During the Great Sioux War, the Battle of the Badlands began near scarce water after General Alfred Sully's Northwest Indian Expedition spent two long days crossing the dry badlands and became desperate for a drink. On August 7, 1864, the Sioux, joined by a few Northern Cheyenne, harassed Sully's command at its camp on the Little Missouri River near present-day Sully Creek State Park. Sully moved his men three miles upstream and camped again near the mouth of Davis Creek, but the attacks continued. On August 8, 1864, as the command crossed the Little Missouri River and stretched out for about three miles while climbing a narrow chasm now called Custer's Wash, Sioux snipers fired from above. Sully sent six-pound field guns to the front to clear the way while skirmishers with small arms guarded the flanks, and fighting lasted through the day into evening. The army camped near a stagnant pool of rainwater, where Sully reported a brisk little skirmish as the Sioux tried to keep his men from the only water they had that day. Just before sundown, some Sioux warriors charged the camp at Sully's Waterhole, but rifles and cannons drove them back, and the exhausted troops passed a tense night.