Battle of Turkey Springs

On September 13, following the trail of the Cheyenne, Captain Rendlebrock saw Cheyenne warriors on a hilltop. He formed a skirmish line with his soldiers and sent an Arapaho scout named "Chalk" or "Ghost Man" to talk to Dull Knife and Little Wolf. Chalk conveyed the message that the Cheyenne must return to the reservation. The Cheyenne leaders declined to return and warriors began moving around the flanks of the soldiers. The soldiers opened fire and the Cheyenne responded in kind, although the firing was sparse as the Cheyenne preserved their limited ammunition. Desultory fighting continued all day with two soldiers killed and three wounded. After dark, desperate for water, seven soldiers attempted and failed to gain access to the water in the springs.^[5]

By the next morning the Cheyenne had completely surrounded the soldiers and Rendlebrock ordered a retreat through ravines with Cheyenne firing down at the soldiers. Another soldier was killed during the retreat. Rendlebrock retreated about 15 km (9.3 miles) to the Cimarron River. The Cheyenne suffered five wounded. The next day they divided themselves into several different groups to confuse pursuers attempting to track them and continued their trek northward. Rendelbrock was later court-martialed for the disorderly retreat.^[5][6]

The Cheyenne continued their flight northward, fighting and winning several skirmishes with the U.S. Army, including the Battle of Punished Woman's Fork, and killing seven cowboys in southern Kansas. A total of 1,300 soldiers and a few civilians took to the field in the attempt to capture them. In Nebraska, the Cheyenne split into two groups with Little Wolf taking one-half with him and successfully joining the Northern Cheyenne in Montana. Dull Knife with the other half attempted to join the Sioux in South Dakota, but were captured and imprisoned at Camp Robinson, Nebraska. In January 1879, in bitterly cold weather, in the Fort Robinson breakout, 149 Cheyenne escaped from Camp Robinson and fled westward. They were pursued by soldiers and nearly all of them were either killed or captured. The survivors of the Northern Cheyenne Exodus were allowed to remain in their homeland on the northern plains.^[7][8]