While negotiations were going on for the purchase of the post, the Indians became more unruly than ever, and it was thought necessary to send a strong force against them. This force was placed under the command of General W. S. Harney, the man who thirty years before read the Declaration of Independence at the Fourth of July celebration at Fort Pierre. He at once sent a portion
General W. S. Harney
of his men by steamboat to Fort Pierre, to take possession of the post and place it in readiness to receive his main command, which he intended to lead there overland, through the country of the unruly Indians, in the autumn.
With twelve hundred men Harney set out from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on the 5th of August, and proceeded by way of Fort Kearney, Nebraska, without meeting any Indians, until the 2d of September, when he found a camp of Brule Sioux at Ash Hollow on the Blue Water, a northern affluent of the Platte in central northern Nebraska. The next morning before light, he divided his force, sending the cavalry far around to strike the Indians' camp from the rear, while with his infantry he
