Crook’s column remained in the field throughout the summer, following the battles of the Rosebud and the Little Big Horn. In September, while marching towards the Black Hills, Crook found that his supplies were exhausted, and his men ate their dying mounts in the famed “Horsemeat March.” A small detachment was sent ahead to obtain supplies. Led by Capt. Anson Mills and including Lieutenant Crawford of the Third Cavalry, the advance party discovered and captured a Sioux camp in the Battle of Slim Buttes, obtaining a considerable supply of meat. Additional supplies were taken by troops from Camp Robinson to meet the expedition in the Black Hills. Crook and his staff left the troops, came in to Robinson, and went on to Fort Laramie. On October 23 and 24, 1876 the men of his command reached Camp Robinson, where the expedition was disbanded. The sick and wounded were placed in the post hospital, and Contract Surgeon Valentine T. McGillycuddy was assigned to duty there. Col. Ranald Mackenzie had come to Camp Robinson with eight companies of cavalry in August. Mackenzie assumed the command of the post and the additional troops were quartered in three temporary cantonments. One of these, Camp Canby, was the original Sioux Expedition cavalry camp. The others were called Camp Custer and Camp of the Second Battalion, Fourth Cavalry. In October groups of recruits of 85 and 224 men arrived to bring the companies up to strength. Colonel Forsyth reported some companies consisted of nearly two-thirds recruits, owing to recent discharges of disabled soldiers. For the brief period when the men of both Crook’s and Mackenzie’s commands were there, Camp Robinson and its cantonments were very crowded. General Crook took advantage of the temporary presence of the fifty-three companies of troops at the post to hold a conference with Indian leaders at Red Cloud Agency and in no uncertain terms demanded loyal behavior of them. Upon the arrival of Mackenzie’s forces, Red Cloud and Red Leaf had moved their camps some twenty-five miles away from the agency to Chadron Creek. In October, in preparation for the coming winter campaign, Colonel Mackenzie sent two battalions of cavalry and the newly arrived Pawnee Scout battalion, led by Nebraskans, Frank and Luther North, to disarm these bands and to prevent their joining the hostiles. Two hundred thirty-nine Indians and 722 ponies were captured. The friendly Arapaho and Cut-Off Sioux were not disarmed. Crook noted that this was the first time in the history of Red Cloud Agency that the friendly Indians were treated better than the stubborn ones.