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Posted on 11/30/2004 10:21:16 PM PST by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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Called a massacre at the time, the December 1866 clash near Fort Phil Kearny was, in fact, a military triumph by the Plains Indians and the Army's greatest blunder in the West until the Battle of the Little Bighorn 10 years later.  Capt. William J. Fetterman The Fetterman Fight occurred in Powder River country, on the lonely, monotonous plains of what would become northern Wyoming (at the time, it was part of Dakota Territory). Today, the grasses, tall and dry but still supple enough to bend, genuflect in waves moving from west to east across the prairie. Overhead, a blue bowl of sky holds only a distant sun. Certainly, there are landscapes more desolate--deep deserts, steep mountains or abrupt canyons. But few places seem more empty. The emptiness is a misconception. The Indians knew better. The area around the Powder River and the other southern tributaries of the Yellowstone River contained desirable lands. Game abounded--deer, rabbits, buffalo, birds. Down by the creeks, berries and greens grew. Nature had opened her bountiful hand and strewed a multitude of blessings. The Crows, or Absarokas ("children of the big-beaked bird"), called this area their homeland. But it had been the home of the Snake (Shoshone) Indians until they were driven out by the Crows in the early 1800s, and since about midcentury, the Crows had been struggling with the Teton Sioux, who had moved in to escape encroaching white civilization. By 1866, the Teton Sioux--mostly Oglala, Minneconjou and Sans Arc--had taken the Powder River country away from the Crows and were the dominant force in the area.  For the white men, this land was not considered valuable in 1866, but not far to the west lay highly desirable land--the gold fields of Montana Territory. A federal government nearly bankrupt from the Civil War urgently needed gold to liquidate the interest accruing on the national debt. Men desperate to escape poverty were willing to risk all. To travel from the East to the gold fields, the shortest route was to take the Platte Road (the old Oregon Trail) to Fort Laramie (in present-day southeastern Wyoming) and then pick up the Bozeman Trail, which had been pioneered by John Bozeman in the spring of 1863. The Bozeman Trail, or Road, ran northwest on the east side of the Big Horn Mountains into Montana Territory and then mostly west to Virginia City. When gold seekers used the trail in 1864, Sioux leaders such as Man-Afraid-of-His-Horse and Red Cloud became upset, because the route passed right through their buffalo ranges. To a lesser degree, the trail also annoyed the Northern Cheyennes and the Arapahos, who were friends of the Sioux. And soon, these Indians had even more reason to be angry. In late August 1865, Brig. Gen. Patrick E. Connor began to build Camp Connor (later renamed Fort Reno, the site is 30 miles east of present-day Kaycee, Wyo.) on the Powder River to protect travelers on the Bozeman Trail. That outpost, however, would not be garrisoned until the next year. Indian attacks made travel on the trail extremely risky. Treaties were signed by various "friendly" northern Plains chiefs in the fall of 1865, but other chiefs were determined to keep the Bozeman Trail closed.  Red Cloud, a chief of the Oglala Lakota and leader of the 1866 attack on Fort Phil Kearny that ended in the Fetterman Massacre. Red Cloud's successful campaign against United States troops in Montana led to the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. Into this sensitive situation marched American soldiers in 1866, with orders to guard the Bozeman Trail. They were the 700 men of the 2nd Battalion, 18th U.S. Infantry Regiment. The troops left Fort Kearny (near present-day Kearney, Neb.) on May 13, along with the 3rd Battalion, which would be manning posts along the Platte Road. The regimental commander was Connecticut-born Colonel Henry Bebee Carrington, and he would be sticking with the 2nd Battalion. Major General John Pope, commander of the Department of the Missouri, had ordered the 42-year-old colonel to staff Fort Reno and to build two additional forts farther north. The 25-piece regimental band provided some musical entertainment on the march west, and a dozen officers' wives and 11 children provided some good company. One of the wives was Margaret Irvin Carrington, an educated woman passionately dedicated to life, justice and her husband, Henry. She kept a journal of her travels and travails in the West. She recorded that the 2nd Battalion's baggage included "mowing machines, and shingle and brick machines, doors, sash, glass, nails, locks, rocking chairs and sewing machines, churns and washing machines, with a bountiful supply of canned goods." Hardly the stuff of a simple military maneuver. Although they would be far from civilization, the officers' wives were set on creating homes.  Fort Phil Kearny A stop at Fort Laramie in mid-June brought the ladies an opportunity to shop but carried ominous portents for the future. A government commission was conducting peace negotiations with the Indians, including some of the chiefs who had foiled General Connor's three-pronged campaign on the northern Plains the previous year; the negotiators were hoping to secure an agreement to a "right of way" through the Powder River country. The whites, as usual, brought food and other presents. Brulé Sioux Chief Spotted Tail, whose people didn't even venture into the region, was one of the Indians who agreed to terms. Red Cloud--not actually a chief, but a head warrior who was highly influential in matters of war--and others did not. The arrival of Carrington and company did not sit well with Red Cloud. The white men were asking for permission to use a road but had already brought soldiers to build forts along that road. Red Cloud and his Sioux delegation stormed off from the Fort Laramie negotiations; they vowed to fight any white man who used the Bozeman Trail. Still, the commission returned to Washington, D.C., and declared the Bozeman Trail safe for travel. The government negotiators had grossly underestimated the determination of certain Sioux to save their hunting grounds.  At Fort Laramie, some friendly Indians alerted Carrington to the possibility of trouble from hostile Indians in the Powder River country. And the colonel soon learned of other problems. The ammunition, horses and wagon drivers that were supposed to be made available to him at Fort Laramie were missing. But Carrington remained cautiously optimistic. On June 16, he wrote to Brevet Major H.G. Litchfield, the acting assistant adjutant general of the Department of the Platte, that he anticipated no serious difficulty: "Patience, forbearing, and common sense in dealing with the Sioux and Cheyennes will do much with all who really desire peace, but it is indispensable that ample supplies of ammunition come promptly." The next day, Carrington and the 2nd Battalion marched out of Fort Laramie with 226 wagons. First, he stopped off 176 miles to the northwest at Fort Reno, leaving behind one of his eight companies to garrison it; he then proceeded to a spot that appealed to him some 60 miles farther up the Bozeman Trail. In mid-July, work began there on what would become Fort Phil Kearny, named for Civil War Maj. Gen. Philip Kearny, who died in 1862 at the Battle of Chantilly (Virginia).  The fort would be stockaded and would sit on a natural plateau between Big and Little Piney creeks. The soldiers required only one morning to plot out the parade ground and building sites. Almost immediately, various Cheyennes began to visit; they said that Red Cloud was insisting they join forces with his Sioux to drive the white men away. Openly hostile Indians, no doubt inspired by Red Cloud, also began to visit, with unpleasant consequences. Two men died in the first raid on July 16. Attacks upon military and civilian targets in the region became commonplace. Stock was lost. Timber parties, sent out in wagons to secure lumber for building the fort and wood for fuel and cooking, had to travel five or six miles to reach the pine trees in the Big Horn Mountains. These wood trains were often harassed by Indians. From Pilot Hill, a lookout post Carrington established just south of the fort site, men could watch the wagons move and signal when there was danger. "Alarms were constant; attacks upon the trains were frequent, and this kind of visitation continued during the whole season," Margaret Carrington wrote. "The ladies all came to the conclusion, no less than the officers affirmed it, that the Laramie treaty was Wau-nee-chee, no good!"  Nevertheless, work on the fort progressed steadily, because there was no full-scale Indian attack. The fort, 600 feet by 800 feet, would eventually contain everything needed for independent existence--warehouses, hospital, sutler's store, officers' quarters, barracks, stables, laundry, battery park for the howitzers, guardhouse and bandstand. The daily routine for the women confined within its high walls differed radically from their lives in the East. Only a few servants had come along, and many of them left for the more lucrative professions of baker and washerwoman for the troops. So the wives baked, cooked, cleaned, scrubbed and sewed clothing. Sometimes they found time during the day for croquet. Evening entertainment included readings, games, quadrilles and music. Chapel came on Sunday. But there was never a sense of real peace. "Every day brought its probabilities of some Indian adventures--every night had its special dangers which unanticipated might involve great loss," Margaret Carrington wrote. Her husband kept looking for the promised support. On July 30, he sent a long report to his boss, Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cooke, who headed the Department of the Platte: "My ammunition has not arrived; neither has my Leavenworth supply train--I am equal to any attack they may make, but have to build quarters and prepare for winter, escort trains, and guaranty the whole road."
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Good morning Gail.
OKers!
Hi Sam!
I'll be back in a bit.
LOL.
Amen. Good morning Mayor.
Cool. Thanks PE.
Good morning feather.
Shipments, grrr.
He's worth every penny. ;-)
Starting today since it's the forst of the month. :-)
Lesson for today: never underestimate your enemy.
Neither side knew that the Powder River Basin held much more wealth than its surface grassland. Today, the area is one of the richest coal producing regions of the U.S., producing much enviro-friendly low-sulfer coal.
I'm back.
I remember having to unload a semi trailer by hand once.
Sporting goods store.
All kinds of really heavy stuff.
And all our pallet jacks were mysteriously missing.
And I was told to do this alone by myself.
So I grabbed the nearest taller bulkier types I could find and had them unload the trailer with me.
I hated Wednesdays.
They were ALWAYS the day the shipments came, and they were always late.
IIRC, Clinton put a lot of it off limits so his Indonesia buddies could sell their coal instead.
An option not available to me, unless you count Snippy. ;-)
I know, it's just you two.
*sigh*
She's gonna get you about part of that you know.
One of the reactions to long term heavy fear is personal recklessness. A sort of "get it over with" motivation, though it comes across beforehand as bluster. Seen that one more than once. Pretty common. Suspect Fetterman of being of that sort.
Cute, real cute......
[To Sam]
We're doomed.
RUN for it!
I know, so far so good, maybe she'll miss it. ;-)
I doubt if Fetterman knew anything about the way Indians fought. This was basically the same attitude that the Johnson administration had toward the NVA and VC. They believed that if you could show just one John Wayne movie in Hanoi the NVA would give up.
She saw it... post 56.
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