It was just after midday on September 29, 1879, when Major Thomas Thornburg and his command

stopped to water their horses at the shallow stream marked on their

maps as Milk Creek. Today, that stream winds through the high country of northwestern Colorado,

not far from the town of Meeker. The Ute tribe had called it Little River. Years later,

white settlers gave it a new name after a wagon overturned while crossing the stream and spilled its load of milk cans.

At the end of 1879, after a long summer, the water in Milk Creek wasn't much, but it was a necessary stop for Thornburg's command.

Thornburg had marched south from Fort Fred Steele near Rollins,

Wyoming, with nearly 200 men. He had three troops of the 5th cavalry, a company of the 4th

Infantry, and a supply train of 25 wagons. Their mission was to answer the desperate plea

of Indian agent Nathan Meeker, who had clashed violently with the Ute

at the White River Agency. Meeker's alarm had brought soldiers deep into Ute country,

and warriors were waiting. As the cavalrymen watered their horses at the stream,

hundreds of Ute warriors lay hidden on the ridges above. Their leader was Chief Collarrow.

He was heavy-set and not the prototypical specimen of a warrior chief,

but he was cunning.

At his signal, the hills erupted with rifle fire.

The first volley cut through Thornburg's command with devastating force. The major fell dead

in the opening minute, one of 13 soldiers who were killed almost instantly as the battle

tilted hard against the army. The survivors circled their wagons and dragged the carcasses

of horses into place near the wagons.

The soldiers covered the bodies of the horses with dirt until they acted as defensive earthworks.

Along the banks of Milk Creek, 190 men were trapped.

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