FORT PHIL KEARNY: THE FORT is the first video in my three-part series on Fort Phil Kearny near Banner, Wyoming.
Video #1: The Fort
https://youtu.be/nsjkE_hKI-s
Video #2: The Fetterman Fight – forthcoming
Video #3: The Wagon Box Fight – forthcoming
Fort Phil Kearny was the infamous frontier fort from which Capt. William J. Fetterman, on December 21, 1866, led a force of 80 infantry and cavalry into a well-planned and well-executed trap set by 2,000 Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors. Fetterman and his command were annihilated in a 30-minute fight, the worst defeat for the U.S. Army in the West second only to Custer’s defeat in the Battle of the Little Bighorn ten years later.
The fort was established in July 1866 at the fork of the Piney and Little Piney Creeks in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains by Col. Henry B. Carrington of the 18th U.S. Infantry. Its mission was to protect travelers on the Bozeman Trail, the most efficient route to the Montana gold fields. But that trail cut right through the last great Indian hunting grounds on the Northern Plains. Indian resistance, especially under the leadership of Chief Red Cloud, was instant, continuous, violent, and successful. The treaty of 1868 closed the Bozeman Trail and Fort Phil Kearny. In August 1868 the fort was abandoned by the Army and burned by the Cheyenne.
The fort enclosed 17 acres, had a log wall 8 feet high, and tapered from 600 feet on the north to 240 feet on the south. The stockade and buildings used 4,000 logs, 606,00 feet of lumber, and 130,000 bricks in their construction.
The state historic site contains no original buildings. But the site is carefully laid out and labeled. The main attraction of the site is the setting and the topography of the immediate area. The fort itself was never attacked; the regular bloody action took place out of sight on the other side of the surrounding hills and ridges. The relationship of the fort to those hills and ridges is important to understanding the events that took place during the fort’s short, two-year history.
The Interpretive Center has a small but interesting museum and a well-stocked gift shop. An encased diorama of the fort is fascinating.
My thanks to Sharie Shada, site superintendent, for useful information.
I think an especially good book on the history of Fort Phil Kearny is Dee Brown’s “Fort Phil Kearny: An American Saga”, University of Nebraska Press, 1962. I bought a copy in the gift shop.
Enjoy my video of FORT PHIL KEARNY: THE FORT! Be sure to watch the other forthcoming videos in the series. Pause the video as needed to read information signs.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAAr6nSw7_w&list=PLcsOYyRb0m5HVHvih9cToyfgVKwgAjDte&pp=iAQB
Related to this video is my Western novel “B Troop”, which follows the experiences of a cavalry corporal and his “set of four” in an early Dakota winter in 1879. See a synopsis below. See https://jimjanke.com/b-troop/ to read the first chapter and for links to order either the e-book edition or the trade paperback edition.
And visit my website for details on all my Western and Civil War novels, as well as links to information on the Old West, the Civil War Afloat, fiction writing, etc. Look for the “B Troop” icon at the end of the video. https://jimjanke.com
Jim
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B TROOP:
November, 1879. Corporal John Taylor, one of Custer’s avengers,” is bored and lonely at Fort Grummond, a small, isolated outpost associated with a Lakota Sioux Reservation.
Orville Scheid, Indian agent, insists the Indian children learn English. Chief Stone Bear refuses. Scheid blunders and uses a single, ill-chosen word that terrifies the reservation’s people. The Sioux kill some troopers and agency employees, kidnap Scheid’s family, and launch a desperate attempt to flee to Canada. Major Nelson Prescott conducts an equally desperate mission to stop them.
Taylor’s life and that of B Troop explodes in violence and tragedy. Pursuit by the cavalry is relentless, but the resistance of the Sioux is persistent and resourceful. All in the teeth of a brutal Dakota winter that grinds down both pursuers and pursued.
A climactic confrontation erupts at the Missouri River, shy of the Canadian border. Taylor rescues Jeannie Scheid, Orville Scheid’s daughter, and he learns a lot more about the young woman, the Sioux, the Army, and himself.
Ride along with Taylor and his set of four—Sean O’Dea, Linus Skinner, Hans Klausmeyer, and himself—and B Troop during this epic struggle.
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