With the spring campaigns inconclusive, Crook prepared for the summer. The summer campaign of 1876 was designed to trap the hostiles between three columns: Gibbon from the west, Terry and Custer from the east, and Crook from the south. Crook’s force numbered 1,774 men and Terry had 1,873. To raise these columns all posts in the Departments of the Platte and Dakota were stripped of their garrisons. Crook’s column met Crazy Horse and the hostiles on June 17, 1876 in the Battle of Rosebud Creek and, although the General claimed a victory when the Indians left the field, he fell back to his base camp to await reinforcements. On June 25 at the Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Black Moon led the same hostiles and crushed Custer’s command. Even before the Omaha Military Headquarters had heard of Custer’s defeat, the Indians at Red Cloud Agency were discussing it. Frank Yates, one of the traders at the agency, was a brother of the Captain Yates who fell with Custer. When the rumors were reported to him he went to Camp Robinson where officers rejected the possibility of such a disaster. They telegraphed Omaha but no word had yet reached officers there. On July 17, 1876, seventeen officers and 346 men of the Fifth Cavalry commanded by Col. Wesley Merritt passed through Camp Robinson on their way to reinforce Crook. They paused long enough to intercept a group of about eight hundred Cheyenne Indians who were leaving Red Cloud Agency. The Indians claimed to be going on a buffalo hunt, but it was feared that they were attempting to join the victorious hostiles. Met by the troops, the Indians were forced to return to the agency after a brief skirmish. During the fighting Yellow Hand was killed by gunfire and the scout “Buffalo Bill” Cody took his scalp in an incident which was later much publicized and embellished. The great Indian victories brought an end to the Peace Policy, and on July 22, 1876 control of the Indian agencies was transferred from the Department of the Interior to the War Department and on June 31 Lt. O. Elting of Camp Robinson became the acting agent at Red Cloud Indian Agency. In August the officers discovered a serious shortage in Indian Department funds and the Army had to loan needed supplies for issue to the Indians at the agency.