The South Platte was running at full flood stage that day and Tall Bull decided not to risk fording the river, apparently thinking his band had eluded the pursuing soldiers. He had good reason not to take the risk: the camp consisted of 84 lodges and almost 400 people, along with hundreds of ponies and more than 120 sleds to transport the camp’s goods. The Cheyenne and some Lakota aligned with them had amassed almost 10,000 pounds of dried bison meat, 700 cured bison hides, and materials and gold coin taken in their raids that spring. They also had two captives, Susanna Alderdice and Maria Weichell, who had been taken in the raids in Kansas.

The cavalry approached the camp from the north, hidden behind sand hills until they were within half a mile. At that point, they divided into three lines of attack: one to the west to drive the pony herd away from the village, one to the center of the encampment, and the third to the east to cut off any chance of escape. The charge came as a complete surprise to the Dog Soldiers, with the only warning coming from the bugle’s signal to charge and a young Cheyenne boy who saw the attack begin and rushed back to the camp.

Much of the fighting pitted the Pawnee scouts against the Cheyenne as small groups of warriors attempted to mount a defense. Warriors such as Heavy Furred Wolf, Black Sun, Lone Bear, and Pile of Bones stood their ground, but their positions were quickly overrun. Tall Bull, part of his family, and some warriors took cover in a ravine just to the southeast, but they too were overwhelmed by the main assault. Major Frank North, who commanded the scouts, was identified by eyewitnesses at the battle to have shot Tall Bull, although the popular press and Cody himself maintained that the future showman was directly involved. Many in the camp were able to escape to the southeast, but fifty-two were killed in the fighting or as they attempted to flee. Of the two captives, Alderdice was killed by Tall Bull as the fighting began and Weichell was shot but survived. Only one soldier was slightly injured.
After the battle, Tall Bull’s band broke into factions. Some fled south to join other Cheyenne on lands set aside by President Grant, while others made their way north to join the Northern Cheyenne.

By capturing the Dog Soldiers’ village, many of the ponies, and practically all of their supplies and equipment, Carr’s offensive effectively ended Cheyenne resistance on the Southern Plains. The battle at Summit Springs was also Buffalo Bill’s first major engagement in the so-called Indian Wars, and a dime-novel narrative was quickly spun that he had killed Tall Bull. His earlier reputation as a hunter for the Kansas Pacific Railroad and the US Army was revised to emphasize his role as an army scout and his heroics in the Indian Wars. By 1883 he had created Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, with a mythic version of the Summit Springs battle as the finale. In the reenactment, Buffalo Bill rode in to dispatch Tall Bull and save the female hostages. It was the conquest of the West wrapped up in one show and one mythic battle.