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What happened to Lieutenant John L. Grattan and his troops in 1854?
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Plains Wars
View of the army camp at Hidden Wood Creek during Lieut. Col. George Armstrong Custer's Black Hills expedition, 1874; photograph by W.H. Illingworth.
On August 19, 1854, Lieutenant John L. Grattan led a detachment of 30 men and two cannons from Fort Laramie to confront a group of Lakota over a dispute involving a killed cow. After rashly demanding that the Lakota surrender the individual suspected of killing the animal, Grattan opened fire on the far superior force. In the ensuing engagement, the Lakota killed Grattan and his entire assembly. This event, often referred to as the Grattan affair, served as the initial major confrontation of what is sometimes called the First Sioux War.1