Battle of the Hundred Slain
Fetterman's Massacre on the Plain
Winter 1866. Sioux Chief Red Cloud is on the war path against the Americans.
Fort Kearney in north modern-day Wyoming is fortified with four howitzers, but the only available source of firewood in undefended terrain located four miles away from the Fort. The wood train and near daily collection of firewood to heat and cook the fort present target rich opportunities for Sioux raiders.
Captain Fetterman steps into Fort Kearney fresh from Civil War battlefields, convinced that the methods of total war he has learned when applied to the Indians will be their defeat.
[1] A group of Sioux attack the wagon train.
[2] Colonel Carrington gathers a force to defend the wood train from attack to be led by Captain Powell, who is an experienced Indian fighter. Captain Fetterman argues successfully to take the assignment based on his seniority as a tenured officer.
[3] Captain Fetterman and 80 men pursue a group of Sioux chiefs, including Crazy Horse and White Bull, past the Sullivant Hills and into a ‘trap’ of hundreds of waiting Sioux warriors. The army soldiers are overwhelmed after running out of ammo. The warriors kill Captain Fetterman’s force killing to the last man and dog.
[4] The warriors kill Lt. Grummond on the Bozeman trail.
[5] The warriors leave bugler Adolf Metzger a buffalo robe - nominally a sign of respect - likely sarcastic in Adolf’s case.
Years later Chief White Bull participates in General Custer’s Last Stand, another stunning American defeat.
In this battle White Bull got one overcoat from the troops and some cartridges. He shot twenty of his forty arrows.
Jim Bridger is a ubiquitous figure in the old west and was present during this time - his contacts with the tribe leader Standing Elk warned him of trouble. Bridger’s story with Hugh Glass may have served as the inspiration for the film The Revenant.
Fetterman Massacre on the Bozeman Trail - Warfare History Network
Vestal, Stanley. Warpath. U of Nebraska Press.
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