page_title: Fetterman Fight
section_title: Battle
hierarchical_section_title: Fetterman Fight / Battle
caption_attribution_description: The "Fetterman massacre", during Red Cloud's War. Sioux and Cheyenne warriors battle U.S. soldiers near Fort Philip Kearney, Dakota Territory.
context_page_description: The Fetterman Fight, also known as the Fetterman Massacre or the Battle of the Hundred-in-the-Hands, was a battle during Red Cloud's War on December 21, 1866, between a confederation of the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and a detachment of the United States Army, based at Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming. The U.S. military mission was intended to protect travelers on the Bozeman Trail.
  A group of ten warriors, including Crazy Horse, acted to lure a detachment of U.S. soldiers into an ambush. All 81 men under the command of Captain William J. Fetterman were then killed by the Native American warriors. At the time, it was the worst military disaster ever suffered by the United States Army on the Great Plains.
  The Lakota alliance emerged victorious and the remaining U.S. forces withdrew from the area. The Fetterman Fight took place on Crow Indian land that was guaranteed to them by a treaty signed with the U.S. government. where the Lakota and their allies were operating without the consent of the Crow.
context_section_description: The battlefield was examined briefly and the bodies of soldiers removed quickly. According to a Cheyenne informant named White Elk, who was interviewed as he walked the battlefield 48 years after the event, the Indians had chosen 10 warriors as decoys to tempt Fetterman into the ambush: two Arapaho, two Cheyenne, and two from each of the three Lakota bands present: the Oglala, Brulé, and Miniconjou. Approximately three times as many Lakota participated in the battle as did Cheyenne and Arapaho. White Elk said there were more Indians present than at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which would indicate an Indian force of considerably more than 1,000 men. Eyewitness testimonies and historians stated that Red Cloud was present in the battle, although his role during the fighting is unknown. Indian armies rarely had a single leader or a command structure with Red Cloud as one of those who planned much of the attack, but Hump (High Backbone), a Miniconjou, was the prominent leader in the fighting.
  After leaving Fort Kearny with his infantry, Fetterman fired volleys at the small group of Indians who harassed his flanks and taunted his soldiers. Instead of turning west to where the wagon train was under attack, he advanced northward up Lodge Trail Ridge, perhaps planning to circle east toward the wagon train, perhaps drawn by the Indian decoys, who mooned him. At the top of the ridge, in violation of orders from Carrington, he chose to follow the Indian decoys north rather than turn west to rescue the wagon train. He advanced along a narrow ridge leading to a flat area along Peno Creek. His cavalry under Grummond took the van, moving at a walk so the infantry could keep up. The decoys led him onward, the cavalry leaving the infantry behind.
  About one-half mile after Fetterman had crossed the summit of Lodge Trail Ridge, the decoys gave a signal and the Indians on either side of the trail charged. Fetterman's infantry took up a position among some large rocks and in hand-to-hand fighting, he and 49 of his men died. Their bodies were found in a small circle, huddled together for defense. A few of the cavalry were with Fetterman, but Grummond and most of the cavalry apparently were a mile ahead of the infantry, near the flat along Peno Creek and possibly chasing other decoys. When attacked, the cavalry retreated uphill and southward, toward Fetterman and Fort Kearny. Civilians Wheatley and Fisher and several cavalrymen, "knowing it was fatal to retreat from Indians", halted and took shelter among several large rocks, where they were killed. Grummond and the cavalry apparently remained in good order, leading their horses and presumably firing at the Indians all around them. Because of the steepness of the hill and the ice and snow, the Indians were slowed in their attempt to come in close quarters with the cavalry. Still the warriors, mostly on foot, approached within a few feet of them. Grummond probably was killed at this point, after he had personally decapitated at least one warrior with his saber before being overwhelmed by the others. The cavalry continued its retreat, halting to fight in a flat area on the ridge 400 yards north of where the infantry lay dead. The Indians sniped at the soldiers while organizing a charge and then rushed in among the soldiers, killing them all. It had taken the Indians about 20 minutes to kill the infantry and another 20 to dispatch the cavalry.
  The Indians had few guns and fought mostly with bows and arrows, spears, and war clubs. Only six of the 81 soldiers died of gunshot wounds. Captains Fetterman and Brown are reputed to have committed suicide by shooting each other in the head to avoid capture, but the official army autopsy report gives the throat wound as the cause of Fetterman's death. Indian accounts credit a Lakota warrior named American Horse with killing Fetterman by slashing his throat. It is possible that Fetterman shot himself just before American Horse cut his throat.
  The Indians stripped and mutilated the soldiers' bodies before leaving in an apparent mirror of the Sand Creek 
caption: 1867 drawing of the Fetterman Fight.
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