"Jeb" Stuart's Letter About The Battle of Solomon’s Fork

Send us Fan Mail A 17-day march ends with a shock of movement on the open Plains: roughly 300 Cheyenne warriors in line of battle and the US cavalry scrambling to form up before the infantry can even arrive. That’s the doorstep of the Battle of Solomon Fork, the 1857 Cheyenne Campaign, and the third chapter in our five-part series on the early Cheyenne Indian Wars leading toward the Sheridan Winter Campaign era. We lean on a gripping primary source, a letter written from camp on Solomon’s Fork just after the clash. You’ll hear how fatigue and distance shape everything: Bayard’s battery left miles behind, horses too used up to keep pace, and a plan for carbine volleys replaced by a blunt command that changes the day: “Draw sabers, charge.” The result is a fast, messy pursuit where companies mix together, officers ride shoulder to shoulder, and a single moment of misfire and timing turns into hand-to-hand combat. James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart's letter doesn’t stop at the fight. It follows the wound, the waiting, and the frontier logistics nobody puts on the monument plaque: delayed medical care, a column forced to pause, and an “ambulance” reduced to two wheels, cushions, and three mules. If you care about Kansas history, Plains Indian Wars history, US Army cavalry tactics, or firsthand accounts that cut through myth, Solomon Fork delivers a human view of how campaigns actually worked.

You can listen to "Jeb" Stuart's Letter About The Battle of Solomon’s Fork online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

"Jeb" Stuart's Letter About The Battle of Solomon’s Fork is an episode from Wild West Podcast by Michael King.

This episode is 6:27 long.

This episode was published on Apr 12, 2026.

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