Editing Bennet C. Riley (section)

==Military operations against the Arikara Indians==
The officer joined his superior, Colonel [[Henry Leavenworth]], in an [[Arikara War|engagement against]] the [[Arikara]] Indians in August 1823. Riley was honored for ten years of faithful service by being promoted to [[Brevet (military)|brevet]] [[Major (United States)|major]] on 6 August 1828, leading the first military escort along the [[Santa Fe Trail]] in 1829.<ref name=Davis/><ref>Otis E. Young, Philip St. George Cooke, ''The First Military Escort on the Santa Fe Trail, 1829: From the Journal and Reports of Major Bennet Riley and Lieutenant Philip St. George Cooke'', A. H. Clark Company, 1952.</ref> Among those he escorted were [[Charles Bent]], future first territorial Governor of [[New Mexico]] during the later [[Mexican-American War]].<ref name= BENT>{{cite web |url= https://archive.org/details/bentfamilyinamer00bent/page/n137/mode/2up |title=The Bent Family In America|publisher= D. Clapp & Son (1900)|access-date=24 May 2023}}</ref>