The Fetterman Fight, also known as the Fetterman Massacre or the Battle of the Hundred-in-the-Hands or the Battle of a Hundred Slain,[1] was a battle during Red Cloud's War on December 21, 1866, between a confederation of the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and a detachment of the United States Army, based at Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming. The U.S. military mission was intended to protect travelers on the Bozeman Trail. A group of ten warriors, including Crazy Horse, acted to lure a detachment of U.S. soldiers into an ambush. All 81 men under the command of Captain William J. Fetterman were then killed by the Native American warriors. At the time, it was the worst military disaster ever suffered by the U.S. Army on the Great Plains.
The Lakota alliance emerged victorious and the remaining U.S. forces withdrew from the area. The Fetterman Fight took place on Crow Indian land that was guaranteed to them by a treaty signed with the U.S. government.[2] The Lakota and their allies were operating without the consent of the Crow.[3]
Background
Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 had this territory designated as Crow land. The Lakota, the Cheyenne, and the Arapaho accepted it as such.[4] Tracking the dwindling herds of buffalo, the three tribes soon ignored the treaty boundaries agreed upon and invaded Crow land.[5] By 1860, these traditional enemies of the Crow had taken control of their hunting grounds west of Powder River.[6]
In June 1866, Colonel Henry B. Carrington advanced from Fort Laramie into the Powder River country, now the hunting grounds of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho. His orders were to protect European-American emigrants traveling west along the Bozeman Trail. Carrington had 700 soldiers and 300 civilians in his command. He established three forts along the trail, including his headquarters at Fort Phil Kearny, near present-day Buffalo, Wyoming. All three forts were located in Crow territory. The army used a treaty right to "establish roads, military and other post".[4] About 400 of his soldiers and most of the civilians were stationed at Fort Kearny.[7]:158
First armed conflicts
Plan of Fort Kearny from Indian Fights and Fighters (1904)
During the next few months, while Fort Kearny was under construction, Carrington suffered about 50 Indian attacks, losing more than 20 soldiers and civilians.[9] The Indian warriors, invariably mounted, generally appeared in groups of 20 to 100.[10] Several of Carrington's junior officers pressed him to take the offensive. They increased their urging after November 3, when a cavalry company of 63 men arrived to reinforce the post. Leading the cavalrymen was Lieutenant Horatio S. Bingham. He was accompanied by infantry Captains William J. Fetterman and James W. Powell. Both had been assigned to Fort Kearny from the 18th Infantry's headquarters at Fort Laramie. Bingham and Fetterman were Civil War veterans, and Fetterman had a distinguished war record.[7]:147–150
Although he had no experience fighting Indians, Fetterman criticized Carrington's defensive posture and was contemptuous of their Indian foes. He allegedly boasted, "Give me 80 men and I can ride through the whole Sioux nation."[11] Many other officers shared Fetterman's feelings. Shortly after Fetterman arrived at Fort Kearny, Carrington gave him permission to attempt a night ambush. However, the Indians saw through it and instead stampeded a herd of cattle on the bank of the Powder River opposite Fetterman's intended trap. On November 22, Fetterman himself almost fell into an Indian ambush. He had accompanied an escort which guarded a wagon train gathering firewood and construction timber for Fort Kearny. A single Indian appeared, trying to entice the soldiers into chasing him into the woods. Lieutenant Bisbee, commanding the wagon train, sensibly took cover instead of pursuing the bait.[7]:150–156
Carrington takes the offensive
On November 25, 1866, Carrington's superior, General Philip St. George Cooke, ordered him to take the offensive in response to the Indians' "murderous and insulting attacks".[7]:157 Carrington's first opportunity to strike back came on December 6. His pickets on Pilot Hill signaled that an Army wood train was being attacked four miles west of the fort. Carrington told Fetterman to proceed west with a company of cavalry and a squad of mounted infantry to relieve the wood train. Carrington himself led another mounted detachment to circle north in an attempt to cut off the Indians' retreat. During the movement, Lieutenants Grummond and Bingham, with several others, became separated from Carrington, who was surrounded by about a hundred Indian warriors. Fetterman soon arrived to reinforce Carrington, and the Indians retreated.
Grummond eventually was seen approaching with seven Indians in hot pursuit, though he managed to reach safety with Carrington and Fetterman. The mutilated bodies of Bingham and a sergeant were found several hours later. Four soldiers had been wounded after they pursued another Indian decoy into an ambush. Carrington reported that he had killed ten Indians, but both Fetterman and he were sobered by the shortcomings in organization and discipline of their largely inexperienced soldiers. Fetterman said, "This Indian war has become a hand-to-hand fight requiring the utmost caution." Carrington's guide, famous mountain manJim Bridger, was more succinct: "These soldiers don't know anything about fighting Indians".[7]:160–165[12]
Red Cloud, the Oglala Lakota leaderColonel Henry B. Carrington
His caution confirmed by this experience, Carrington intensified training for his soldiers and officers, forming them into six companies. He doubled the number of guards for the wood trains and kept the 50 serviceable horses the fort still possessed – having lost many in Indian raids – saddled and ready to sally from dawn to dark. On December 19, the Indians attacked another wood train. Carrington sent Captain Powell, his most cautious officer, out of the fort to relieve the wood train with a cavalry company and mounted infantry. He gave explicit orders not to pursue the Indians beyond Lodge Trail Ridge, two miles north of Fort Kearny. Powell returned safely, having followed orders and accomplished his mission. Carrington reemphasized to his soldiers his policy of caution until reinforcements and additional horses and supplies arrived from Fort Laramie. On December 20, Carrington turned down Fetterman 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.[7]:169–170
Trap
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. The warriors, possibly numbering more than 1,000, congregated about 10 miles north of Fort Kearny, reconnoitered, and decided the best place to lay the trap was along the Bozeman Trail north of Lodge Trail Ridge. It was out of sight, but only about 4 miles from Fort Kearny. The Cheyenne and Arapaho took up positions on the west side of the trail and the Lakota on the east. The group of Indians chosen to decoy the soldiers included the young Oglala Crazy Horse.[7]:171–173
The Fetterman Fight, in Crow territory west of Powder River, guaranteed by 1851 treaty. The Lakota and their Indian allies won the Fetterman Fight in the territory, which they had "recently wrested from the Crows" in battles between the peoples. Wolf Bow (a Crow) protested to white officials against the Lakota invasion, saying: "Put the Sioux Indians in their own country, and keep them from troubling us. Don't stop fighting them."
The morning of December 21, 1866, was clear and cold. About 10 am, Carrington dispatched a wagon train to the "pinery" – about 5 miles northwest and the nearest source of construction timber and firewood for Fort Kearny. Almost 90 soldiers were detailed to guard the wagon train. Less than an hour later, Carrington's pickets on Pilot Hill signaled by flag that the wagon train was under attack. Carrington ordered a relief party composed of 49 infantrymen of the 18th Infantry and 27 mounted troopers of the 2nd Cavalry under the command of Captain James Powell. By claiming seniority as a brevet lieutenant colonel, Fetterman asked for and was given command of the relief party. Powell remained behind. Another officer of the 18th, Lieutenant George W. Grummond, a known critic of Carrington, led the cavalry, which had been leaderless since Bingham's death in early December. Captain Frederick Brown, until recently the post quartermaster and another of Carrington's critics, and two civilians, James Wheatley and Isaac Fisher, joined Fetterman, bringing the relief force up to 81 officers and men. The infantry marched out first; the cavalry had to retrieve its mounts before it could follow and catch up.[7]:173–176
According to Carrington, his orders were clear. "Under no circumstances" was the relief party to "pursue over the ridge, that is Lodge Trail Ridge". Lieutenant Grummond's wife, in her memoirs, confirmed Carrington's statement. She said these orders were given twice, the second time by Carrington from the sentry walk after ordering the soldiers to halt as they left the front gate of the fort. Francis Grummond wrote that everyone present could hear the orders.[15] On leaving the fort, however, Fetterman took the Lodge Ridge Trail northward rather than the trail northwest toward the pinery where the wagon train was. Carrington assumed that Fetterman intended to approach the Indians attacking the wood train from their rear. Within a short time, the signal came that the wood train was no longer under attack. About 50 Indians appeared near Fort Kearny, but Carrington dispersed them with a few cannon shots. Those Indians and others harassed Fetterman as he climbed Lodge Trail Ridge and disappeared out of sight of the fort.[7]:174–177
About noon in the fort, Carrington and his men heard heavy firing to their north. Carrington gathered together about 75 men under Captain Ten Eyck and sent them out on foot to search for Fetterman. Ten Eyck advanced carefully up Lodge Trail Ridge. Reaching the top, about 12:45pm, his men and he saw a very large force of Indians in the Peno Creek valley below. Indian warriors approached the soldiers and taunted them. Meanwhile, Carrington dispatched another group of 42 soldiers to join Ten Eyck. The Indians in the valley slowly dispersed and disappeared. Ten Eyck advanced carefully and the soldiers found the bodies of Fetterman and all of his men in the valley. The dead soldiers had been stripped naked and mutilated. That afternoon, wagons were sent to bring the bodies back to Fort Kearny.[7]:185–189
Red Cloud's perspective
According to Charles Alexander Eastman, in 1866, the Indian's discomfort with the white man had peaked. Red Cloud was determined to face any odds rather than bow down. “Hear ye, Dakotas!” he exclaimed. “When the Great Father at Washington sent us his chief soldier [General Harney] to ask for a path through our hunting grounds, a way for his iron road to the mountains and the western sea, we were told that they wished merely to pass through our country, not to tarry among us, but to seek for gold in the far west. Our old chiefs thought to show their friendship and good will, when they allowed this dangerous snake in our midst. They promised to protect the wayfarers. Yet before the ashes of the council fire are cold, the Great Father is building his forts among us. You have heard the sound of the white soldier’s ax upon the Little Piney. His presence here is an insult and a threat. It is an insult to the spirits of our ancestors. Are we then to give up their sacred graves to be plowed for corn? Dakotas, I am for war!” Less than seven days after that speech, the Sioux went to Fort Phil Kearny, the new sentinel of the Bozeman Trail. A grand attack had been planned with care and nearly every well-known Sioux chief had agreed to strike the invaders. Crazy Horse was put in charge of the attack, while the older men acted as councilors. They experienced great success; in less than half an hour, they had defeated nearly 100 men under Captain Fetterman, who had been cleverly drawn out of the fort by a ruse.[16]
Lakota prophecy and name of the battle
Just before the battle, Red Cloud called for the Lakotas' most powerful Winkte, a two spirit who was believed to have special powers, to give advice from the butte overlooking the proposed ambush site. The Winkte rode on his pony in a crazed manner four times between the warriors gathered on the butte and Lodge Trail Ridge, each time gathering more "soldiers" into his hands in a prophetic manner. When he returned to Red Cloud the fourth time, he declared that in his vision he had 100 blue-coat soldiers in each hand — too many to hold.[17] The Lakota saw this as the good medicine that won the battle and thereafter called it the "Battle of the Hundred-in-the-Hands".[1] A total of 81 American soldiers and civilians died in the battle.
Battle
An 1867 drawing of the Fetterman FightKim Douglas Wiggins' study of the Fetterman Fight, early 21st centuryMassacre Hill: Fetterman and his men were killed here. The Arapaho and Cheyenne were concealed to the left (west) of the foot trail in this photo; the Lakota were to the right (east).
The battlefield was examined briefly and the bodies of soldiers removed quickly. According to a Cheyenne informant named White Elk, who was interviewed as he walked the battlefield 48 years after the event, the Indians had chosen ten warriors as decoys to tempt Fetterman into the ambush: two Arapaho, two Cheyenne, and two from each of the three Lakota bands present: the Oglala, Brulé, and Miniconjou. About three times as many Lakota participated in the battle as did Cheyenne and Arapaho. White Elk said that more Indians were present than at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which would indicate an Indian force of considerably more than 1,000 men. Eyewitness testimonies and historians stated that Red Cloud was present in the battle, although his role during the fighting is unknown.[18][19] Indian armies rarely had a single leader or a command structure. Red Cloud was one of those who planned much of the attack,[19] but Hump (High Backbone), a Miniconjou, was the prominent leader in the fighting.[20]
After leaving Fort Kearny with his infantry, Fetterman fired volleys at the small group of Indians, who harassed his flanks and taunted his soldiers. Instead of turning west to where the wagon train was under attack, he advanced northward up Lodge Trail Ridge, perhaps planning to circle east toward the wagon train, perhaps drawn by the Indian decoys, who mooned him. At the top of the ridge, in violation of orders from Carrington, he chose to follow the Indian decoys north rather than turn west to rescue the wagon train. He advanced along a narrow ridge leading to a flat area along Peno Creek. His cavalry under Grummond took the van, initially moving at a walk so the infantry could keep up. The decoys led him onward, with the cavalry leaving the infantry behind.[7]:177–178
About half a mile after Fetterman had crossed the summit of Lodge Trail Ridge, the decoys gave a signal and the Indians on either side of the trail charged. Fetterman's infantry took up a position among some large rocks and, in hand-to-hand fighting, he and 49 of his men died. Their bodies were found in a small circle, huddled together for defense. A few of the cavalry were with Fetterman, but Grummond and most of the cavalry were apparently a mile ahead of the infantry, near the flat along Peno Creek and possibly chasing other decoys. When attacked, the cavalry retreated uphill and southward, toward Fetterman and Fort Kearny. Civilians Wheatley and Fisher and several cavalrymen, "knowing it was fatal to retreat from Indians", halted and took shelter among several large rocks, where they were killed. Grummond and the cavalry apparently remained in good order, leading their horses and presumably firing at the Indians all around them. Because of the steepness of the hill covered with ice and snow, the Indians, mostly on foot, were hampered in their attempts to come in close quarters with the cavalry, but soon succeeded. Grummond probably was killed at this point, after he had personally decapitated at least one warrior with his saber before being overwhelmed by the others.[citation needed] The cavalry continued its retreat, halting to fight in a flat area on the ridge 400 yards north of where the infantry lay dead. The Indians sniped at the soldiers while organizing a charge, and then rushed in among the soldiers, killing them all.[21] The Indians took about twenty minutes to kill the infantry and another twenty minutes to dispatch the cavalry.[22]
The Indians had few guns and fought mostly with bows and arrows, spears, and war clubs. Only six of the 81 soldiers died of gunshot wounds. Captains Fetterman and Brown are reputed to have committed suicide by shooting each other in the head to avoid capture, but the official army autopsy report gives a throat wound as the cause of Fetterman's death. Indian accounts credit a Lakota warrior named American Horse with killing Fetterman by slashing his throat. Fetterman may have shot himself just before American Horse cut his throat.[23]
The Indians stripped and mutilated the soldiers' bodies before leaving[7]:188 in an apparent mirror of the Sand Creek Massacre of two years before.[24][25] In his report to his superiors, Carrington listed what was discovered at the battlefield the next day: eyes torn out and laid on rocks, noses and ears cut off, teeth chopped out, brains taken out and placed on rocks, hands and feet cut off, and private parts severed. The two civilians, Wheatley and Fisher, had their faces smashed into bloody pulp, and Wheatley had been pierced by more than a hundred arrows.[26] The last trooper to die in the battle may have been Adolph Metzger, a bugler who used his instrument as a weapon until it was battered shapeless. Metzger was the only soldier whose dead body was not mutilated. The Indians covered him with a buffalo hide. Some historians interpreted that as a tribute to his bravery in standing alone against several armed enemies.[27]
Estimates of Indian casualties vary widely. Historian Stephen Ambrose said Indian dead totaled ten Lakota, two Cheyenne, and one Arapaho, some of them killed by 'friendly' arrow fire rather than soldier's bullets. George Bent, a Cheyenne-Anglo man, said fourteen Indian warriors were killed.[28] White Elk said only two Cheyenne were killed, but he saw 50 or 60 Lakota dead – more, he said, than were killed in the Battle of the Little Big Horn ten years later.[29] Years later, Red Cloud remembered the names of eleven Oglala who had been killed in the battle. Some estimates range up to 160 Indian dead and an equal number wounded.[7]:183
Historians do not believe that Indian casualties approached the higher estimates. The Plains Indians rarely mounted a direct charge at a foe capable of defense. Rather, they struck at the rear and flanks of an opponent, using mounted mobility to probe for weaknesses and attempt to cause disorganization and panic, backing off if they encountered a stout defense, and closing in for the kill when they could do so with little risk of heavy casualties.[30]
Aftermath
Drawing by Charles Schreyvogel, depicting "Lieutenant Grummond sacrificing himself to cover the retreat"
Counting Fetterman and his men, in less than six months at Fort Kearny, Carrington had lost 96 soldiers and 58 civilians.[31] More than 300 soldiers were still garrisoned at the fort.
Following the Fetterman Fight, that evening Carrington prepared for an attack on the fort, ordering all his men to stand watch, three to a porthole. All extra ammunition and explosives were deposited in a powder magazine ringed with wagons. If the Indians attacked, the ten women and children at the fort were ordered to go into the magazine. Soldiers were told that, in the last extremity, they were to retreat to the magazine. Carrington would then blow up the magazine to ensure that no Americans remained alive to be captured by the Indians.[7]:191–192
That evening, a civilian, John "Portugee" Phillips, volunteered to carry a distress message to Fort Laramie. Carrington's message to General Cooke told of the Fetterman disaster and requested immediate reinforcements and repeating Spencer carbines. Carrington sent Phillips and another messenger, Philip Bailey, out that evening on the best remaining horses. Phillips accomplished the 236-mile ride to Fort Laramie in four days. A blizzard began on December 22, and Phillips rode through a foot of snow and below-zero temperatures. He saw no Indians during his ride. He arrived at Fort Laramie late in the evening on December 25 during a full-dress Christmas ball and staggered, exhausted, into the party to deliver his message.[7]:193–194[32][12]:290
Carrington and a detail of 80 men marched cautiously out of Fort Kearny on December 22 as the blizzard was approaching and gathered the remaining bodies of those killed. On December 26, the soldiers buried the bodies of Fetterman, his officers and men in a common trench. By January 1, Carrington's fears of an Indian attack on the fort had subsided. The snows were deep and Jim Bridger advised him that the Indians would hole up for the winter.[7]:198,205[12]:284–291
General Cooke, on receipt of Carrington's distress message, immediately ordered that he be relieved of command by Brigadier General Henry W. Wessells, who arrived safely at Fort Kearny on January 16 with two companies of cavalry and four of infantry. One man in his command froze to death during the journey. Carrington left Fort Kearny on January 23 with his wife and the other women and children, including the pregnant wife of the deceased Lieutenant Grummond. They braved temperatures as low as -38°F (-39°C) during the journey to Fort Laramie. Half of the sixty soldiers escorting them suffered frostbite.[7]:209–210
Lurid newspaper stories blamed Carrington for the Fetterman disaster. An investigation absolved him of blame, but the report was not made public. The investigation noted that twelve companies of soldiers were stationed at Fort Laramie in a region at peace, while at Fort Kearny Carrington had only five companies in a region at war. Carrington spent the rest of his life attempting to repair his tarnished reputation as a soldier.[7]:217–218
The Fetterman Fight soured the mood of the nation and eroded the government's will to defend the Bozeman Trail. In 1868, Fort Phil Kearny was abandoned and, in November of that year, Red Cloud signed a peace agreement with the US. "For the first time in its history, the United States government had negotiated a peace which conceded everything demanded by the enemy and which extracted nothing in return."[7]:225 Indian sovereignty over the Powder River country, however, endured for only eight years.
Controversy
Although he was initially blamed for the Fetterman defeat, Carrington and his author wife, after many years of effort, succeeded in deflecting blame back to Fetterman. Carrington's case was that Fetterman was arrogant, insubordinate, and inexperienced in fighting Indians and that he had given Fetterman explicit orders not to venture beyond the summit of Lodge Trail Ridge. According to Margret Irvin Carrington in her book Absaraka: Home of the Crows,
The orders were given in front of Lieutenant Grummond's house, next the colonel's, and those who were present heard them repeated with distinctness and special urgency. Lieutenant Wands was also instructed to repeat them. As if peculiarly impressed with some anticipations of rashness in the movement, the colonel, just after the command left, went across the parade ground to a sentry platform, halted the mounted party, and gave additional orders, understood in the garrison, and by those who heard them, to be the substantial repition [sic] of the former. 'The health of Mrs Grummond was such that Lieutenant Wands and other friends urged him, for his family's sake, to be prudent, and avoid all rash movements and any pursuit that would draw them over Lodge Trail Ridge, and to report to Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Fetterman the orders he had received. These orders, in so many words, 'to relieve the train, and under no circumstances to cross the ridge.' Everyone knew why special emphasis was given to these orders.
The bodies of Fetterman and his soldiers were found more than half a mile beyond the summit of the ridge. According to Calitri, historians believe evidence conflicts as to whether Carrington gave his order. He suggests that Carrington and Fetterman planned to take the offensive against the Indians attacking the wood train and that Fetterman took the Lodge Trail Ridge to gain a position to attack the Indians from the rear. He says that other than Carrington's accusations, "there is no evidence indicating that Fetterman was anything but a professional officer and a perfect gentleman" with a distinguished combat record.[33]
Calitri also suggests controversy about Grummond. On dispatching Grummond and the cavalry to join Fetterman, Carrington explicitly ordered him to stay with Fetterman during the operation.[citation needed] Yet, at some point, Grummond led his cavalry far in advance of Fetterman, chasing the Indian decoys in direct violation of his orders. He had a distinguished Civil War record as a combat officer, but he had been court-martialed for drunkenness and abuse of civilians and was known as a bigamist. Calitri suggests that he was reckless and possibly disobeyed orders during the December 6 fight.[34]
Also, in the case of Captain Tenodor Ten Eyck, who was sent by Carrington to support or rescue Fetterman when the sounds of battle were heard at Fort Kearny, the captain was accused[35] of having been slow to march to the aid of Fetterman, taking a longer route to reach him. Ten Eyck was accused of cowardice and drunkenness and was permitted to retire from the army. Even if he had taken the shortest route, Ten Eyck was highly unlikely to have arrived in time to assist Fetterman.[36]
United States Army Wood-cutting detachment rescue party from Fort Phil Kearny, Dakota Territory, December 21, 1866, Brevet Lieutenant Colonel CaptainWilliam J. Fetterman†, commanding
Expedition
Regiment
Companies and others
Captain William J. Fetterman†, 18th Infantry, commanding
The Arapaho are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota.
Red Cloud was a leader of the Oglala Lakota from 1865 to 1909. He was one of the most capable Native American opponents whom the United States Army faced in the western territories. He defeated the United States during Red Cloud's War, which was a fight over control of the Powder River Country in northeastern Wyoming and southern Montana. The largest action of the war was the 1866 Fetterman Fight, with 81 US soldiers killed; it was the worst military defeat suffered by the US Army on the Great Plains until the Battle of the Little Bighorn 10 years later.
Red Cloud's War was an armed conflict between an alliance of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho peoples against the United States and the Crow Nation that took place in the Wyoming and Montana territories from 1866 to 1868. The war was fought over control of the western Powder River Country in present north-central Wyoming.
Crazy Horse was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by white American settlers on Native American territory and to preserve the traditional way of life of the Lakota people. His participation in several famous battles of the Black Hills War on the northern Great Plains, among them the Fetterman Fight in 1866, in which he acted as a decoy, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, in which he led a war party to victory, earned him great respect from both his enemies and his own people.
Fort Caspar was a military post of the United States Army in present-day Wyoming, named after 2nd Lieutenant Caspar Collins, a U.S. Army officer who was killed in the 1865 Battle of the Platte Bridge Station against the Lakota and Cheyenne. Founded in 1859 along the banks of the North Platte River as a trading post and toll bridge on the Oregon Trail, the post was later taken over by the Army and named Platte Bridge Station to protect emigrants and the telegraph line against raids from Lakota and Cheyenne in the ongoing wars between those nations and the United States. The site of the fort, near the intersection of 13th Street and Wyoming Boulevard in Casper, Wyoming, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is now owned and operated by the City of Casper as the Fort Caspar Museum and Historic Site.
The Battle of the Rosebud took place on June 17, 1876, in the Montana Territory between the United States Army and its Crow and Shoshoni allies against a force consisting mostly of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne Indians during the Great Sioux War of 1876. The Cheyenne called it the Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother because of an incident during the fight involving Buffalo Calf Road Woman. General George Crook's offensive was stymied by the Indians, led by Crazy Horse, and he awaited reinforcements before resuming the campaign in August.
The Sioux Wars were a series of conflicts between the United States and various subgroups of the Sioux people which occurred in the later half of the 19th century. The earliest conflict came in 1854 when a fight broke out at Fort Laramie in Wyoming, when Sioux warriors killed 31 American soldiers in the Grattan Massacre, and the final came in 1890 during the Ghost Dance War.
The Powder River Expedition of 1865 also known as the Powder River War or Powder River Invasion, was a large and far-flung military operation of the United States Army against the Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians in Montana Territory and Dakota Territory. Although soldiers destroyed one Arapaho village and established Fort Connor to protect gold miners on the Bozeman Trail, the expedition is considered a failure because it failed to defeat or intimidate the Indians.
The Bozeman Trail was an overland route in the Western United States, connecting the gold rush territory of southern Montana to the Oregon Trail in eastern Wyoming. Its most important period was from 1863 to 1868. Despite the fact that the major part of the route in Wyoming used by all Bozeman Trail travelers in 1864 was pioneered by Allen Hurlbut, it was named after John Bozeman. Many miles of the Bozeman Trail in present Montana followed the tracks of Bridger Trail, opened by Jim Bridger in 1864.
The Wagon Box Fight was an engagement which occurred on August 2, 1867, in the vicinity of Fort Phil Kearny during Red Cloud's War. A party of twenty-six U.S. Army soldiers and six civilians were attacked by several hundred Lakota Sioux warriors. Although outnumbered, the soldiers were armed with newly supplied breech-loading Springfield Model 1866 rifles and lever-action Henry rifles, and had a defensive wall of wagon boxes to protect them. They held off the attackers for hours with few casualties, although they lost a large number of horses and mules driven off by the raiders.
Fort Phil Kearny was an outpost of the United States Army that existed in the late 1860s in present-day northeastern Wyoming along the Bozeman Trail. Construction began in 1866 on Friday, July 13, by Companies A, C, E, and H of the 2nd Battalion, 18th Infantry, under the direction of the regimental commander and Mountain District commander Colonel Henry B. Carrington.
William Judd Fetterman was an officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War and the subsequent Red Cloud's War on the Great Plains. Fetterman and his command of 80 men were killed in the Fetterman Fight.
Spotted Tail was a Sichangu Lakota tribal chief. Famed as a great warrior since his youth, warring on Ute, Pawnee and Absaroke (“Crow”), and having taken a leading part in the Grattan Massacre, he led his warriors in the Colorado and Platte River uprising after the massacre performed by John M. Chivington's Colorado Volunteers of the peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho camping on Sand Creek, but declined to participate in Red Cloud's War.
The Battle of Powder River, also known as the Reynolds Battle, occurred on March 17, 1876, in Montana Territory, United States as part of the Big Horn Expedition. The attack on a Northern Cheyenne and Oglala Lakota Indian encampment by Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds initiated the Great Sioux War of 1876. Although destroying a large amount of Indian property, the attack was poorly carried out and solidified Northern Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux resistance to the U.S. attempt to force them to sell the Black Hills and live on a reservation.
Fort Fetterman was constructed in 1867 by the United States Army on the Great Plains frontier in Dakota Territory, approximately 11 miles northwest of present-day Douglas, Wyoming. Located high on the bluffs south of the North Platte River, it served as a major base for the start of several United States military expeditions against warring Native American tribes. The fort is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Fort Reno also known as Fort Connor or Old Fort Reno, was a wooden fort established on August 15, 1865 by the United States Army in Dakota Territory in present-day Johnson County, Wyoming. The fort was built to protect travelers on the Bozeman Trail from Native American tribes.
Crazy Woman Crossing is a historic place on the Bozeman Trail, in Johnson County, Wyoming, United States, about twenty miles southeast of Buffalo. Crazy Woman Crossing was one of three major fords used by travelers across creeks and rivers in this area. It is significant as the site of the Battle of Crazy Woman, a skirmish during Red Cloud's War in 1866. The United States pulled out of this territory after negotiation with the Lakota and allies of the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868.
The Battle of Platte Bridge, also called the Battle of Platte Bridge Station, on July 26, 1865, was the culmination of a summer offensive by the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne Indians against the United States army. In May and June the Indians raided army outposts and stagecoach stations over a wide swath of Wyoming and Montana. In July, they assembled a large army, estimated by Cheyenne warrior George Bent to number 3,000 warriors, and descended upon Platte Bridge. The bridge, across the North Platte River near present-day Casper, Wyoming, was guarded by 120 soldiers. In an engagement near the bridge, and another against a wagon train guarded by 28 soldiers a few miles away, the Indians killed 29 soldiers while suffering at least eight dead.
The Big Horn Expedition, or Bighorn Expedition, was a military operation of the United States Army against the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in Wyoming Territory and Montana Territory. Although soldiers destroyed one Northern Cheyenne and Oglala Lakota village at the Battle of Powder River, the expedition solidified Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne resistance against the United States attempt to force them to sell the Black Hills and live on a reservation, beginning the Great Sioux War of 1876.
References
1 2 Bob Drury and Tom Clavin (2013). The Heart of Everything that Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend. New York: Simon and Schuster. p.346. ISBN978-1451654660.
↑ Kappler, Charles J.: Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. Washington, 1904. Vol. 2, p. 594.
↑ See e.g. Papers relating to Talks and Councils held with the Indians in Dakota and Montana Territories in the Years 1866-1869. Washington, 1910, p. 69. Dunlay, Thomas W.: Wolves for the Blue Soldiers. Indian Scouts and Auxiliaries with the United States Army, 1860-90. Lincoln and London, 1982, pp. 39-40.
1 2 Kappler, Charles J.: Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. Washington, 1904. Vol. 2, p. 594.
↑ White, Richard: "The Winning of the West: The Expansion of the Western Sioux in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries", The Journal of American History, Vol. 65, No. 2 (Sep. 1978), pp. 319-343, quote p. 340.
↑ Serial 1308, 40th Congress, 1st Session, Vol. 1, Senate Executive Document No. 13, p. 127.
↑ McDermott, John D. A Guide to Indians Wars of the West Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998, p.156
↑ Vaughn, J. W. Indian Fights: New Facts on Seven Encounters. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966, p. 26
↑ Calitri, Shannon Smith. "'Give me Eighty Men': Shattering the Myth of the Fetterman Massacre", Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Vol. 54, No. 3 (Autumn 2004), p. 46
1 2 3 Vestal, Stanley (1970). Jim Bridger. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p.270. ISBN9780803257207.
↑ Stands In Timber, John and Margot Liberty: Cheyenne Memories. Lincoln and London, 1972, p. 170, note 13.
↑ Papers relating to Talks and Councils held with the Indians in Dakota and Montana Territories in the Years 1866-1869. Washington, 1910, p. 69.
↑ Bob Drury and Tom Clavin (2013). The Heart of Everything that Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, an American Legend. New York: Simon and Schulster. p.322. ISBN978-1451654660.
↑ Monnett, John H., Where a Hundred Soldiers Were Killed: The Struggle for the Powder River Country in 1866 and the Making of the Fetterman Myth. University of New Mexico Press (July 16, 2010). p. 123. ISBN978-0826345042.
↑ Lazarus, Edward (1999). Black Hills/White Justice: The Sioux Nation versus the United States, 1775 to the Present. University of Nebraska Press. p.39. ISBN978-0803279872.
↑ See, for example, discussions of Indian tactics in Ambrose, pp. 66–67 and Van de Logt, Mark, War Party in Blue, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010, pp. 42–43
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
United States 
