The March of the Montana Column

By editor

Columbus, Stillwater County, Montana

In the spring of 1876, as the great contest for control of the northern Great Plains reached a crucial juncture, Colonel John Gibbon undertook a march that would come to be known as the Montana Column. This force, numbering approximately 450 men drawn from six companies of the Seventh Infantry and a detachment of the Second Cavalry, set forth from Fort Ellis near Bozeman on the first day of April. Their mission was to advance eastward along the Yellowstone River, a vital artery threading through this contested landscape, and to rendezvous with two other columns commanded by General Alfred Terry approaching from the east and Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer pressing northward from the south. The campaign was conceived by the United States government to bring an end to the resistance of the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne tribes, who sought to preserve their way of life upon lands increasingly encroached by settlers and miners.

The political and military context of this campaign was complex and fraught. The discovery of gold in the Black Hills--a region held sacred by the Lakota and guaranteed to them by treaty--had drawn a flood of miners and settlers, provoking armed conflict. By late 1875, the government had issued an ultimatum demanding that all Sioux and Cheyenne bands come to their designated reservations by January 31, 1876, or be considered hostile. Many warriors, unwilling to abandon the lands and freedom they prized, refused, prompting the army to devise a three-pronged operation to trap and subdue them.

Colonel Gibbon’s troops moved with grim resolve, often wading through snowdrifts that reached their waists, a testament to the unforgiving terrain and season. By April 8, after a relentless march down the north bank of the Yellowstone, the soldiers reached the mouth of the Stillwater River, roughly ten miles west of what is now Columbus. Here, the column made camp, seizing a moment of respite and preparation before pressing onward toward the Little Bighorn, the site destined to become infamous.

Recognizing the necessity of local knowledge in this hostile country, Gibbon dispatched a small party of officers up the Stillwater to the Crow Agency on Rosebud Creek. The Crow people, traditional enemies of the Lakota and Cheyenne, were enlisted as scouts to accompany the column. This alliance was a strategic measure to gain intelligence on the movements of the indigenous forces. The Crow warriors, familiar with the terrain and skilled in reconnaissance, were invaluable guides in the weeks ahead.

While encamped at the mouth of the Stillwater, the soldiers took the opportunity to rest their bodies and replenish their spirits. Fishing became a favored pastime among the men, who exhausted the river of more than 500 pounds of trout during their stay. This moment of calm was undergirded by the knowledge that the coming engagements would test their endurance and resolve as never before.

The march of the Montana Column was but one strand of the larger campaign orchestrated by General Terry. The grand design called for three columns to converge simultaneously on the Indian encampments along the Little Bighorn River--Terry’s force from the east, Crook’s from the south, and Gibbon’s from the west. Yet, the vast distances involved, the rugged terrain, and the limitations of 19th-century communication rendered coordination nearly impossible. Each column operated with limited knowledge of the others' precise movements or the enemy’s dispositions.

Colonel Gibbon himself was acutely aware of these difficulties. In a letter dated June 1876, he wrote, “The vast distances and the nature of the country make concerted action very difficult, and it is to be feared that the plan may fail for lack of timely cooperation.” His apprehensions were borne out in the tragic outcome that followed.

On June 27, 1876, Gibbon’s Montana Column arrived at the Little Bighorn. There, they encountered the aftermath of one of the most devastating defeats suffered by the United States Army during the Indian Wars. The bodies of Custer’s command lay strewn across the battlefield, the Seventh Cavalry having been overwhelmed by a coalition of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors under the leadership of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Nearby, Gibbon’s men also relieved Major Marcus Reno’s besieged companies, who had survived days of combat under siege.

The battle’s consequences resonated beyond the immediate loss and grief. It exposed the perils of underestimating the tactical acumen and fighting spirit of the indigenous forces, as well as the hazards inherent in the army’s strategy of divided columns operating without effective real-time communication. Yet, it also intensified the resolve of the federal government to subdue the tribes and secure the contested territories for expanding settlement.

The Montana Column’s march thus occupies a pivotal place in the larger narrative of the American West--an episode that reflects the collision of empires, cultures, and visions for the future of the continent. Colonel Gibbon’s efforts, though ultimately unable to prevent the disaster at the Little Bighorn, exemplify the determination and hardships faced by soldiers navigating a vast and hostile frontier. The alliance with the Crow, the perseverance through snow and river crossings, and the brief respite spent fishing in the Stillwater are moments that humanize this arduous campaign.

In the end, the events surrounding the Montana Column reveal the profound challenges of waging war over immense distances in unforgiving terrain, against an adversary intimately acquainted with the land. As the historian George Bird Grinnell, a contemporary observer and advocate for the Native American cause, noted, “The tragedy of the Little Bighorn was as much a failure of communication and planning as it was a failure of arms.” The march of the Montana Column thus remains a somber chapter in the story of a nation’s westward expansion, marked by courage, miscalculation, and the relentless forces of history.

See also

• The March of the Montana Column at Columbus, Stillwater County
• Terry and Gibbon at Forsyth, Rosebud County
• Captain Ball's Scout at Crow Agency, Big Horn County