Bear River Staff Ride

Every year BYU Army ROTC takes a "Staff Ride". This isn't your everyday field trip. It is a highly educational military history battlefield analysis. It's an instructional tool used to convey lessons from past battles and apply them to the modern battlefield. Military professionals have always studied great battles of the past. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson walked the fields of Waterloo before the American Civil War, and George S. Patton carefully studied the Gettysburg battlefield before World War II.

The BYU Cougar Battalion senior class conducts its Staff Ride to the site of the Bear River Massacre. Cadets are assigned to research and teach about a specific portion of the battle. They travel to get a first-hand appraisal of the battle tactics, terrain, communications, leadership and the psychological impacts of combat. Cadets gain insights on how to achieve victory in battle.

The Bear River Massacre occurred on 29 January 1863 near present-day Preston, Idaho. 200 California Volunteers, led by Colonel Patrick E. Connor, attacked a Northwestern Shoshone village killing 250 to 400 Indians. Unfortunately, an estimated two-thirds of the Shoshone casualties were women and children. The California Volunteers suffered 22 killed and 49 wounded.

The Bear River Massacre remains the largest single-day loss of Indian life at the hands of the American military. The Bear River Massacre surpasses other better-known massacres, such as Wounded Knee, but was overshadowed at the time by the Civil War.

Cadets retrace the steps of Col. Connor and his Regiment. The journey begins at Ft. Douglas in Salt Lake City and moves north to Idaho. At the engagement site, Cadets view the battlefield from various points in order to better understand what the combatants experienced. Cadre and Cadets debate at what point the operation became a massacre.

Cadets learn the hard leadership lessons of command and control, and responsibility through the Staff Ride experience. All involved gain a stronger appreciation for the importance of the command climate they will establish as future leaders and how it affects good or bad actions in battle.