Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant trial in the Senate during the Summer of 1876 and acquitted. Congressional reaction to the losses suffered by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's unit at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876 was shock and dismay at the failure of the Peace Policy. Grant blamed Custer wholly for the defeat stating that the sacrifice of troops was unnecessary. The Indian appropriations measure of August 1876 marked the end of Grant's Peace Policy. The Sioux were given the choice of either selling their lands in the Black Hills for cash or not receiving government gifts of food and other
7th Cavalry Regiment September 1866 at Fort Riley, Kansas, as part of an expansion of the regular army following the demobilization of the wartime volunteer and draft forces. From 1866 through 1871, the regiment was posted to Fort Riley and fought in the American Indian Wars. In the Battle of the Washita in 1868, the regiment sustained 22 losses, while inflicting more that 150 deaths on a Cheyenne encampment, mostly women and children . This attack was led by George Armstrong Custer, who later led the 7th Cavalry to the most calamitous defeat of U.S. forces in the Indian Wars. Typical of post-Civil