Yes.
He said this to Carrington three times. Each time, Carrington was telling him to NOT follow the Indians, to NOT pursue, to NOT get out of sight of the fort, to NOT rise to the bait. Fetterman basically despised Carrington, mostly because Carrington was an engineer/administrator, not a combat vet from the Civil War. Carrington was the right man to build a fort in the wilderness and handle the engineering, construction, logistics, etc - but the junior officers who were blooded in the Civil War held him in contempt because he followed his orders - which were to build a fort, establish lines of supply and work on a road on the Bozeman Trail. Carrington was not given orders to make war on the Indians, nor did he see the point in free-lancing after them given the terrain, the numbers of Indians and the speed with which the Indians could appear and then disappear.
Truth was, tho, that Carrington learned a lot more than the young hotheads by watching what the Indians were doing.
There is but one explanation for the fate of the men who followed Fetterman to their deaths: the arrogance of a commander who clearly didn’t know his enemy.
Another piece of evidence of how men like Fetterman didn’t understand the Indians:
All of the men who followed Fetterman to their deaths were mutilated but one. The bugler, Adolph Metzler, was found dead, but intact, clothed and covered with a buffalo robe. The soldiers who came out to recover the Fetterman bodies puzzled over this for some time.
The Indians later told tales of Metzler as a “real warrior” who, after running out of ammo, had stood his ground and beat several Indians to death with his (wait for it).... bugle. Even tho the Indians had scant firearms at that time, think of the situation: You’re outnumbered 10:1 and more, the Indians are experts at close quarters combat with lances, axes, clubs, knives and the like - and here’s this young “bluecoat,” standing his ground, beating several Indians to death with a bugle.
The chiefs must have been awe-struck at his bravery.
Being covered with a buffalo robe when the temperature was going to drop to sub-zero that night was a high honor indeed.
I’d never heard that story about the bugler before. That was great.