Cold weather was not the Army’s only problem; the call for extra supplies and ammunition had caught them unprepared. Two hundred rounds of ammunition per man were specified in the orders. To get this amount, Fort Leavenworth was drained of supplies, and requisitions had to be forwarded to Frankfort Arsenal. The lack of ammunition set off some bitter correspondence between responsible officers. The Chief of Ordnance reported to the Adjutant General “... that the want of ammunition in the present seeming emergency can not be attributed to the failure of this bureau to provide, but rather to the neglect of the users to make the proper requisition at the proper time.”[8] The Sioux Expedition got under way when eight infantry and four cavalry companies marched from Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming Territory, to Fort Laramie. The troops reached Fort Laramie on February 26 and 27, 1874 after suffering severely from frost bite in the 38° below zero cold. At Fort Laramie four more companies of cavalry were added to the expedition. At Fort D. A. Russell the Sioux Expedition had been divided into two battalions, one cavalry and one infantry.[9] The 547 cavalrymen, led by Major Baker, left Fort Laramie on March 2, 1874 and reached Red Cloud Agency on the fifth. Captain Lazelle and his battalion of 402 infantrymen left Fort Laramie on March 3, arriving at the agency on the seventh. Each battalion had a Gatling gun, and the column was provisioned by a supply train of fifty civilian and seventy government wagons. The supply train carried ten days’ rations and five days’ forage and included a beef herd. Generals Sheridan and Ord were on hand for the departure of the Sioux Expedition from Fort Laramie. The officers considered keeping the expedition route a secret, but it was apparent that the Indians were certain to discover such a large force. The troops took the obvious route, following the well known Fort Laramie to Fort Pierre fur trade trail. On reaching the headwaters of the White River the expedition was forced to ford the stream thirteen times.[10] As the expedition neared the agency the troops passed abandoned Indian camps and when they reached Red Cloud they found the northern troublemakers had all departed for a new camp on nearby Hat Creek. When the troops arrived at the agency Saville was undecided about the establishment of the military camp. His first suggestion was that a single camp be established at a point equidistant from the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Agencies. By the next day he had changed his mind and wanted the soldiers at Red Cloud, so the tent camp was established alongside the blockhouse of the agency.