Kidder Massacre

On 29th June, 1867, Lyman Kidder, with an Indian scout, and ten enlisted men, was ordered to take dispatches from General William Sherman to General George A. Custer, who was camped on the Republican River in Nebraska. Kidder never arrived and on 12th July, Custer's scout, Will Comstock, found the mutilated bodies of the Kidder party. It was later discovered the men were killed by a war party of Cheyenne and Sioux warriors.

Primary Sources

(1) George A. Custer, letter to Lyman Kidder's father (23rd August, 1867)

Another proof of the determined gallantry exhibited by your lamented son and his little party, was the fact that the bodies, which were probably found as they fell, were lying near each other, thus proving that none had endeavored to flee or escape after being surrounded, but all had died nobly fighting to the last. No historian will ever chronicle the heroism which was probably displayed here.