From historical records it was written that the number of warriors from the Iron Confederation who participated at this mysterious military engagement in Montana, may have numbered around 800. Some 21 American soldiers and 6 civilians withstood an heated assault by the Anishinabek warriors in a log stockade and triumphed. Why was the battle mysterious? The Anishinabe casualties may have numbered around 600, which may have included 300 killed. If that was true it simply means that the Americans used the Gatlin Gun (the machine gun) to defend themselves against the far more numerous Anishinabe-Assinboine-Cree warriors. It was during the American Civil War when the first machine guns were used. After the horrible battle ended, the terrified Anishinabe were obviously dumbfounded, but they still refused to surrender. American casualties were only 7 with 3 only being killed. Were the Americans deliberately setting the Iron Confederations warriors up to use their machine guns against them? Yes!