Carrington left Fort Laramie for the Powder River Country on June 17, 1866. He led 700 soldiers, 300 civilians, including wives and children of soldiers, and civilian contractors; 226 wagons full of supplies, a 35-man regimental band, and 1,000 head of cattle for a supply of fresh meat. The number of soldiers reflected the reductions that had been made in the army since the Civil War. Previous military expeditions against the Sioux by Alfred Sully, Henry Hastings Sibley, and Patrick Edward Connor from 1863 to 1865 had numbered more than 2,000 soldiers.