It was the era of the Plains Indian Wars — a time where settlers migrated across rugged terrain through hostile territory. Protection along this crude journey was vital in forging a new nation-establishing the need for military outposts and forts. In July 1866, at the forks of the Big and Little Piney creeks in northeastern Wyoming, Col. Henry B. Carrington of the 18th U.S. Infantry led the construction of Fort Phil Kearny.
Founded in 1866 TO Protect THE BOZEMAN TRAIL
The original purpose of Fort Kearny and its two posts, Fort C.S. Smith and Fort Reno, was to protect settlers on the Bozeman Trail — a route to Montana’s gold field blazed by John Bozeman in the early 1860s. The fort was also used to draw the attention of Indian tribes to avoid inter-tribal warfare and prevent them from interfering with the construction of the transcontinental railroad further south.
Ten years prior to the epic Battle of the Little Bighorn — “Custer’s Last Stand” — troops from Fort Phil Kearny were led into an ambush from Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Lakota tribes that devastated the fort and left survivors to bury 81 men in December of 1866. Tribal leaders Red Cloud and Crazy Horse viewed Fort Kearny as an encroachment on tribal land, and they devised a plan to draw the soldiers into a valley north of the fort where nearly 2,000 warriors waited to spring the trap.
Tribal leaders viewed the fort as encroachment on tribal land
A party from the fort, out chopping wood on December 21, 1866, was attacked by a small group of Indians. After hearing news of the attack, Carrington ordered Lt. Col. William Fetterman to strike back with 78 additional soldiers and two civilians. Crazy Horse led a decoy group, luring the soldiers into an open spot just within sight of Fort Kearny. The soldiers fired a 12-pound artillery round, and the Indians fled.
Fetterman and his men trailed Crazy Horse three miles from the fort, where they were ambushed. Historians say about 40,000 arrows poured from the sky onto the American soldiers. Legend has it that bugler Adolph Metzger bravely fought off his attackers with nothing but his bugle.
A Show of Respect
When the dust settled, Metzger’s body was the only one left intact — covered with a bison hide, a show of respect by the Native Americans. (Metzger’s bugle is part of the exhibit at the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum in Buffalo.)
There were no survivors. The Fetterman Massacre was the U.S. Army’s worst defeat in the West until the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.
The Wagon Box fight on August 2, 1867 and a number of smaller skirmishes also took place between tribal warriors and the U.S. Army during Red Cloud’s War. At the Wagon Box just northwest of the fort, a party of 26 U.S. Army soldiers and six civilians were attacked by several hundred Lakota warriors. Armed with better weapons that eight months earlier, the U.S. military was able to hold the Native Americans at bay.
Red Cloud, the legendary Lakota leader, waged the most successful war against the Army — indeed, the most successful war ever by an Indian nation. The U.S. abandoned the Bozeman Trail and the three forts along it in 1868. Fort Phil Kearny was burned to the ground.
VISITING THE STATE HISTORIC SITE
You can learn more about life at the fort and the battles that took place at the new Fort Phil Kearny Interpretive Center as well as the nearby sites of the Fetterman Fight and the Wagon Box Fight.
The fort grounds are open sunrise to sunset every day throughout the year.
Interpretive Center hours:
May 1-May 31: Noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday
June 1-Sept. 30: Open daily 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Oct. 1-Oct. 31: Noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday
