Connecticut western news., 1876-08-11
INDIAN MASSACRES.
The Massacre mt Fort Phil koarney Te
 Years Ago.

Years Ago.
 Old Fort Phil Kearney, in the Platte valley, is invested with tragic interest that overshadowed everything of late years but Custer's death in the West.
 It is but ten years since the massacre near this old fort occurred, wherein be-
 tween eighty and ninety persons, among
 whom were the gallant Fetterman and
 Brown and Lieut.. Grummond, fell fight
 ing the Sioux. Old Fort Kearney was
 established year before the massacre | by Col. H. B. Darlington, then in com
 mand of one of the old infantry regi-
 ments before the army reduction. He started from Leavenworth, and Reno 7 and Kearney were built as defenders of
 the old Boseman trail. Kearney was
 located about sixty miles beyond Reno 1 and about ninety miles to the south and
 east of old Fort o. F. Smith. The In
 dians that year-1866-were very trou
 blesome. The Sioux, then under the
 leadership of Red Cloud, who has since
 become and remained friendly, had re-
 peatedly menaced the post. With all
 their wiles and strategy the Indians had
 that season been unable to induce
 engagement. Numerous skirmishes had | Ubhh0u p1dCCS uuO ASNC1 uPPCu4
 in any great numbers. On the day of
 wood train. The assailing force was not
 apparently larger than thirty or forty
 warriors. These were driven off by the
 troops, and Captain Fetterman, after routing them, followed the fleeing Sioux
 over the bluffs and out of sight of the ) post. This was what the Indians ex- pected and desired. They seemed to retreat before Fetterman, and that off cer, suspecting nothing of the trap that
 had been set for him. and his troops, : pressed them to point where the say, , ages could hold him.
 Once in the neighborhood of Indian : hill they rushed in between him and the } fort. He saw the plan for the first time His men, who numbered nearly ninety
 then, having been re- enforced by Lieu : tenant Grummond with twenty-eigh : cavalrymen, found their chances of es . cape few. Fetterman tried to force passage through the Indians, who mum :, bered about 5000, back over the bluff $ 7 and to the post, but found it impossible f The doomed men found their ammuni Il tion giving out. All hope was gone o They gathered around their comman :, der and fought to kill, not to survive F The Indians waited until every ounc t of lead and powder was expended. See
 ing their white foe virtually disarmed T. they rushed in and butchered the bray n fellows who remained. From the posi- 'f tion occupied by the bodies of Fettel l. man and Brown it was concluded that IS seeing hope die and horrible death b D torture awaiting them should they b ss taken alive, they reserved one bulle l. each, and had shot ono another the mo i'd ment the Sioux were congratulatin r. themselves on their capture. Tn e bodies were found next day by stron a. detachment sent out to reconnoiter. fc IS such was the effect of the slaughter o 8, the garrison that none dared to ventu1 'd to the field and learn the fate of the ga h. lant Fetterman and his brave band. Tn or Sioux had left the remains on the fiel it after denuding them of their clothin 'i- and scalping, and mutilating their r ct mains. The dead were conveyed to tE 'o fort and buried with military honors
 sight of the stockade.