Sent West

At the end of the war, the 1st Michigan Cavalry went with Union forces first to Petersburg, Virginia, then North Carolina, and finally marched to Washington, DC for the grand review of armies on May 23, 1865.

But the unit's service did not end there; instead, it was immediatley sent west, by railroad and river, to Fort Leavenworth, to help in suppressing Indian tribes. The 1st Michigan Cavalry took part in the Powder River Expedition, from July to October 1865 against the Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians in Montana Territory and Dakota Territory. Soldiers destroyed one Arapaho village and established Fort Connor to protect travelers on the Bozeman Trail.