MovieChat Forums > Branded (1965) Discussion > Battle of Bitter Creek

Battle of Bitter Creek

posted 14 years ago by magolding
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I always wanted to know more about the Fictional Battle of Bitter Creek.

Considering its date sometime about 1865-1870, I guess it could be based on the Fetterman Massacre on December 21, 1866, or possibly the First Battle of Adobe Walls in 1864, when Colonel Kit Carson and more than 300 men fought an enormous group of hostile Southern Plains Indians. It is often said that without being able to use the ruins of Adobe Walls as a makeshift fort, or without Carson's Indian scouts, or without his cannon, the entire force would have been wiped out.

Of course the Little Big Horn is obviously a possible influence on any story about a disastrous fictional cavalry defeat. It was the inspiration for Thursday's Last Charge in Fort Apache and the McCabe Massacre in The Glory Guys, for example. But actually there were numerous other times in the Indian wars when contemporary or later writers alleged that there was a chance that large forces could have been crushingly defeated by the hostiles, and one of them could have been the inspiration for Bitter creek.

Anyway, I would appreciate any information about the date and place and circumstances of the Battle of Bitter Creek. I think that 45 years is long enough to wait to learn more about that fictional battle.

[–] sbutler0727 14 years ago

I think your theory of the Battle of Bitter Creek being inspired by the Battle of Little Bighorn sounds plausible. We may never know for sure since I suspect that most of the people involved in this show are now dead. Your theory of the Battle of Bitter Creek being based on the Battle of Little Bighorn sounds very plausible to me.

[–] magolding 13 years ago

I have a new suggestion.

I seen in the reviews that supposedly McCord's superior Major Reed or General Reed, noted for desiring peace with the Indians, was going senile (a broken reed indeed?) and refused to retreat from 140 Apaches, and so 31 men were killed at Bitter Creek.

Some people have commented that hundreds of soldiers must have been killed at Bitter Creek since McCord seemed to constantly meet their relatives, bitter at him for surviving.

If Apaches were the enemy, Bitter creek was certainly not in Wyoming as some sources state. An attack by Apaches in Wyoming would definitely be an unpredictable surprise attack that nobody could be blamed for.

Anyway, combining plot elements of a superior officer accused of going senile and losing his marbles with the relative numbers of soldiers and Apaches gave me the idea that Bitter creek could have been inspired by General Crook's 1883 expedition into the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico with 42 soldiers and 193 Apache scouts, which many people expected to end in disaster.

Certainly there was no lack of opinions that Crook had lost his senses, and I believe that some newspapers even carried accounts of the massacre of his white soldiers by the Apache scouts during the period when they were out of contact with the outside world. Some newspapers loved to retell the story of Custer's Last Stand whenever a disaster was rumored.