Fetterman’s Fight: A Foreshadowing

Lead-up to the Little Bighorn

Through 1866-67 Red Cloud’s War focused largely on the building of Fort Phil Kearney near what is now Banner, Wyoming. Some raids took place elsewhere along the Bozeman Trail, and warriors targeted other forts along the trail too.

The most persistent and notable confrontations surrounded Fort Phil Kearney, however. They culminated with what is known as the Fetterman Fight.

Surrounding Circumstances

The “Hayfield Fight,” near Fort C.F. Smith, was one of the more large-scale confrontations. “The Wagon Box Fight” in 1867 took place a few miles north of Fort Phil Kearney. Both would surprise the attackers with the relatively new speed of fire from the army’s breech-loading rifles now using metallic cartridges.

Fetterman’s Fight, however, is what demanded the U.S. Army’s full attention. It would force the U.S. to negotiate, resulting in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. Forts on the Bozeman Trail were abandoned.

Throughout its own Civil War the United States had also dealt with Indian uprisings and conflicts. Besides attempted to rebellion and secessoin, President Lincoln had to deal with Indian hostilities.  In 1862 Santee Sioux under Little Crow had killed several hundred Minnesota residents; in the Southwest, Apache and Comanche conflicts raged. In between and to the west even more hostilities boiled.

After the Civil War ended, the U.S. Army diminished in size, but soldiers were still needed. They dealt not only with reconstruction issues and the Ku Klux Klan but also growing conflicts in the west. Various gold strikes, including those in Montana Territory, brought increased settlers and settlement. With that increase came growing conflicts, including those with Sioux and Cheyenne tribes.

Forts Fueled Conflict

Fort Laramie already sat along the Oregon Trail. Fort Ellis, in Montana Territory’s Gallatin Valley would protect the Bozeman Trail’s terminus. The army added three more forts along the Bozeman Trail: Fort Reno, Fort Phil Kearny and Fort C.F. Smith. Each was named for a Civil War general. Coincidentally, all three had died in 1862.

The Bozeman Trail cut through the heart of prime and cherished Sioux and Cheyenne hunting grounds. Worse, when Colonel Henry Carrington chose his site for Fort Phil Kearny, he ravaged  those treasured hunting grounds.

The fort needed huge amounts of timber. It needed water too, and good feed for beef to feed the troops and horses to draw wagons and carry cavalry. Colonel Carrington chose a site that met all of those needs. Knowing how Indians would respond, Jim Bridger recommended a different site. Carrington insisted on his.

For perspective, just the walls of the main stockade measured 800’ by 600’, totaling 2800 linear feet of perimeter. Ten-foot lengths were squared on the sides to fit tightly together, then set upright in the ground to form an eight-foot-high palisade. An added area of irregular shape had lower walls but made the total perimeter 3,900 feet or more.

The fort needed barracks, medical quarters, offices, tack rooms and numerous other roofed structures. The effect of the timber harvest on the area was heart-rending to the Sioux and Cheyenne. Their anger burned.

Red Cloud’s Persistent Raids

The closest timber stood a few miles away, though at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains. Wood cutting details went out each day, and wagon loads of timber were hauled to the fort’s location. Away from the protection of the fort, these details made easy, tempting targets for the irate tribes whose lands were being desecrated.

When wood-cutting detachments were attacked, larger forces would rush out to chase the attackers. As warriors harassed wood details, often killing some, the soldiers’ patterns grew predictable. Frustration grew, but soldiers failed to view the warriors as their equals. Captain William Fetterman, a Civil War veteran, was among them.

A Foreboding Boast?

Fetterman is often quoted as saying, “Give me 80 men and I’ll ride through the whole Sioux nation.” Maybe he did. The quote and its context were not recorded by an immediate witness. Whether he made that statement or maybe something similar, it has come to represent the attitude that soon led to Fetterman’s fall. It would foreshadow what befell Custer at the Little Bighorn.

As attacks persisted and soldiers tired of them, the Red Cloud’s Sioux strategized.  They decided to decoy the soldiers out of the fort and spring an ambush. It failed. Some of those who lay in ambush sprang the attack too soon. It seems the soldiers would have learned from it. They did not.

On December 21, 1866 the Sioux again attacked a wood-cutting detail. As soldiers emerged from the fort, ten warriors lagged acting again as decoys. A cavalry squadron of cavalry pursued them, followed by Fetterman and his infantry. Two civilian sutlers armed with Henry repeating rifles accompanied the force as well.
That brought Fetterman’s total force to 80 men.

How the Fight Unfolded

What happened next is somewhat subject to speculation. It resembles Custer’s Little Bighorn defeat in that regard. The soldiers disappeared beyond a long, open ridge more than a mile from the fort. Fetterman had been instructed not to cross it in pursuing the hostiles.

The Lieutenant in charge of Fetterman’s cavalry troop was of questionable character. (During the Civil War he courted and married a young Tennessee woman while still married to his first wife up north.) He was apparently impetuous as well. It is likely the lieutenant pursued the decoys past where he was authorized to proceed. Mounted, his troop easily outdistanced the infantry. He was soon surrounded and overwhelmed.

It is likely that Fetterman went over the ridge in order to reinforce the impetuous lieutenant who had defied orders. We will never know for sure. Such scenarios have been debated for 150 years regarding Custer at the Little Bighorn as well.

What is known is that Fetterman’s entire command – 78 enlisted men and two civilians – were annihilated. The ambush would become known as the Fetterman Massacre, or the Fetterman Fight, depending on one’s perspective. If he really did say, “Give me 80 men. . .” his end might seem poetic.

A Persistent Pattern

What we can be observed is a developing pattern. First Grattan barged into a Sioux camp in 1853 with only 29 men. He made demands, and his entire command died with him. Fetterman charged out with his 80 men in 1866, apparently expecting the Sioux warriors to flee. All his command died with him there as well.

Less than 10 years later Custer would charge toward a camp of “hostile” Sioux and Cheyenne. He apparently expected them to flee. All five of his troops – more than 200 men, plus more who fell in Reno’s separate charge – would soon lie dead. He likely failed to grasp the size of the village he attacked, but his scouts had warned him. Whether due to ignorance or arrogance, his command was wiped out too.

The Foreshadowing

Among the decoys who drew Fetterman and 80 men out of from Fort Phil Kearny was a young warrior named Crazy Horse. Like Sitting Bull he disdained white men’s ways and treaties. He would later face an impetuous cavalry officer along the banks of the Yellowstone River in 1873. He would try decoy tactics there, too. By then, Custer, the officer had learned.

The two warriors, Custer and Crazy Horse, would meet again in 1876. Crazy Horse’s forces would prevail. Ten years before that fateful meeting, though, Fetterman’s fight would foreshadow would occur at the Little Bighorn.