Whitestone Hill ND004

supportedunresolved Sully sent House's battalion ahead to find the Indians and report a large camp; the guide bore off to the left and came on the camp, whose people, prisoners said, believed Sully was still going up the Missouri. House's guide reported the camp 3 miles off about 3 p.m.; the guide La Framboise rode more than 10 miles back to Sully, reaching him a little after 4.

Knowledge attributed in interested reports and relayed prisoners' statements; no message log inspected.

supportedunresolved Sully says his mules could carry about twenty-three days' rations and his rations barely sufficed to reach Fort Pierre; on September 4-5 he burned 400,000 to 500,000 pounds of dried buffalo meat and 300 lodges. House gives 400 tons of dried meat.

Supply statements from interested reports; the destruction is post-outcome. Not returns.

supportedunresolved Sully intended to surround a large camp at night and attack at daybreak. House says the chiefs came in under a flag of truce and offered to surrender some chiefs, but the commandant demanded unconditional surrender of all, which they refused. NPS says Sully meant to find and punish the Sioux.

Stated aims from interested reports and the NPS summary. No account by the Dakota bands was inspected; their numbers, aims and losses come from their opponents' estimates, prisoners' or scouts' statements relayed by them, or the NPS summary.

supportedpost_outcome The frozen and live results read Union victory. Sully says the Indians resisted desperately, then broke and fled, and that he gave them one of the most severe punishments they had received; he took 156 prisoners, 32 men and 124 women and children. On September 5 about 300 Indians attacked Hall's party of 27, which retreated to camp faster than ordered. Hall says he went in a northeasterly direction from the battlefield and was attacked 15 miles from it; NPS places the attack about 15 miles northwest of camp.

Retain the original result and engagement interval; later movements and campaign contribution are different measures. No new probabilities or individual causal credit. The September 5 skirmish is within the frozen interval and is kept separate from the September 3 action.

disputedpost_outcome The frozen casualty text reads 822 (US 72; I 750); the live field reads 620 (US 70; CS 550). Sully reports his killed as 20 and wounded 38 as far as ascertained; he puts the Indian dead left on the field or found by scouts at 100, his officers and guides at not less than 150, and Indian reports at over 200. House says about 100 were killed. Hall lost 6 men killed on September 5 and says 6 Indians were killed. The compiled return's table is not present in the OCR. Sully says one of the scouting parties sent to find Surgeon Bowen fell into an ambuscade in which 4 were killed; Hall reports 6 men killed on his scout for Bowen.

Original casualty returns were not inspected; preserve totals, categories, cutoffs and differences. No canonical reconciliation or casualty-based opening count; related actions must not be added without resolving population overlap. The frozen 750 is not traced; prisoners are not casualties of the kind counted in the frozen table unless it says so. Sully's 4 and Hall's 6 appear to describe the same September 5 skirmish; not reconciled. Sully's 'Indian reports' of over 200 and House's about 100 are undated.

supportedunresolved The frozen US commander is Brigadier General Alfred Sully. The frozen and live Native American commander is Inkpaduta (no rank; the live page tags him [CS], not adopted); none of the inspected reports names him, so his role is not established here. Sully ordered Furnas's Second Nebraska to the right and Wilson's Sixth Iowa to the left and charged the center himself; House's battalion first found and tried to hold the camp. Sully says the Indians had formed line of battle from which they could be dislodged only by a charge. Hall commanded the September 5 scouting party.

Command roles from interested reports; no automatic sole credit.

unknownunresolved

No inspected return establishes matched personnel at a common opening boundary. Imported numerical estimates remain unchanged; this pass does not validate them as simultaneous opening forces.

disputedunresolved The frozen force field gives the Northwestern Expedition as 600-700 and the Santee, Yankton, Cut-heads, Hunkpapa, Teton and Blackfeet as 1,200-1,500; the stored bounds are 600 and 600 and 1,200 and 1,200, not the text's ranges. The live field reads 0. Sully says 600 to 700 of his men were actually engaged and gives House's battalion 300; the camp mustered at least 1,200 warriors by the Indians' account and over 1,500 by his command's. House reports 400 lodges and Sully over 400 (some say 600, read '000').

Engaged and estimated figures, all for September 3: 600 to 700 of Sully's men engaged (his postscript), House's 300 on the approach, and the camp's 1,200 (prisoners' statement) or 1,500 (his command's estimate). No account by the Dakota bands was inspected; their numbers, aims and losses come from their opponents' estimates, prisoners' or scouts' statements relayed by them, or the NPS summary. None is adopted as a matched opening strength.

supportedinherited Sully says the camp lay in ravines where the Indians felt secure, and places the field about 15 miles west of the James River near a hill the Indians called White Stone Hill; House says the ground was very uneven and the Indians collected in a ravine to fight.

Natural ground from interested reports; no map verification.