In April 1865, Moonlight became the commander of the north sub-district of the Great Plains headquartered at Fort Laramie, Wyoming. On May 26, Moonlight hanged two Oglala Lakota Sioux chiefs, Two Face and Black Foot. A white woman, Lucinda Ewbanks, and her small child were discovered living in pitiful condition among the Oglala bands. They had been kidnapped by Cheyenne almost a year earlier and sold to the Oglala band of Two Face and Black Foot. Moonlight ordered the two Oglala hanged, apparently over the opposition of Mrs. Ewbanks and although warned by civilians at the fort of repercussions. George Bent and others tell the story differently. He said the two Oglala ransomed the woman from the Cheyenne and brought her into the fort as a peace gesture. Moonlight, however, arrested and hanged them, an action which Mrs. Ewbanks protested. Their bodies, and also that of a Cheyenne, were left hanging from the gallows for months in public view.