Fred Beecher

The Battle of Beecher Island, also known as the Battle of Arikaree Fork, was an armed conflict between several of the Plains Native American tribes and Forsyth's Scouts, a company of selected civilian frontiersmen, recruited and commanded by Brevet-Colonel George Alexander Forsyth. The battle occurred in late September 1868 with Forsyth and the scouts making a stand at Beecher Island, on the Arikaree River, then known as part of the North Fork of the Republican River, near present-day Wray, Colorado, named afterwards for Lieutenant Fredrick H. Beecher, Forsyth's executive officer killed during the battle.