The Kidder Massacre

The Kidder Massacre. . About July 1, 1867, Lt. Lyman S. Kidder with ten men of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry, and an Indian guide, were attacked by Indians one mile east of this marker. On July 12 their mutilated bodies were found by Lt. Col. George A. Custer, who ordered the unidentifiable remains buried on the spot in a common grave., In March, 1868, the bodies were recovered by a detachment from Fort Wallace under command of Lt. Frederick H. Beecher, 3rd U.S. Infantry, who later that year was to die at the Battle of Beecher Island in northeastern Colorado. Kidder’s body, identified by a shirt he wore, was taken to St. Paul, Minn., by his father. The others were reburied at Fort Wallace, but in 1886 were removed to Fort Leavenworth military cemetery.