I grew up hearing stories and the history of Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotȟake) and the Hunkpapa Lakota of the Sioux Nation. I would have been the coolest kid in grade school had I known what I know now. John took part in a rescue that I will post about later, where he and the 30th WIS helped rescue Capt. James Liberty Fisk’s emigrant train of miners and settlers on Sept 20th 1864. John was this close (my fingers and inch apart) from Sitting Bull.
Sitting Bull had attacked the wagon train with 100 Hunkpapa warriors on Sept 2nd 1864 (Look up Captain Fisks Montana and Idaho Expedition or Fort Dilts). During the initial attack on the wagon train Sitting Bull was wounded by a gun shot to the hip (other accounts a knife wound) and he was taken to a Sioux Village 6 miles away from the attack to heal. Corporal John Thompson arrived along with 900 other soldiers from Fort Rice on Sept 20th to rescue the emigrants. Just Six Miles from the Great Sioux Warrior.