In January of 1865 Indians sacked Julesburg. After a failed military expedition in response, Gen. Robert E. Mitchell, “frustrated by the army’s inability to catch the elusive warriors,” requested every ranch and military outpost along the Platte River to set the prairie on fire at sundown on January 27th, an area that stretched 300 miles. The fire burned for days, crossing into Kansas and Colorado, even reaching the Texas Panhandle.