BATTLE // December 21, 1866

Battle of the Hundred-in-the-Hands

Name: Battle of the Hundred-in-the-Hands
Start: 1866-12-21
End: 1866-12-21
Location: Battle of the Hundred-in-the-Hands

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Source · Wikipedia

Significance

The Fetterman Fight was the worst military disaster suffered by the U.S. Army on the Great Plains up to that point, with all 81 soldiers under Captain William Fetterman killed by a confederation of Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors. The engagement took place in the context of Red Cloud's War, a sustained effort by the Lakota and allied nations to contest U.S. military presence along the Bozeman Trail and force the abandonment of posts such as Fort Phil Kearny. The destruction of Fetterman's entire detachment demonstrated that the Army could not reliably protect the trail or project force from its Wyoming garrisons, and it intensified pressure on the United States to negotiate. The battle stands as a marker of Lakota operational effectiveness during Red Cloud's War and contributed to the conditions that led to the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.

Tactics

A decoy party of ten warriors, including Crazy Horse, lured a detachment of U.S. soldiers out from Fort Phil Kearny and into an ambush. The main force of approximately 1,000 warriors then closed on the detachment, killing all 81 men under Fetterman's command.