vicinity of present-day Bismarck, North Dakota in mid-August, Sibley had already returned to Minnesota. Sully's 1,200 men included the 6th Iowa Cavalry, commanded by Colonel David Wilson, the 2nd Nebraska Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Robert Furnas, plus eight mountain howitzers, scouts and a wagon train. Sully's men were armed with long-range rifles, rather than the usual cavalry carbines, which gave them a decided advantage over the Sioux, mostly armed with muskets, shotguns, and bows and arrows. Meanwhile, some of the Sioux Sibley had chased west across the Missouri River had returned to the east of the river to replenish their winter supplies of buffalo meat. Sully searched for the Indians toward the southeast On September 3, Sully found numerous remains of recently killed buffalo near a lake and that afternoon his scout, Frank LaFramboise, a mixed-blood Santee, reported a village of 400 lodges 10 miles ahead. LaFramboise was captured briefly by a party of Sioux warriors, but released, a sign perhaps that the Sioux were not looking for a battle. Sully ordered his advance force, a battalion of the Sixth Iowa, numbering 300 men, under Major A. E. House to surround the encampment and to prevent the Indians from leaving. He left four companies to guard his supply train and then advanced with his main force at a gallop covering the 10 miles in one hour. While Major House and his battalion of the Sixth Iowa were scouting the Indian camp and waiting for Sibley to come forward with additional soldiers, a delegation from the Sioux advanced with a white flag constructed from a flour sack, claimed to be peaceful and only interested in hunting, and offered to surrender several of their chiefs. House, lacking instructions, demanded that the whole camp of Indians surrender unconditionally. He suspected that the Indians were stalling so the women would have time to pack up the camp and escape. House was likewise stalling until reinforcements arrived. Yanktonai, including the Cuthead band, were probably the most populous of Sioux peoples in the encampment which also contained Santee, Hunkpapa (possibly including a rising leader named Sitting Bull), and Sihasapa or Blackfoot Sioux. Sully believed the number of warriors in the encampment to be about 1,500. That seems exaggerated. Four hundred lodges with 5 to 10 persons per lodge would house 2,000 to 4,000 persons, including 500 to 1,000 adult males, some women, children, and aged probably