The Battle of the Washita, a major engagement in the Plains Indian War that established the western expansion of the United States, was fought here when Col. George A. Custer’s command of 500 troopers from the 7th Cavalry and a detachment of scouts including Ben Clark and the Osage Hardrope destroyed Chief Black Kettle’s Cheyenne village on Nov. 27, 1868. Black Kettle, peace leader of the Southern Cheyennes, had sought military assurance that he would not be attacked here, though young men in his camp had taken part in war parties raiding in Kansas. Custer’s command left Camp Supply on November 23, and his scouts located the Cheyenne village on the night of November 26. After a forced march through a bitterly cold blizzard and deep snow, Custer deployed his command to surround the village and at dawn, with the regimental band playing “Gary Owen,” attacked the sleeping Cheyennes. The number of Indians killed in the fighting remains controversial: Custer claimed 103 warriors, while in a report to the Secretary of the Interior in 1869-70, the Cheyennes gave a total of 13 men, 16 women, and 9 children, including Black Kettle and his wife. Captain Louis Hamilton, grandson of Alexander Hamilton, was one of two officers killed. Major Joel Elliott and a squad of troopers pursuing fleeing Cheyennes were trapped on Sergeant Major Creek more than a mile from the village and were killed to the last man. The Cheyenne lodges and winter supplies of food and buffalo robes were burned, 875 horses were slaughtered, and at nightfall the cavalry returned toward Camp Supply with 53 women and children captives.