Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1941-03-07
Bloody Bozemon Troll Holds Records of Deeds Herosm Reds
80 Men When Officer Dsobe His Superior Orders
Nv CHARLES Il GUTHRIE

By CHARLES Il GUTHRIE
zen Had Gen. Geerge Arns4rsog
-, Custer enjsyed the socces against
Inc Sioux that two 6etachments
l., II Indian fighters experienced
aIonE the Boseman trau nine Year,
, earlier there would have been NO
massacre along the slopes Of the
=, yIittIe Big Horn. The Seventh
cavalry would have chased the hos
tiles clear back TO the Dak0tAs.
The Bloody BoZeman" they called
trail that cut northwest up through
yoming-through the Powder river
found-to. the Montana gold fields.
IN. m Bridger told them not to lay 1t
II there. He knew it spelled trouble.
ng,, he old trapper preferred to 60 west
the Big Horn mountains, up the Big
orn basin, through the friendly
inl puntry Of the Crows: But TINS was vas
longer journey. Longer too was the
,,, lin up the Missouri TO Fort Benton
nd across country to Alder gulch and
" kannack.
~ And the get-rich-quick boys. press
nr on toward the new colorado want
n, ri to get there as fast as possible.
Indians or no Indians.
nj. Finally the government. sworn by
~ reaty TO respect the Sioux country
nd not let any whites encroach upon
l. knuckled under to pressure and
40 built forts along the Bozeman trail
@ protect the tide of goldseekers, who
nd egally had no business there and had
n, hey happened to stop an arrow or
IL Bullet.
Forts Reno and Phil Kearney were
Il. built in Wyoming and Fort C.. F..
Smith. go miles north OF Kearney. on
the banks of the Big Horn river in
Montana.
ambush 81 Men
The Sioux were not long in letting
the ntruders know just what chunk
they had bitten off. The Fetterman
disaster of Dec. 81, 1866. was enough
: ITO chill the heart Of the bravest SOL
!: der on earth. On that sanguinary day
Is &Breyet Lieutenant Colonel Fetterman
and 81 men from Phil Kearney, the
hated fort on the Little Piney." were
ambushed and slain by the Sioux, un-
J / der Chief Red Cloud. The soldiers had
4gone out to rescue wagon train that
r was under attack The willy redskins
retreated over a ridge. Fetterman.
against the explicit orders of Gen.
AHenry 3. Darlington commanding Of
n .icer at the fort followed them. He
81 pursued them to CORY death, meted
81 out by several thousand hostiles. Fet-
n terman had boosted that he could whip
4 the whole Sioux nation. He ate his
4 words that day The Indians swarmed
4 over the soldiers like flies and Dashed
their heads in with clubs and rifle
butts. Very few white men were killed
4 by bullets or arrows.
The F'etterman disaster was a severe
4 Jolt but the Hay Field and Wagon Box
4 fights occurred the following summer
and the palefaceS got ample revenge.
Il They were terribly outnumbered in
4 both these engagements, even as were
Custer and Fetterman and it was only
by the grace of God, the new breech-
loading rifles and the Indians I'M
Willingness to make sustained charge,
4 that they did not meet similar fate.
4 Instead they slaughtered hundreds Of
4 Indians and themselves lost less than
4 a dozen men. Red Cloud admitted that
these battles cost him the flower Of
his army The great chief never agar,
/ led force against the white men.
Il The Hay Field fight occurred Aug.
4 !. 1867, and the Wagon Box fight the
| next day. F. G. Burnett, civilian en-
4 ploye at Fort Smith, in an account
4 of the Hay Field battle, said the Sioux.
] Cheyennes and Arapahoes had gath
cred all their warriors together on a
stream about Is miles east of Fort
Smith. These braves, several thousand
Of them, had combined for the purpose
of wiping out all the forts on the
Bozeman trail.
Corral Protects Whites
They disagreed on which fort to
attack first. one group wanting to rub