Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site: #2 The Fetterman Fight

FORT PHIL KEARNY: THE FETTERMAN FIGHT is the SECOND video in my three-part series on Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site near Banner, Wyoming.
Video #1: The Fort
• Fort Phil Kearny State...
Video #2: The Fetterman Fight
• Fort Phil Kearny State...
Video #3: The Wagon Box Fight
• Fort Phil Kearny State...
Fort Phil Kearny was the infamous frontier fort from which Capt. William J. Fetterman, on December 21, 1866, led a force of 80 infantry and cavalry into an ambush set by 2,000 Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors. Fetterman and his command were annihilated in a 30-minute fight, the worst defeat for the U.S. Army in the West second only to Custer’s defeat in the Battle of the Little Bighorn ten years later.
The fort was established in July 1866 at the fork of the Piney and Little Piney Creeks in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains by Col. Henry B. Carrington of the 18th U.S. Infantry. Its mission was to protect travelers on the Bozeman Trail. But that trail cut right through the last great Indian hunting grounds on the Northern Plains. Indian resistance, especially under the leadership of Chief Red Cloud, was instant, continuous, violent, and successful. The treaty of 1868 closed the Bozeman Trail and Fort Phil Kearny. In August 1868 the fort was abandoned by the Army and burned by the Cheyenne.
The site of the Fetterman Fight was formerly called Massacre Hill, but views changed over the years. Although all the soldiers were killed, they were armed and went looking for a fight - and found it.
The site of the battle probably looks much like it did back in 1866: bare, grass-covered hills. The ridge seems very quiet, lonely, and somber. A lot of men, soldiers and Indians, died that day. Very thought-provoking.
There are trails along the ridge with many explanatory displays. Pause the video as desired to read all the information on the signs.
While I walked on the ridge, I kept wondering what both sides must have felt once the fight began. The soldiers must have been terrified when they realized the soldiers had fallen into a well-planned, well-executed trap and that all the soldiers would soon be dead.
The Indians must have been elated when they realized the soldiers had fallen into a well-planned, well-executed trap and that all the soldiers would soon be dead.
I think an especially good book on the history of Fort Phil Kearny is Dee Brown’s “Fort Phil Kearny: An American Saga”, University of Nebraska Press, 1962. I bought a copy in the gift shop in the Historic Site’s Interpretive Center.
Enjoy my video of FORT PHIL KEARNY: THE FETTERMAN FIGHT! Be sure to watch the other videos in the series. Pause the video as needed to read information signs.
And I hope you’ll click on my Subscribe icon. I have over 120 videos on my UA-cam channel in various categories/playlists, emphasizing the Old West, natural and human history out West, the Civil War, and others. Check ‘em out! / stagecoacher
Specifically, I have a direct link at the end of this video to my Old Western Forts video playlist on the channel.
• Firing the 12-pounder ...
Especially related to this video is my Western novel “B Troop”, which follows the experiences of a cavalry corporal and his “set of four” in an early Dakota winter in 1879. See a synopsis below. See jimjanke.com/b... to read the first chapter and for links to order either the e-book edition or the trade paperback edition.
And visit my website for details on all my Western and Civil War novels, as well as links to information on the Old West, the Civil War Afloat, fiction writing, etc. Look for the "B Troop" icon at the end of the video. jimjanke.com
Jim
B TROOP:
November, 1879. Corporal John Taylor, one of Custer’s avengers,” is bored and lonely at Fort Grummond, a small, isolated outpost associated with a Lakota Sioux Reservation.
Orville Scheid, Indian agent, insists the Indian children learn English. Chief Stone Bear refuses. Scheid blunders and uses a single, ill-chosen word that terrifies the reservation’s people. The Sioux kill some troopers and agency employees, kidnap Scheid’s family, and launch a desperate attempt to flee to Canada. Major Nelson Prescott conducts an equally desperate mission to stop them.
Taylor’s life and that of B Troop explodes in violence and tragedy. Pursuit by the cavalry is relentless, but the resistance of the Sioux is persistent and resourceful. All in the teeth of a brutal Dakota winter that grinds down both pursuers and pursued.
A climactic confrontation erupts at the Missouri River, shy of the Canadian border. Taylor rescues Jeannie Scheid, Orville Scheid's daughter, and he learns a lot more about the young woman, the Sioux, the Army, and himself.
Ride along with Taylor and his set of four-Sean O’Dea, Linus Skinner, Hans Klausmeyer, and himself-and B Troop during this epic struggle.

[@flashman8835]

Opening action of the plains Indian wars in 1866. A great place to visit, no crowds, plenty of time to review the exhibits, walk the field, and speak with the ranger. I highly recommend a visit.

[@jjdjj5392]

Very interesting!! Its even more interesting when you visit this place!

[@stagecoacher]

Glad you enjoyed it. The place is very somber.