The Battle of Fetterman was among the most crushing defeats suffered by the United States military in the 19th century West. On December 21, 1866, during the Red Cloud War (1866–1868), a well-organized force of 1,500 to 2,000 Oglala Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors wiped out a detachment of seventy-nine infantry and of cavalry, including Captain William. Judd Fetterman and two civilian contractors. With no survivors on the American side, the only eyewitness accounts of the battle came from Lakota and Cheyenne participants.
Traditional histories blamed Fetterman's defeat and death in 1866 on his incompetent leadership – and thus implied that the Indian alliance only succeeded because of Fetterman's personal failures. White Bull suggests that Fetterman's actions were only considered rash or reprehensible in retrospect. Nor did his men flee the field in panic. On the contrary, they fought courageously until the end. The Indians, for their part, used their knowledge of the terrain to carefully plan and execute an ambush, thus ensuring victory.
Chapters:
12:00 a.m. The federal government heads west
7:20 p.m. Redcloud and the Sioux
2:33 p.m. Powder River Country
7:04 p.m. Fort Phil Kearny under siege
26:13 The Fetterman Massacre
35:23 /"The Portuguese stroll/"
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