Legends of the Old West - RED CLOUD'S WAR Ep. 3 | "Warning Signs"

Episode Date: February 17, 2019

In the summer of 1866, an untested colonel leads a battalion of infantry onto the High Plains. His mission is to open the Bozeman Trail and build a series of forts in the Powder River Country. Red Cloud issues a declaration of war to protect his cherished hunting grounds and begins a campaign of harassment that takes a heavy toll on on the soldiers. Join Black Barrel+ for early access and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by Lego Fortnite. Lego Fortnite is the ultimate survival crafting game found within Fortnite. It's not just Fortnite Battle Royale with minifigures. It's an entirely new experience that combines the best of Lego play and

Fortnite created to give players of all ages, including kids and families, a safe digital space to play in. Download Fortnite on consoles, PC, cloud services, or Android and play Lego Fortnite for free. Rated ESRB E10 plus. In the fall of 1865, Red Cloud and Crazy Horse were given great honors.

Red Cloud was 44 years old, and he had already held chieftain status for 10 years. He wasn't considered chief of the Oglala, but he was part of an elite group who could be chief someday. Now, as General Connor and Colonel Cole wandered around the high plains looking for him, Red Cloud was elected to be one of seven head men who would organize the coming war against the whites. These men were called Big Bellies, and they would draw up battle plans and oversee the fighting. Their field commanders would actually lead the war parties, and Crazy Horse had just been given that honor. A year earlier, he had been granted entry into the Stronghearts, one of the Lakota warrior societies similar to the famous Cheyenne dog soldiers.

Now, Crazy Horse was selected to be one of four shirt wearers. While this was a literal name for the group, it's not the garment we think of today. Each man was given a shirt made from bighorn fleece. Locks of hair were woven into the shirt that represented all the brave deeds of the man. Every coup counted, every scalp taken, every other worthy accomplishment of his life. Crazy Horse's shirt had almost 250 locks of hair on it, and he was just 25 years old. The thin, pale-skinned warrior with the curly hair was about to earn many more locks for his shirt. He would become Red Cloud's most trusted lieutenant.

His days of being a young man who rarely spoke around council fires were coming to an end. Crazy Horse was about to be thrust into the spotlight as Red Cloud laid out his strategy for the coming war. His plans would continuously surprise the U.S. Army, not the least of which was to forego the Lakota tradition of a fighting season. Beginning in the summer of 1866, Red Cloud would fight all year round. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch. And organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify.

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And if it's not fresh, it's free. Yes, you heard that right. From the crispest lettuce to the juiciest apples, Loblaws is committed to fresh, so you get the best fruits and veggies. Look for new value programs when you shop at Loblaws, in-store and online. Conditions may apply. See in-store for details. From Black Barrel Media, this is Season 4 of the Legends of the Old West podcast. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this is the third episode of a five-part series on Red Cloud's War.

Previously, Red Cloud's forces fired the opening salvo of a scattered war that saw sporadic fighting. Now, an inexperienced Army colonel leads his understaffed infantry into the heart of Red Cloud's territory to build forts and open the Bozeman Trail. This week, the fighting is no longer sporadic. From the moment the army arrives, Red Cloud's forces harass the Bluecoats day and night, rain or shine. The attacks continue for six straight months and bring both sides to the brink of the first major battle on the High Plains. and bring both sides to the brink of the first major battle on the high plains.

And now, here's Episode 3, Warning Signs. Colonel Henry Carrington wanted a chance to prove himself, and he got it. Of course, it didn't end the way he wanted, but it began that way. Carrington was a physically frail man. He was slight and gaunt, and often sick, and not at all suited for one side of the military. But he was perfectly suited for the other. He would never be a battlefield hero, but he was a fantastic administrator behind the scenes. He was the son of an abolitionist attorney and had been educated at Yale before the Civil War broke out

in 1861. His family friend was Salmon P. Chase, the former governor of Ohio, who was now Secretary of Treasury for President Abraham Lincoln. Chase gave his old friend Carrington a commission as a regimental commander in Ohio. He was in charge of the 18th Infantry. Five days after Carrington arrived at his new post of Camp Thomas in Columbus, Ohio, his lieutenant arrived, William Judd Fetterman. Fetterman had desperately wanted to be in the military. His father had been an officer, and his uncle had been an officer trained at West Point. Fetterman wanted to follow in their footsteps. He applied for West Point at 18 years old in 1853, but he was rejected for unknown reasons. The young man was heartbroken. But eight years later, war broke out, and he was able to secure a commission as a lieutenant.

He reported for duty under the command of Colonel Henry Carrington. The two men were a good pair in those early days. Carrington had a gift for organization and recruitment. Fetterman was a born fighter. Together, they spent five months training the 18th Infantry for battle. Fetterman was promoted to captain and given command of Company A of the regiment. In November 1861, he, his company, and the rest of the 18th were sent into battle. Carrington stayed behind to continue recruiting and training young soldiers. Fetterman went on to amass an impressive war record, fighting at Corinth and Stones River, and then for the duration of William Tecumseh Sherman's Georgia Campaign in 1864. Carrington gained a reputation as a solid administrator, but never saw any real action.

When the war finally ended in the spring and summer of 1865, both men decided to make careers out of the army. But the army was changing rapidly. It was drawing down from one million men to a standing force of just 60,000. If all 60,000 had been assigned to patrol the West, they still wouldn't have been able to do it up to the government's expectations. The territory was just too vast, and those soldiers were needed in the South and East to help rebuild the nation during the Reconstruction Era. So it was that Colonel Henry Carrington set out for the West at the head of the 2nd Battalion of the 18th Infantry Regiment

with just 220 men, 700 short of what he should have had. Captain Fetterman, despite his war record, was assigned to recruiting duties in Ohio after the war. He was right back where he started four years earlier, and was essentially doing Carrington's old job while the colonel rode west in search of glory. Carrington had foreseen that the Army's next major theater of action would be the West, against the tribes of the Plains. would be the West against the tribes of the Plains. He lobbied hard for an appointment, and in the fall of 1865, he, his wife Margaret, and their young sons Jimmy and Harry began the trek west with the 18th. While they took railroads and riverboats toward Kansas,

General Connor was finally leading his miserable troops back to Fort Laramie after his failed campaign against Red Cloud that summer. Not long after his men staggered back into the fort, Carrington's troops arrived at Fort Leavenworth. Leavenworth is just north of Kansas City on the Kansas-Missouri border, and in November 1865, it was plagued with the early stages of one of the worst winters on record. Carrington and his men pressed westward despite the sub-zero temperatures and feet of snow that were dumped on the plains, and they finally made it to Fort Kearney, 300 miles away in Nebraska. While they settled down for the winter, the U.S. government was working on a new treaty with the Lakota in the aftermath of Conor's campaign. The U.S. had neither the money nor the soldiers to fight a full-scale war in the West, so it wanted peace and compromise with the northern tribes, though it would obviously use the threat of war as leverage at the bargaining table.

More leverage came as a direct result of white migration to the West. Hunters were killing buffalo at an astounding rate, and the government used that knowledge in its negotiations. Before the white population began to move west, there were an estimated 30 million buffalo on the plains. In the space of just 40 years, hunters reduced that number to less than 1,000. Drastic measures had to be taken in later years to bring the North American bison back from the edge of extinction. No one suffered from this annihilation more than the northern tribes,

which made some of them desperate to sign a deal. The government offered annual payments for 20 years at higher rates than had been promised in the Horse Creek Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1851. In addition, the U.S. would provide equipment and seed to start farms. The tribes had to permanently move away from the trails that led to the west, the Oregon and the Bozeman, and they had to stop attacking whites who tore up their old land with machines. In their desperation, many bands of the Lakota signed the treaty. Newspapers in the east proclaimed it a momentous occasion. Peace with the Sioux, shouted the headlines. proclaimed it a momentous occasion. Peace with the Sioux, shouted the headlines.

But war chiefs like Red Cloud hadn't signed. U.S. Indian agents sent runners to Red Cloud's camps and the camps of the other holdouts. They announced that there would be treaty talks at Fort Laramie in the spring of 1866. The government was willing to pay an even better price at these talks, and all it wanted this time was mere passage through the land. Passage on the Bozeman Trail in the Powder River Country. As the snow melted around Fort Kearney in western Nebraska, Carrington prepared his troops to resume their journey.

They still had a long way to go. He was lucky to receive hundreds of men to bolster his numbers, but he was dismayed to see that most of them carried single-shot Springfield muskets left over from the war, and many were in such bad condition they didn't even fire. But in an indirect way, Carrington helped the weaponry problem. He insisted on bringing a regimental band with him to the West, and somehow the band members carried Spencer repeating rifles. In late May, Carrington was ready to go. He had 700 soldiers, 11 officers, hundreds of civilian teamsters to drive 200 wagons of supplies, and 700 cattle. on the frontier, was about to begin the most ambitious project west of the Mississippi River.

He had to open a trail that had been closed for two years and build a series of forts to protect it. And he had to do all this in the heart of the Powder River Country, the land that Red Cloud and Crazy Horse had vowed to defend with their lives. In three weeks, Carrington would meet them face to face for the first time, and it would not go as planned. On a morning in mid-June 1866, Colonel Carrington strode to the middle of the parade ground at Fort Laramie to deliver a speech that would open treaty talks. Assembled before him were the most important chiefs and warriors on the high plains. Carrington planned a talk of peace and harmony, and he was confident in his speech. But before the translator could even finish saying his name,

the warriors began to murmur and fidget. The translator advised Carrington, maybe it would be better to let them speak first. One by one, the headmen rose and listed grievances. Their way of life was being destroyed. The buffalo had been driven from the prairie, and the prairie itself was under attack. It was being pulverized by thousands of livestock and wagons that moved west. The tribes were being forced onto smaller and smaller pieces of land where they suffered from starvation. And now here was Carrington, who wanted more.

Redcloud was the last to speak. His voice was loud and full on the parade ground. The Great Father sends presents and wants a new road, he said, but the White Chief already goes to steal the road before the Indian says yes or no. I will talk with you no more. I will go now, and I will fight you. As long as I live, I will fight you for the last hunting grounds. A few chiefs did actually sign the treaty, but Red Cloud and many others refused.

In fact, Red Cloud never intended to sign it. The whole trip had been a scouting mission. He wanted to see the enemy up close. He wanted to gauge the troops and the horses and the weapons. He saw what he wanted to see, and that night, he started for home. The next day, Carrington and his troops began their trip to the final army outpost on the frontier. Beyond that, it was nothing but the Lakota, the Cheyenne, and the Arapaho.

the Lakota, the Cheyenne, and the Arapaho. It took 11 days to cross 150 miles to Fort Reno, and Carrington's column was shadowed by Lakota warriors the whole way. As the troops moved northwest, they met nervous people at small trading posts and ferry crossings. There were little warning signs that something was different now. At a ferry crossing, a white man told Carrington that all his animals had been recently stolen by Red Cloud's warriors. The man was married to a woman from Red Cloud's band, so they had always been safe from things like that. But not now. And now, they were worried.

Carrington's men reached Fort Reno at the end of June without any major incidents, unless you counted Fort Reno itself. The fort barely qualified as a structure, let alone a military installation. In fact, its original name was Camp Connor, the small stockade built by General Connor during his campaign against Red Cloud. Now it was garrisoned by a few volunteer militia who were ragged and starving. The brutal winter had nearly killed them with dysentery, pneumonia, and scurvy. They were only too happy to be relieved by Carrington, and they disappeared into the prairie. Over the next two weeks, Carrington's men rebuilt and fortified

the dilapidated buildings and renamed them Reno Station. In that time, they received another ominous warning. There was a crude store near the station, and the owner kept a small herd of horses grazing nearby. He said he was on good terms with the Lakota and he didn't think the animals were in danger. They were immediately stolen. Carrington sent 90 men to chase the Lakota horse thieves. The soldiers returned hours later, after dark, with none of the horses. They had only seen one, a half-lame pony with a sack tied to the saddle. The sack contained the presents the Americans had given to the Lakota at the treaty talks. On July 16, 1866, the battalion began the final leg of its trip to its new home.

Four days later, it arrived on a plateau between two creeks that Carrington decided would be perfect for his first outpost, Fort Phil Kearney. The foothills of the Bighorn Mountains were to the west, and clear streams ran out of them that provided water to lush grasses and forests of pine trees. But Jim Bridger was concerned. The army had brought the most famous mountain man in the west out of retirement to be the primary scout for this expedition, and he saw a problem with the location. The plateau was nice, but it was flanked by higher hills that would allow the Lakota to spy on the fort without fear. Bridger told Carrington to keep moving, and after Carrington scouted the area, he almost agreed with Bridger, but then he stuck with his original plan, and we'll never know if history might have turned out differently.

Carrington's troops set up camp on the plateau in what amounted to a tent city, and almost immediately, seven soldiers deserted for the goldfields in Montana. This would be a constant problem for Carrington, since Red Cloud wasted no time in making his presence felt. As the 18th Infantry prepared to begin construction of its fort, Carrington received one more ominous sign, this one from an unexpected visitor. And then the harassment started. Carrington had sent a patrol to bring back the seven men

who had deserted for the goldfields, but the patrol couldn't find them. It did bring back a message from a local Cheyenne elder. He wanted to talk. The elder came to the future site of Fort Phil Kearney and met with Carrington. The man said he and his followers did not want to fight, but Red Cloud had hundreds or maybe even thousands of warriors on his side. but Red Cloud had hundreds or maybe even thousands of warriors on his side. The elder said Red Cloud viewed the string of forts as a long snake with the head here at Fort Phil Kearney and the tail down at Fort Laramie. Red Cloud was going to attack the body of the snake and sever it from the head and tail,

and once the head and tail were isolated, he would crush them too. The man said Red Cloud knew exactly how many soldiers Carrington had. Red Cloud knew the army's habits and routines. He knew their supplies and horses. He knew the weapons they carried. He knew virtually everything about them. Carrington had planned to send a smaller force northwest to scout the site of the second fort he had to build, but he quickly cancelled those plans.

He had left sixty men back at Reno Station to man the outpost. Many more were still on the trail repairing wagons that had broken down. He couldn't afford to weaken his own position on the plateau by sending men on a long-range scout, and he couldn't run the risk of the scouting party being destroyed by Red Cloud's overwhelming numbers. It was a wise decision, because Red Cloud's attacks began the next day. The troops that had been forced to stop halfway between Reno Station and Fort Filcarney to repair wagons finally arrived at the plateau, but instead of camping

on the plateau within safety of the tent city, they camped near a water source hundreds of yards away. During the night, Red Cloud's warriors slithered down a hillside on their stomachs and stole 175 horses and mules. At 5 a.m., a soldier standing guard shouted the alarm, but the Lakota were already racing away with the animals. The captain and several men chased them, but it was an unorganized pursuit. The warriors saw the mistake and began to circle back around behind the soldiers. Reinforcements galloped out of the tent city, and the soldiers engaged in a running fight with the warriors that stretched for 15 miles. But the soldiers never caught up to the horses. They suffered two dead and three seriously wounded, and as they trudged

back to the plateau, they discovered more destruction. Some of the warriors who had circled around behind the soldiers had killed a French trader and his partner who had operated in the area for years. The two men had been scouted, and their arms and legs had been hacked off, and other, more grotesque mutilations had occurred as well. Farther along, the soldiers found four teamsters who had driven the traders' wagons. The soldiers found four teamsters who had driven the traders' wagons. They had been chopped up like the others. The soldiers had all heard stories of the extreme violence of the western tribes,

but this was the first time they had seen it for themselves. It was only a small taste of what was to come. Over the next week, the troops began to build the fort. Woodcutting crews traveled a couple miles west to the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains and set up a camp that became known as Piney Island. They built a rough lumber mill that churned out boards by the wagon load. The hacking and sawing and destruction of the forest enraged Red Cloud, and Woodcutter would eventually become the most dangerous job on the high plains. But Red Cloud began by attacking travelers in the area. A small caravan was on its way from Reno Station. It featured 16 replacement

soldiers, some civilians, a few wagons, and a photographer named Ridgeway Glover. As the group crossed the open country, it spotted a small buffalo herd. Two lieutenants rode out to try to turn the herd toward the caravan so they could catch it in a crossfire and get fresh meat. The two young officers disappeared over a hill, and then the caravan heard the first war cries. It was the most terrifying sound a white traveler could hear on the plains. Within seconds, the war party was on them. But the soldiers already had their weapons ready to fire at the Buffalo, so they immediately opened up on the warriors. The Braves fell back, and the Teamsters circled

the wagons at the top of a riverbank. A moment later, the horses of the two lieutenants galloped back toward the caravan. One was riderless. The other carried its lieutenant, slumped over the saddle with an arrow in his back. The troops knew they were in a bad spot. The warriors held the high ground and fired arrows into the corral. The troops knew they were in a bad spot. The warriors held the high ground and fired arrows into the corral. The troops decided to make a run for a high knoll in the distance. The soldiers rode on the flanks and the teamsters whipped the mules. The whole group charged up the hill and beat the warriors to the summit. They dug in on the hilltop, desperately waiting for darkness, but that was still eight hours away. Warriors made daring rides around the knoll. The caravan noted one

warrior in particular, who had uniquely pale skin and wavy hair. The war party made full charges twice, but was repelled both times by the soldiers' repeating rifles. As the day wore on, the people in the caravan baked under the summer sun. Eventually, two men had to make a mad dash to a creek nearby to get water. But even with that, the party was in dire straits. The warriors fired volleys of arrows and made two more charges. A sergeant was killed and more men were wounded. Of the 16 soldiers, half were now out of action. As evening closed in on the besieged group, they made a pact. If they were overrun and there was

no hope of survival, they would kill each other rather than be captured alive to experience the excruciating tortures they knew were common on the plains. It was one of the first recorded instances of a suicide pact among US Army soldiers in the West. As the sky grew darker, they feared they might have to do it. They spotted a cloud of dust in the distance and assumed it was from another war party. They thought they were about to be overrun. But then the hills grew quiet. As anxiety in the small group mounted, they saw the silhouette of a lone figure moving at the

base of the knoll. The figure shouted that his name was Jim Bridger, and he was a friend. The figure shouted that his name was Jim Bridger, and he was a friend. Bridger explained that the Dust was a rescue party from Fortville, Kearney. He apologized for being late, but Red Cloud had launched four simultaneous attacks on wagon trains across the plains, and had used different tactics in each attack. This was another strategy that was unheard of in the West. The soldiers were learning that uncertainty was the scariest part of life on the plains. They had no idea when Red Cloud would strike, or where, or how he would do it.

Red Cloud's warriors attacked everything within 200 miles of the fort at nearly a non-stop pace. One of Colonel Carrington's captains, a Dutch immigrant named Tenador Ten Eyck, began to record the events in his journal. The soldiers arrived at the site of Fort Phil Kearney on July 20th. The captain's chronicle begins nine days later. Here is a paraphrase of the highlights. July 29th, citizen wagon train attacked. Eight killed, two injured. August 6th, two killed on the trail. Later that night, 15 more killed. August 7th, first concerted attack on the woodcutters on the road from Piney Island to the fort. August 12th, cattle and horses stolen.

August 13th, second attack on Piney Island. August 14th, two civilians killed. August 17th, horses and mules stolen. September 8th, in the pouring rain, more horses and mules stolen. September 10th, more mules stolen. When a patrol left the fort to recover the mules, another raiding party stole 33 more horses and 78 mules. September 12th, hay mowing detail attacked. Three killed, six wounded. September 13th, a raiding party stampeded a small herd of buffalo into the fort's cattle herd. The fort lost more than 200 head of cattle. September 14th, two soldiers killed. Wolves made off with their bodies. September 22nd, mutilated bodies of three civilians found 11 miles from the fort.

That's just two months of his journal. The attacks continued all fall. The only gap is from mid-August to early September, when the Lakota were probably conducting their fall buffalo hunt. Other than that, attacks happened almost on a daily basis. The psychological toll inflicted on the troops was almost as bad as the physical toll. It wasn't safe to leave the fort to do anything, to bale hay to feed the animals, to check on the animals, to travel west to the gold fields or east to the other forts, and most importantly for the events to come, to travel to and from the lumber mill on Piney Island. As the troops at Fort Phil

Kearney increasingly felt besieged, the government increasingly pressured them to do the one thing they didn't want to do, leave the fort. The government pushed Carrington to keep building forts on the trail before he had even finished his own. Carrington sent a letter with a long list of problems. His soldiers were now basically a construction crew with uniforms. They did a lot more building than fighting. When they did fight, they were using outdated weapons and limited ammunition. The horses were weak from a lack of proper food, and most of his men were infantry, not cavalry. They were barely competent riders, and they were being asked to hold their own against the best

horsemen on the plains. How was he supposed to guard Reno Station and Fort Phil Kearney and build a third fort and patrol 500 miles of the Bozeman Trail with these resources? The War Department said it was sending a cavalry unit to reinforce him, but in the meantime, he must establish another fort. Grudgingly, Carrington sent two companies northwest with mountain man Jim Bridger as a guide. They would begin work on Fort C.F. Smith, 90 miles away. While Carrington watched more of his soldiers leave, he watched groups of civilians arrive. The last few wagon trains were rushing across the prairie before the onset of winter. A man named James Wheatley arrived with his wife and two children. They

asked to spend the winter at the fort before continuing west in the spring. Carrington obliged and was quickly happy to have the family at the fort. James and his wife built a small restaurant right outside the front gate. It immediately became the hottest spot in town. Mrs. Wheatley was a great cook, and James was a great shot with a rifle. Then 40 rugged miners from Montana arrived. They said the gold mines were played out, and they were headed back east. They built a tent city across Big Piney Creek from the fort, and Carrington was thrilled to have them. Here were 40 men with horses and guns who weren't afraid of a fight. They proved their mettle four days later. A war party attacked the tent city, and the miners repelled them with their repeating rifles. Carrington was overjoyed. He ordered the

regimental band to play a battle hymn for the miners. A week later, a war party attacked a wagon train. A rescue party of soldiers and miners raced out to the site of the attack. They fought off the war party and recovered livestock that was about to be stolen, with no loss of life. But despite these small victories, Jim Bridger returned to Fort Filcarne with disturbing news. At Fort C.F. Smith, the Crows had told him Red Cloud was camped just 70 miles away with 500 to 1,000 warriors.

The Northern Cheyenne were also there. It was the largest combined force that Bridger had ever heard of He was genuinely nervous And if Bridger was nervous, that was scary In mid-September, one of the key players in the battle to come arrived at the fort, and he and his young wife received a rude awakening about life on the frontier. At dawn on Monday, September 17th, Red Cloud and his warriors stampeded the fort's cattle herd. Herd was a label that really didn't apply anymore.

After weeks of travel and months of raids They were down to just 50 head And Red Cloud had just made off with those 50 But thanks to the daily attacks Carrington kept horses saddled and ready to ride at all times His troops leapt onto their mounts and charged after the thieves Carrington directed his howitzers to fire on the warriors. The cannons scattered the warriors, and the troops recovered the cattle.

Just minutes later, the soldiers met a small wagon train on the road from Fort Laramie. It transported badly needed ammunition, as well as two surgeons and 2nd Lieutenant Washington Grummond and his young wife. Grummond was a fairly despicable character. He was an abusive alcoholic who had abandoned his first wife and two kids in Detroit when he ran off to join the Army. During the Civil War, he had amassed an impressive record, impressive for the sheer number of negative reviews. impressive record, impressive for the sheer number of negative reviews. Then he met and married a 19-year-old Southern belle named Frances, who knew nothing of his first family. Grummond applied for a post on the frontier, possibly to put distance between himself and his war record and his other family.

As the troops escorted Grummond and his wife, who was now five months pregnant, to the fort, they were forced to stop outside the front gate. An ambulance raced into the fort, and the Grummonds were introduced to the realities of warfare on the high plains. Ridgeway Glover, the photographer who had been in the caravan that had been surrounded on the knoll a month earlier, had thought himself immune from attack. He had no horse and carried no gun. He pulled a cart behind him everywhere he went. It was a mobile darkroom. He would wander away for days at a time, despite the warning of the soldiers at Fort Phil Kearney. The ambulance that rushed into the fort while the Grummans waited carried the decapitated body of Ridgway Glover. As autumn waned and winter threatened on the horizon, Nelson's story made history by becoming the first man to drive a herd of cattle from Texas to Montana. of cattle from Texas to Montana. He and his herd stopped at Fort Phil Kearney in mid-October, and Carrington told him he could not continue because he did not have the required 40 men to guard the herd. Story argued that his 25 men with Henry rifles could handle the job, and he moved

on against Carrington's orders. Story was determined to be the first man to supply beef to the gold miners in Montana and he was certain he could make a fortune doing it. And he did. His adventure helped inspire the novel Lonesome Dove 100 years later. Fort Phil Kearney received a shipment of food and medical supplies, but Carrington quickly realized it would not be enough to get them through the winter. While Carrington worried over his situation for the winter, Red Cloud pitched a new plan to his followers. He told his people they should stay at their camps on the Tong River instead of moving east to their traditional winter camps at the base of the Black Hills. Red Cloud assembled a war council

and spoke of yet another strategy that had never been tried on this scale on the plains. Winter warfare. When the snows fell and long-range travel was nearly impossible, and communication with the outside world was difficult at best, they would attack Fort C.F. Smith and Fort Phil Kearney. They would kill everyone and burn the forts to the ground. Crazy Horse and his strong hearts would play major roles. Red Cloud sent messengers to Sitting Bull's camp to the northeast, but the Hunkpapa chief still remained aloof.

He would not join this war. On the final day of October 1866, Colonel Carrington declared a holiday at Fort Phil Kearney. His men had been working and suffering non-stop since July. It was time for a brief reprieve. The men received new uniforms. The band played martial music. Songs were sung. Poems were read. Cannons were fired in celebration. The proudest moment was the raising of the flagpole near the parade ground. It stood 124 feet tall and supported an American flag that was 36 feet wide and 24 feet high. Cheers erupted from all those who were gathered at the fort,

and they were followed by an even louder cheer from the soldiers when Carrington told them to take the afternoon off. It was their first break since arriving on the plains, and it lasted about two hours. Lookouts spotted warriors patrolling the hills in the distance. Lookouts spotted warriors patrolling the hills in the distance Red Cloud and Crazy Horse were drawn by the sounds of the cannon Crazy Horse and the Stronghearts had been prowling the hills When they noticed strange behavior coming from the fort They sent messengers back to the camp And Red Cloud joined them to see the commotion for himself

That night, Crazy Horse and the Stronghearts crept close to the miners' tent city and fired a volley of arrows into the men as they sat around their fires. Then the warriors disappeared into the darkness and left the men to fire in all directions as they spun in circles looking for their enemy. The warriors lit bonfires on the hills and danced in celebration and intimidation. The soldiers could cheer if they wanted to, but the Lakota and the Cheyenne were still here. The bonfires made perfect targets. Carrington ordered the cannons to fire, and the explosions killed several warriors. Red Cloud's men were furious.

They wanted to strike now. They were united. They were strong. They didn't want to wait. But Red Cloud said be patient. His scouts had told him more soldiers were on the way. When they arrived, the real attacks would begin. Captain William Judd Fetterman rode into Fort Phil Kearney with his cavalry unit in November 1866. He was reunited with his former commander from Ohio, but unlike Carrington, Fetterman was determined to play offense. He was frustrated with Carrington's defensive posture. He wanted to take the fight to the enemy, though he knew almost nothing about him. Within a month, he would learn hard lessons that would dampen his fighting spirit. In six weeks, he would be in a fight for his life in the largest battle on the high plains up to that time.

The beginning of the end is next time on the Legends of the Old West podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please give it a rating and a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening. You can check out our website at blackbarrelmedia.com and follow us on social media. Our Facebook page is Legends of the Old West Podcast and our handles on Twitter and Instagram are at Old West Podcast. Thanks for listening.

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