The tragic events associated with Fort Phil Kearny, the infamous Fetterman Massacre, and the heroic Wagon Box Fight form one of the most dramatic and pivotal chapters in the history of the American Indian Wars. Located in present-day Wyoming, this frontier outpost stood as a symbol of U.S. expansion along the treacherous Bozeman Trail, igniting two bloody years of relentless conflict between 1866 and 1868. The powerful Sioux, alongside the Arapaho and Northern Cheyenne, fiercely opposed the invasion of their ancestral hunting grounds by prospectors bound for the Montana goldfields. This intense resistance culminated in a rare instance during the Indian Wars where the U.S. Army was ultimately compelled to abandon a region it had occupied, a testament to the tribes’ formidable triumph.
However, the fierce struggle for control of the Bozeman Trail also foreshadowed the greater, often disastrous, confrontations that would define the northern Plains as westward expansion dramatically accelerated after the American Civil War.
The Bozeman Trail: A Catalyst for Conflict
The discovery of gold in the mountains of western Montana in 1862, leading to significant strikes at Bannack and later Virginia City, triggered an immediate rush of prospectors. Recognizing the need for a more direct route, frontiersmen John M. Bozeman and John M. Jacobs blazed the Bozeman Trail in the spring of 1863.
This critical thoroughfare ran north from the established Oregon-California Trail, following the eastern flank of the Bighorn Mountains before turning westward. It effectively linked Forts Sedgwick in Colorado and Laramie in Wyoming, along with the Oregon-California Trail, directly to the Montana goldfields, bypassing the longer, more circuitous route through Salt Lake City. Gold seekers soon poured over this trail, unwittingly crossing the heart of prime hunting grounds that the hostile Sioux had recently seized from the Crow. Taking advantage of the absence of Regular troops during the Civil War, the Sioux unleashed their fury, perceiving this influx as an intolerable infringement on their lands and way of life.
Red Cloud’s War and the Establishment of Forts
In 1865, at Fort Sully, South Dakota, the U.S. government attempted to forge peace through treaties with various Sioux chiefs. These agreements promised annuities in exchange for the tribes’ withdrawal from emigrant routes and a pledge not to attack travelers. However, these efforts proved largely ineffective. The commissioners had negotiated with relatively unimportant leaders of bands situated along the Missouri River, failing to engage the influential chiefs who held true sway over the Powder and Bighorn country to the West. Prominent among these was Red Cloud, along with leaders like Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses, who defiantly vowed that no travelers would pass through their territory unmolested.
The following spring and summer of 1866, another U.S. commission met with these influential leaders at Fort Laramie, Wyoming. Mid-council, the arrival of Colonel Henry B. Carrington and 700 men of the 18th Infantry dramatically shifted the atmosphere. When Red Cloud and other chiefs learned that Carrington’s mission was the immediate construction of new forts along the Bozeman Trail, they abruptly abandoned the conference. Declaring war on all invaders of their country, Red Cloud initiated a campaign of intense resistance that would become known as Red Cloud’s War. That same summer and fall, Carrington proceeded to strengthen and garrison Fort Reno and oversaw the construction of two new pivotal outposts: Fort Phil Kearny and Fort C.F. Smith.
The combined might of Sioux, Arapaho, and Northern Cheyenne warriors successfully all but closed the Bozeman Trail. Between August 1 and December 31 alone, they inflicted severe casualties, killing 154 people in the vicinity of Fort Phil Kearny, wounding 20 more, and regularly attacking emigrants. Their raids also resulted in the destruction or capture of over 750 head of livestock. Even heavily guarded supply trains were forced to fight their way through, and the newly established forts endured continual harassment, with wagon trains hauling essential wood for fuel and construction constantly fending off assaults.
Fort Phil Kearny: A Bastion Under Siege
Sioux efforts were primarily concentrated on Carrington’s headquarters, Fort Phil Kearny, strategically situated between the Big and Little Piney Forks of the Powder River, on a plateau approximately 50 to 60 feet above the valley floor. As the largest of the three posts guarding the Bozeman Trail, it was considered one of the most robustly fortified western forts of its era. Construction commenced on July 13, 1866, and upon completion, the fort comprised 42 log and frame buildings enclosed within a formidable 600 by 800-foot stockade of heavy pine timber, standing 11 feet high, with blockhouses strategically placed at diagonal corners. A company of the 2nd Cavalry provided additional reinforcement to Carrington’s infantry.
Despite its strong defenses, the warnings issued by Red Cloud proved chillingly prophetic. While his declarations had not prevented the fort’s establishment, he quickly placed it under a virtual siege. Colonel Carrington, burdened with the responsibility of 21 women and children dependents who had accompanied him from Fort Kearny, Nebraska, adopted a cautious, defensive stance. This approach, however, drew contempt from a clique of his younger, more impetuous officers. These officers, who often disliked Carrington and resisted his attempts to impose discipline, were eager for direct confrontation. Prominent among them was Captain William J. Fetterman, who famously boasted that he and a mere 80 men could ride through the entire Sioux Nation unscathed.
The Fetterman Massacre: A Devastating Defeat
On December 21, 1866, a small party of warriors initiated a typical feint, attacking a wood train that was returning eastward from Piney Island to the fort. To relieve the embattled train, Carrington dispatched Captain Fetterman along with two other officers, 48 infantrymen, 28 cavalrymen, and two civilians, totaling 81 men. Despite explicit orders not to cross Lodge Trail Ridge, which would take him out of sight of the fort’s protection, Fetterman allowed a small group of warriors to expertly decoy his command northward, well beyond the ridge and directly into a meticulously planned ambush orchestrated by Red Cloud. Within a mere half-hour, at high noon, hundreds of Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors annihilated the entire force, leaving not a single man alive. Although relief columns from the fort subsequently scattered the Native American warriors, they arrived too late to rescue Fetterman and his men. This devastating engagement, known as the Fetterman Massacre, represented the worst defeat inflicted by Plains Indians on the U.S. Army up to that time, rivaling the scale of later debacles such as the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
In the grim aftermath of the Fetterman Massacre, Carrington urgently hired two courageous civilians, John “Portugee” Phillips and Daniel Dixon, to carry a message detailing the disaster and pleading for reinforcements to Omaha headquarters via the telegraph station at Horseshoe Bend, near Fort Laramie. Phillips, braving a severe snowstorm, continued his epic 236-mile ride alone to Fort Laramie, an extraordinary feat of endurance that remains honored in the annals of Wyoming history. Colonel Carrington was subsequently replaced in January 1867.
The Wagon Box Fight: A Stand Against Overwhelming Odds
By the summer of 1867, Native American forces had effectively closed the Bozeman Trail to all but heavily guarded military convoys. Yet, the persistent troops managed to secure two notable victories that summer. The Sioux and Cheyenne, having agreed to pool their resources, launched a concerted effort to eliminate Forts Phil Kearny and C.F. Smith in Montana. One faction attacked a haying party near Fort C.F. Smith on August 1 in what became known as the Hayfield Fight, suffering significant casualties. The very next day, a much larger force, estimated at 1,500 to 2,500 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Red Cloud himself, descended upon a detachment of 28 infantrymen guarding civilian woodcutters a few miles west of Fort Phil Kearny.
Most of the civilians managed to reach the safety of the post, but four were trapped alongside the soldiers within an oval barricade previously constructed as a defensive fortification. This ingenious defense was formed from the overturned boxes of 14 wood-hauling wagons, removed from their running gears. Crucially, the troops were armed with newly issued breech-loading Springfield rifles, a technological advantage that delivered a costly surprise to the attacking Sioux. Six times over four hours, the warriors charged the wagon boxes, but each time they were repelled with severe casualties. Reinforcements finally arrived from Fort Phil Kearny, equipped with a mountain howitzer, which quickly dispersed the opposition. The Army reported only about three dead and two wounded, while the Native American tribes claimed their figures were at least 60 dead and 120 wounded, reflecting the devastating impact of the advanced firepower.
The Treaty of Fort Laramie and the Abandonment of the Forts
While the Hayfield and Wagon Box Fights provided a measure of revenge for the Fetterman Massacre, they did not deter the overall hostilities. Raids and forays by Native American warriors steadily increased throughout the following year, ultimately forcing the U.S. government to negotiate terms. In the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), the government made significant concessions, bowing to Red Cloud’s unyielding demands. In return for certain minor Indian agreements, the U.S. consented to close the entire Bozeman Trail and agreed to abandon the three forts constructed to protect it.
As soon as this fateful agreement was executed in July and August, the Sioux, jubilantly celebrating what was unknowingly the zenith of their power on the northern Plains, triumphantly burned the abandoned forts, including Fort Phil Kearny, to the ground. This marked a temporary but significant victory for Native American sovereignty and resistance.
Fort Phil Kearny Today: Preserving a Historic Site
Today, the sites of Fort Phil Kearny, the Fetterman Massacre, and the Wagon Box Fight largely preserve their basically unaltered natural scenes, despite surrounding ranch operations, with only a few modern intrusions. Little remains of the original fort itself, which was located about one mile west of U.S. 87 and 2½ miles southeast of Story, Wyoming. The site is marked by one side of a stockade, which is all that survives from a Works Progress Administration (WPA) reconstruction efforts in the 1930s, along with a log cabin erected by the Boy Scouts. The State of Wyoming now owns three acres of the probable 25-acre fort site.
Approximately five miles to its north, along U.S. 87 and about 1½ miles northeast of Story, Wyoming, lies the spur ridge east of Peno Creek, marking a section of the Bozeman Trail along which Fetterman and his men retreated southward. At the southern end of the estimated 60 privately owned acres encompassing the Fetterman battlefield, where most of the bodies were discovered, stands a War Department monument on a tiny tract of Federal land on the east side of the highway. The main modern intrusion here is the highway itself. Another monument, situated on an upland prairie approximately 1½ miles southwest of Story, designates the location of the Wagon Box Fight, an acre of which is State-owned out of an estimated 40-acre total.
Visitors to the Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site today can explore an interpretive center featuring exhibits, informative videos, a bookstore, and embark on self-guided tours of the fort grounds and outlying historic sites. The fort tour guides visitors through the original layout, highlighting building locations, archaeological remains, and interpretive signs that pinpoint surrounding historic landmarks. A Civilian Conservation Corps cabin has been meticulously refurbished to depict the quarters of an Officer’s wife and a Non-Commissioned Officer’s Quarters, offering a glimpse into daily life. At both battlefield sites, interpretive trails lead visitors through the events of the battles, providing valuable perspectives from both the Native American and U.S. Army sides of the conflict.
Conclusion: A Legacy of Conflict and Resilience
The saga of Fort Phil Kearny stands as a powerful testament to the clash of cultures and wills that defined the American frontier. From the initial gold rush that spurred the creation of the Bozeman Trail to Red Cloud’s determined resistance and the devastating engagements of the Fetterman Massacre and the Wagon Box Fight, the region witnessed some of the most intense fighting of the Indian Wars. The eventual abandonment of Fort Phil Kearny and its sister posts marked a temporary, yet profound, victory for the Native American tribes in their struggle to defend their lands. Today, the preserved sites offer an invaluable opportunity to reflect on this complex and often bloody period, honoring the resilience of all who fought and lived along the contested Bozeman Trail.
