THE FETTERMAN MASSACRE

In June 1866, Red Cloud, chief of the Oglala Sioux, began negotiating with the army based at Fort Laramie about the decision to allow emigrants to settle on the last of the great Sioux hunting grounds. When he was unable to reach agreement with the army negotiators he resorted to sending out war parties that attacked emigrants and army patrols.

These hit and run tactics were difficult for the army to deal with and be the time they arrived on the scene of the attack the war parties had disappeared. On December 21, 1866, eighty men rode out of Fort Phil Kearny to support a wood-cutting expedition that had come under attack. The wood was absolutely necessary to the fort, and attacks against the wood-gatherers were common. On 21st December, 1866, Captain W. J. Fetterman and an army column of 80 men, were involved in protecting a team taking wood to Fort Phil Kearny. Although under orders not to "engage or pursue Indians" Fetterman gave the orders to attack a group of Sioux warriors. The warriors ran away and drew the soldiers into a clearing surrounded by a much larger force. All the soldiers were killed in what became known as the Fetterman Massacre. Later that day the stripped and mutilated bodies of the soldiers were found by a patrol led by Captain Ten Eyck.
  Every man was mutilatilated except that of Metzker, a bugler, who fought with such desperate valor that the Indians covered the remains with a buffalo robe as a token of their savage respect. They attempted to take this brave bugler alive, but he killed so many of the warriors that he had to be finished. This much Red Cloud's people subsequently

Various pieces

hill?

This day would prove anything but common. The attack force consisted of 27 cavalry, 49 infantry, Captains Fetterman and Brown, and two civilian veterans armed with Henry repeating rifles. They pursued a group of mounted Indians directly up the Bozeman Trail to a point several miles from the fort and completely cut off from it visually. There they were counterattacked by a much larger force of Indians that was lying in wait. All 80 men of the attack column were wiped out. Red Cloud made the U.S Cavalry sign the Fort Laramie treaty