The Hayfield Fight

By Billy D Bunny - March 26, 2021

Private William Bunny applies some emergency doctoring after the Hayfield Fight, August 1st, 1867.

A party of 21 soldiers and 9 civilians were attacked by Red Cloud's Lakota Sioux, anywhere between 500 and 800 warriors. Unknown to them, the soldiers had been issued breechloading Springfield Model 1866 rifles, a metallic cartridge affair. The civilians were armed with repeating Spencer rifles. There was a corral that the hay cutting party managed to get to, and they surprised the Oglala warriors with the volume of fire in their defense. Their officer dead, a sergeant took over and when he was wounded a civilian, D. A. 'Al' Colvin directed the defense. Although the fight was heard at Fort C. F. Smith 2.5 miles away, Lt. Colonel Luther Bradely took his own sweet time sending reinforcements. The best that can be said about him is that he was overcautious, I would say cowardly and indecisive. The U. S. lost 3 dead, 4 wounded, the Sioux 8 to 23 dead, no one has any idea but the soldiers were knocking Indians off horses left, right and center with aimed .50 caliber fire so many must have died. As usual the Sioux took their dead with them. Colonel Bradley downplayed the action in his report, it is not as well known as the Wagon Box fight the next day near Fort Phil Kearny. (7 dead, 2 wounded, unknown Indian casualties but a lot).

These two fights took place in rolling country, I have drawn a more Monument Valley background because it looks cool. 9 months before the Army lost 81 men in the Fetterman massacre, this may have led to Col. Bradley's pusillanimous behavior. Not until Little Bighorn ten years later did the Army lose more men, thanks to an idiot showoff commander with Presidential aspirations. Crazy Horse was one of the participants in the Wagon Box thing, he was part of a decoy party designed to split up the soldiers.