Battle of Slim Buttes Battle of Slim Buttes The Battle of Slim Buttes was fought on September 9 and 10, 1876, in the Great Sioux Reservation in the Dakota Territory, between the United States Army and the Sioux. The Battle of Slim Buttes was the first U.S. Army victory of the Great Sioux War of 1876 after George Armstrong Custer's defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn on June 25 and 26, 1876. Brigadier General George Crook, one of the U.S. Army's ablest Indian fighters, led the "Horsemeat March," one of the most grueling military expeditions in U.S. history, destroying Oglala Chief American Horse's
Battle of the Little Bighorn Gall's version of events, as recounted to Lt. Edward Settle Godfrey, Custer did not attempt to ford the river and the nearest that he came to the river or village was his final position on the ridge. Chief Gall's statements were corroborated by other Indians, notably the wife of Spotted Horn Bull. Given that no bodies of men or horses were found anywhere near the ford, Godfrey himself concluded "that Custer did not go to the ford with any body of men". Cheyenne oral tradition credits Buffalo Calf Road Woman with striking the blow that knocked Custer off his horse