Fetterman Fight Claims 81 U.S. Soldiers

Context

The Bozeman Trail, blazed in 1863, offered a shorter route from the Oregon Trail to the Montana gold fields but crossed hunting grounds that the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty had assigned to the Crow and promised to the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. Emigrant traffic and the U.S. Army’s decision to protect the route with new forts heightened tensions, as the tribes saw the military posts as direct threats to their access to buffalo herds and traditional territories in the Powder River country.

What Happened

On the morning of December 21, 1866, a wood train traveling northwest from Fort Phil Kearny came under attack. Colonel Henry B. Carrington ordered a relief force of 81 men—49 infantrymen and 27 cavalry troopers plus officers and two civilians—under Captain William J. Fetterman to assist. Fetterman, a Civil War veteran critical of Carrington’s cautious approach, took command by virtue of brevet rank and led the column northward rather than directly toward the wood train.

Aftermath

A search party under Captain Ten Eyck reached the site shortly after noon and found all 81 men dead. Carrington immediately requested reinforcements and additional horses while tightening security at the isolated post. The defeat prompted a temporary halt in aggressive operations and contributed to growing pressure on the Army to reconsider its commitment to the Bozeman Trail forts.

Legacy

The Fetterman Fight remained the U.S. Army’s worst defeat on the Great Plains until the Battle of the Little Bighorn ten years later. It illustrated the success of Native coalition tactics and helped convince federal authorities to negotiate the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, under which the Bozeman Trail forts were abandoned and the Powder River country was closed to white settlement for a time.