A Hell-Bent Ride On A Snortin' Prince Of A Mule

A mule became the men’s best hope in the terrifying Hayfield fight that took place 150 years ago.

- John Hart

In July 1867, leaders of the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne tribes gathered on Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory to plan the next phase in their most successful war.

The tribes were allies in a fight to shut down the Bozeman Trail, which had been siphoning Montana Territory-bound miners north from the Platte River Road since 1864. An intrusion into country the Indians regarded as an ultimate heartland, it confirmed their fear that, treaties or no, the white tide would never stop rising.

In the previous December, the tribes had scored a signal victory outside U.S. Army Fort Phil Kearny, annihilating a woodcutting party and the soldiers sent to relieve it: the Fetterman Fight, called (like other lopsided Indian victories) a “massacre.”

After a long winter pause, the warriors were ready to try again. Their objective would be one of two hated federal forts on the Bozeman: perhaps Fort Phil Kearny again; perhaps Fort C.F. Smith, 90 miles beyond Fort Phil Kearny, on the Bighorn River. Some favored one; some, the other.

Unable to agree, the chiefs decided to split their forces. The result was a pair of notable battles: the Hayfield Fight near Fort C.F. Smith on August 1 and the Wagon Box Fight outside Fort Phil Kearny on August 2.

Of the two, Wagon Box has received more attention. A bombastic monument for it was erected in 1936, followed by a more balanced presentation on modern interpretive plaques. The Hayfield Fight, by contrast, is little remarked. One reason for that is the paucity of eyewitnesses: all accounts rest on the memories of just two men, teamster Fincelius “Finn” Burnett and U.S. Army Pvt. James D. Lockwood. Both of their accounts were committed to paper decades after the event.