Massacre on the Washita: The U.S. Army's 'Total War' on Native Americans In the fall of 1868, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer commenced a controversial military operation against the Cheyenne. Here's What You Need to Know: Washita was a ringing affirmation of Sheridan’s overall strategy of total war. The conclusion of the Civil War saw the painfully reunited nation resume its westward surge. Complicating that surge was the Indian question: how best to remove the Native American peoples from the paths of white expansion. The United States Army, imbued with impatient confidence after defeating the redoubtable Confederates, felt that the resolution of the Indian problem would be a swift and simple matter. That assessment would prove to be disastrously wrong, for both sides.