Hollow Victory: The White River Expedition of 1879 and the Battle of Milk Creek by Mark E. Miller

National attention was riveted to isolated northwestern Colorado in the fall: of 1879, when U, S. troops of the White River Expedition fought a pitched battle with Ute Indians. The troops had marched over 150 miles in nine days before meeting armed resistance just inside the northern border of the reservation, and a quiet mountain valley unexpectedly erupted in a prolonged and bloody conflict.