INDIAN WARS, 5th INFANTRY REGIMENT, E COMPANY, ENLISTED, CAP DEVICE
Screwback.
When the Civil War ended, the 5th Infantry moved from New Mexico to Kansas to provide security for settlers. By October 1868, the regiment manned seven posts across western Kansas, with headquarters at Fort Riley. In March 1869, Colonel and Brevet Major General Nelson A. Miles took command. Over the next dozen years, the regiment under its new commander would take part in many of the major Indian wars of the Great Plains.
Red River War
From July 1874 to February 1875, Miles led a mixed force of the 5th Infantry and 6th Cavalry in campaigns against the Southern Cheyenne, Comanche and Kiowa Indians along the Red and Washita Rivers in Indian Territory and Texas.
Great Sioux War of 1876?77
In the spring of 1876 the largest Indian confederation of the post-Civil War period formed in the northern plains, led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse of the Lakota Indians. The Army organized a three-pronged expedition to round up this force, but the Indians scored major victories against two of the three, stopping George Crook's southern pincer at the Battle of the Rosebud on 17 June and destroying half of the 7th Cavalry, vanguard of Alfred Terry's eastern column, at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on 25?26 June.
Reinforcements were rushed in, including the 5th Infantry, which built Fort Keogh at the mouth of the Tongue River in Montana, and began operating from there. Miles and the 5th caught up to Sitting Bull at the Battle of Cedar Creek in late October and, failing to negotiate his surrender, defeated his band in battle, forcing them to abandon most of their food and equipment. 2000 Lakota of this group surrendered on 27 October, although Sitting Bull himself escaped. Three companies of the 5th pursued Sitting Bull along the Missouri River, capturing his camp and scattering his followers on 18 December 1876.
Miles returned to the Tongue River with a force from the 5th and 22nd Infantry to pursue Crazy Horse. They captured several important prisoners in the valley below the Wolf Mountains on 7 January 1877, leading to a confrontation with the main body the following day on 8 January, the Battle of Wolf Mountain. The 5th, attacking superior numbers in near-blizzard conditions, drove the Lakota and Cheyenne force off the high ground, forcing them to retreat. The 5th continued to pursue and round up bands from the broken confederacy into the summer of 1877.
Nez Perce War
In July 1877 the Nez Perce Indians under Chief Joseph began to march east from Idaho across Montana, pursued by Major General Oliver O. Howard's troops from the Department of the Columbia. Miles was in position to interdict this force, and moved toward them in mid-September with battalions of the 5th Infantry and 7th Cavalry. They attacked the Nez Perces in a valley of the Bear Paw Mountains 30 September, capturing their horses and forcing their surrender on 4 October 1877 in the Battle of Bear Paw.
Bannock War
The Bannock Indians tried to repeat the Nez Perces' march a year later. A detachment of the 5th attacked their camp on Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone on 4 September 1878 and broke up their incursion. The 5th continued in active pursuit of independent Lakota bands until the surrender of Sitting Bull on 20 July 1881.
Garrison Duty
After several quiet years, the regiment was transferred to Texas in 1888 and later to points farther east. By 1894, the regiment was dispersed from Texas to Kansas to Florida. With the closing of the frontier, its role had changed from Indian fighting to peacetime garrison duty.
Reference:
Encyclopedia of United States Army Insignia and Uniforms, William K. Emerson
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