 On December 20, Carrington turned down Fetterman's and Captain Brown's proposal that they lead 50 civilian employees in a raid on the Lakota village on the Tongue River, about 50 miles distant.Red Cloud and other Indian leaders, encouraged by their successes, decided to undertake a large military operation against Fort Kearny before winter snows forced them to break up their large village on the Tongue River and disperse.The decoy trick had worked on December 6 and they decided to try it again, this time with a force adequate to destroy any group of soldiers sent to chase them.