〕 The attacks near Fort Smith resumed in summer 1867. In June the Lakota captured 40 mules and horses from the fort, drove away the livestock of a military supply train, and harassed the Crow living near the fort. On July 12, Crow scouts told the soldiers that Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors were gathering in the Rosebud valley, 50 miles east of the fort. On July 23, two companies of infantry, commanded by Lt. Col. Luther P. Bradley, arrived to reinforce the fort. Bradley brought with him breechloading Springfield Model 1866 rifles to replace the soldiers' obsolete muzzle-loading rifle-muskets. The new rifles had a rate of fire of 8 to 10 rounds per minute, compared to 3 rounds per minute for the old muskets and could be reloaded easily from a prone position. The garrison of the fort, now commanded by Bradley, consisted of about 350 soldiers and a number of civilian contractors. Most of the civilians were armed with 7-shot Spencer repeating rifles. A major activity at Fort Smith was cutting and drying grass for hay to feed livestock during the long, cold winters. Two and one-half miles from the fort, a corral had been built for defense of the civilian hay cutters. The corral was 100 feet by 60 feet in size (about 30 by 18 mts). Large logs had been laid on the ground over which a lattice framework was erected. Trenches were dug at each corner for defense. Tents and a picket line for livestock were inside the corral. Outside the corral were three rifle pits. In late July 1867, after their annual sun dance, bands of Oglala Lakota under Red Cloud and the other Powder River Sioux joined with Northern Cheyenne on the Little Bighorn River, where they resolved to attack soldiers at Fort C.F. Smith and Fort Phil Kearny. Unable to agree which to attack first, the bands split into two large groups, with several hundred moving against Fort C.F. Smith and a similar number, including Red Cloud, headed to Fort Phil Kearny.〔Hyde, George E. ''Red Cloud's Folk'', Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1937, pp. 158-159〕 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「Hayfield Fight」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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