At the end of September 1866, U.S. Army Colonel Henry B. Carrington had secured the defenses of Fort Phil Kearney, but there were some weaknesses. The timber fields outside of the fort were naturally vulnerable with the men spreading out to cut down limber to be used for construction.
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Dee Brown’s The Fetterman Massacre: Fort Phil Kearny and the Battle of the Hundred Slain. View the book on Amazon here.
These weaknesses were noticeable by the very capable Lakota leader Red Cloud, who decided in to attack them on the 27th. A small war party of Indians descended upon the open timbers where Carrington’s men were cutting, leaving on Private Patrick Smith scalped, filled with arrows, and presumed dead by the both the Indians and his fellow men.
Little did the other men at the blockhouse know, but Private Smith was still alive. Once he regained consciousness he crawled a half mile back to the fort. The men were so angered by the event that they began talking about massacring the Cheyenne camp within the fort.
Carrington was able to dispel the mob of some 90 men, but it was a tremendous blow for an already devastated morale at the fort after months of Indian attacks. Colonel Carrington was replaced in January 1867.
The Indian Attack On Piney Island
“It was a sunny morning, with snow still lingering under the tall under the tall trees on Piney Island. The crack of axes and shouts of the cutters rang clear in the crisp air. Without warning nearly a hundred Indians dashed between the three men and the main party, and the latter immediately exchanged axes for rifles. Within a few minutes the cutters withdrew to the safety of their blockhouse. Shortly afterward two of the isolated men came in safely, after eluding the Indians…They assumed Private Smith was dead.” Dee Brown, The Fetterman Massacre: Fort Phil Kearny and the Battle of the Hundred Slain.
Private Smith was left scalped and filled with arrows to die alone in the snowy woods, far from help as the remaining men fought for survival in the nearby blockhouse. Unbelievably, he regained consciousness and crawled half a mile to the blockhouse.
“When he appeared, scalped and bleeding, before the blockhouse, his comrades lifted him into a bunk and send an emergency detail hurrying to the fort for a surgeon.” -Dee Brown.
With Private Patrick Smith returned to the base and in medical care, the men at Fort Phil Kearney were on a warpath for revenge. They were emboldened by a perceived weakness the Colonel had in defending from Indian attacks. A mob of some 90 men turned their rage towards the nearby Cheyenne camp.
Red Cloud’s War
Chief Red Cloud was the leader of the Oglala Lakota tribe. He was the most formidable opponent of the United States Army in its mission for Western expansion.
The colonel Henry B. Carrington had been ordered to build forts along the Powder River Country, along Wyoming and Montana. It was necessary to send a force to protect the Americans moving to the West caught up in the Gold Rush.
Ten years before the Battle of Little Bighorn, referred to also as Custer’s Last Stand, the U.S. military suffered its greatest military defeat yet in the 1866 Fetterman Massacre.
The Almost Mutiny At Fort Phil Kearney
One complaint many of the men at the fort had against their commanding officer, Colonel Henry B. Carrington was that they felt he was weak on the Indians. They felt that he had not done enough to fight the attacking indians.
Carrington instead focused on his goal to complete the forts he had been instructed to finish. The colonel had no choice but to attack the Indians on November 25, 1866 when he was ordered to by his superior Cooke.
Author Dee Brown writes, “they were eager to strike a blow against any indians.” Carrington went into action and send a guard to the Cheyenne camp, and rode on horse to meet the angry mob heading towards their target.
With several shots of his revolver Carrington persuaded the men to disperse and return to camp. Many of them agreed to return to camp out of fear they could be recognized and punished by the colonel.
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