 Other local units included the Sioux City Cavalry—a militia company which, however, was subsequently mustered into US service and deployed to Dakota Territory after the Santee Sioux Uprising of 1862 and became General Alfred Sully's Headquarters Guard during the Union Army's subsequent "Punitive Expeditions" against 700 renegade Santee Sioux in 1863 and 1864.Sully selected the Sioux City Cavalry as his escort and guard over several other cavalry units because of the previous experience of its members who had worked for years before the war as trappers, traders and teamsters along the Military Road running from the US Army logistics depot at Sioux City northwest to the Dakota Territorial capital at Yankton and onward to Fort Randall which, at that time, was the largest US Army post on the upper Missouri river.As such these militia troopers were thoroughly experienced with other Sioux bands—such as the Yankton and Yankonais—and knew their sign, their language, and their customs.