Conflict: To 1863
Native American habitation in the areas the Bozeman Trail crosses
dates back thousands of years. When European
explorers first came into the area during the 1700s, they found the Crow occupying
the front range of the Big Horns and the Powder River country, although Shoshone, Sioux,
Cheyenne and Arapaho also hunted and traveled through the region. The land was rich with
wildlife and other resources crucial to the lifestyle of the nomadic peoples. As the new United States expanded westward to the
Mississippi River and beyond, pressures on the Sioux and other tribes permanently forced
them further out on the Great Plains. Conflicts
over prime hunting areas such as the Powder River country increased
Until the 1840s, the only Whites to explore the plains and
mountains were traders, trappers and a few other adventurers. Increasing emigrant travel over the
Oregon-California Trails soon impacted wildlife and the environment. It soon became apparent to the Indians that their
livelihoods were in peril. Increasing
tensions led to conflicts between the tribes, and between Indians and Whites.
In 1851, the United States Government made its first major effort to
maintain peace in the West. A great council
of most of the tribes at Fort Laramie resulted in a treaty that attempted to designate tribal land boundaries,
and the responsibilities of the Indians and the Government. Most of the Powder River
country was identified as Crow territory, but the treaty also recognized the right of
other tribes to travel and hunt in the area. Most of the Indians did not understand or
ignored the artificial boundaries, and continued to live the nomadic life.
Open hostility between the United States Army and the Sioux, largest
of the Plains tribes, erupted in 1854 when a misunderstanding led to a force under
Lieutenant John Grattan firing on a village, and the Sioux annihilating the soldiers in
retaliation. The Army retaliated during the
next two years, and although major warfare faded out, the seeds for greater conflict had
The conflicts with the Army led the Sioux and their allies the
Cheyenne to push further west, and by 1860, they had forced the Crows out of the Powder
River region. They now look at that country
as their own, the last refuge from the encroaching Whites.
The Bozeman Trail: 1863-1866
The beginning of the Civil War limited the Armys presence in
the West, as the regular troops were recalled to the East.
As the nation was torn apart, Indian concerns on the Plains became secondary
issues. Maintaining peace in the West would
be left to a variety of volunteer militias raised by the western states and territories.
Even though the Government and Army were otherwise engaged, the
American people continued the western expansion. Emigration
to California and Oregon continued, while gold rushes occurred in Colorado and Idaho. There were plenty of men willing to trade war at
home for adventure and opportunity in the West.
The discovery of gold in present-day western Montana in 1862 soon
started a rush to that area. Getting there was a problem, since the main routes were from
the Oregon Trail through Idaho, or along the Missouri River in the north. Both ways were long and expensive. The need for a short cut would soon be met, with
tragic consequences for many.
John Bozeman and John Jacobs met in the mining town of Bannack in
1862. Bozeman had come west in 1860 to
Colorado, while Jacobs had come to the Northwest in 1852.
By the time they met, both were seasoned frontiersmen. In March of 1863, they left Bannack and headed
south to explore a short cut from the gold camps and settlements to the Oregon Trail. After being stripped of their provisions by
Indians, they managed to make it to an Oregon Trail settlement at Deer Creek on the North
Platte. They had found a new
short cut, which basically followed a north-south travel corridor used for years by
Indians and early white explorers.
Bozeman and Jacobs first attempt to take a wagon train north on
what was soon known as the Bozeman Trail ended abruptly when Cheyenne and
Sioux warriors stopped the wagons and forced the party to turn around. In 1864, four trains carried 1,500 people up the
Bozeman Trail to Montana. Only one train, the
Townsend party, had a major conflict with Indians when a Cheyenne and Sioux force attacked
them near Powder River.
Warfare erupted again on the Plains in 1864. During most of the early 1860s, the
Cheyenne, Arapaho and Sioux were mostly at peace, although the Santee Sioux War in
Minnesota and upper Dakota made the tribes uneasy, as did the growing White settlements in
Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado. It was a
tinder dry situation, waiting for a spark. A
series of aggressive attacks by Colorado militia units against the Cheyenne and Arapaho in
1864 set the situation smoldering. The
vicious assault on a peaceful village of Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek in late
November set the Plains ablaze. Soon,
Cheyenne, Sioux and Arapaho warriors struck at the communication routes and settlements
along the Platte River valleys, burning the town of Julesburg and destroying miles of
telegraph lines. Confused movements by the
few army units available did little to curtail the Indians wrath.
After their initial fury was spent, many of
the Cheyenne, Sioux and Arapaho decided to quit the Southern Plains and go north to join
their relatives and allies in the Powder River country, hopefully far away from the White
expansionism that was making the Platte and Arkansas Rivers regions impossible to live in. Thus, in 1865 hundreds of Indians moved into the
area the Bozeman Trail ran through, strengthening the forces of those that were already
there, and reinforcing the tribes determination to protect this last great hunting
grounds. Travelers on the Bozeman Trail would
face a foe fighting for survival.
Recovering from the shock of the Indian attacks along the Platte, the
Army made plans for a retaliatory campaign. The
end of the Civil War made available a huge force of veteran soldiers, and during early
1865 units were moved from the east and west to jumping off points for a massive offensive
against the Indians in the Powder River country. It
would be a three-pronged attack, with General Patrick E. Connor leading a main force up
the Bozeman Trail into the heart of the Indian hunting grounds. Besides punishing the Indians, it was hoped this
effort would securely open the route for travel to Montana.
Connors expedition and the other two columns in the campaign
accomplished little. The only major
concentration of Indians Connor found was a village of non-belligerent Arapaho on Tongue
River, which he attacked on August 29th. Even
though Connor destroyed the village the only lasting effect was that the Arapaho were no
longer peaceful. A few days after they were
attacked, the Indians put the Sawyers wagon train under siege for several days until a
truce was negotiated. Most of the Cheyenne
and Sioux were never found, although one of the other columns fought a series of
inconclusive skirmishes with the Sioux on lower Powder River.
The only lasting contribution of Connors efforts was the
establishment of a fort on the Powder River in August 1865.
First called Fort Connor, it was later renamed Fort Reno.
During the fall and winter of 1865-1866, a small force of former
Confederate soldiers known as Galvanized Yankees garrisoned it. The small fort was mostly left undisturbed by the
Indians that winter since it posed little threat of offensive action. It would be the spring of 1866 before conflict
broke out along the Bozeman Trail.
Fort Phil Kearny: 1866-1868
During the period after the Sand Creek Massacre, a growing peace
party in the American East advocated negotiation and treaty agreements with the Plains
Indians. Treaty negotiations were carried out
at several locations, including Fort Laramie. On
June 13, negotiations were going on between Sioux leaders and government officials when
the Eighteenth Infantry came marching to near the fort.
Commanded by Colonel Henry B. Carrington, it was soon revealed that the
soldiers were headed up the Bozeman Trail to build new forts. After expressing displeasure, the Ogallala Sioux
leader Red Cloud and others opposed to the Armys presence in the Powder River
country traveled north to alert the Sioux and Cheyenne.
On June 17, Carringtons column started up the Bozeman Trail. The long wagon train contained a mixture of
supplies, everything from tools and window sashes to canned oysters. At Fort Reno, Carrington relieved the garrison,
replacing them with two companies of his own men. Then he moved up the trail to find a
location for the next post.
The column arrived at Piney Creek on July 13, and after spending some
time exploring other sites, Carrington selected a low plateau between Big and Little
Piney. It had the advantage of being close to
the Bozeman Trail, and timber for construction was only five miles away in the mountains
to the west. Construction soon began.
Hostilities also soon began. On
July 17, Indian warriors ran off a herd of livestock, and several soldiers were killed or
wounded in the following pursuit and skirmishes. A
party of White traders camping near the fort was also killed. These would be the first of many tragedies for the
garrison over the next two years.
During the rest of the summer and fall, construction of Fort Phil
Kearny continued, and a detachment was sent north to build a third fort on the Big Horn
River. Like Forts Phil Kearny and Reno, Fort
C.F. Smith would see its share of warfare during its existence.
The Indian strategy was simple and effective. Strike quickly, secure livestock if possible,
avoid unnecessary risks were the tactics, and they work well. Soldiers were continually going to the
relief of woodcutting parties, small wagon trains, and attempting to recover livestock. Usually, the Indians faded safely away from the
Because of the constant threat of attack, travel on the Bozeman Trail
became limited to military parties and wagon trains bringing supplies to the Forts. It usefulness as an emigrant route was almost
non-existent after the forts were established. It
was all the Army could do to protect and maintain the garrisons.
As the winter of 1866 approached, much of the construction of Fort
Phil Kearny was completed. On October 30, a grand review was held to celebrate the
garrisons accomplishments. Still,
sporadic Indian attacks continued.
In November, reinforcements arrived, including the man that would
become famous through disaster, Captain William J. Fetterman. Throwing in with other frustrated officers, he
pushed Carrington for offensive action against the Indians.
Like most others at the fort, he had no previous military experience in
The crucial period in Fort Phil Kearnys history came in
December 1866. The Indians changed strategic
goals, deciding to attempt to lure a detachment out of the fort to a location where
superior numbers could overwhelm it. On
December 6, they almost succeeded when several hundred warriors temporarily surrounded
both Carrington and Fetterman, and an officer and soldier were killed.
The strategy was refined, and another attempt was made later that
month. After failing to lure a detachment commanded by Captain James Powell into the trap
on December 19, the warriors succeeded on December 21, when Captain Fetterman and eighty
men were drawn over Lodge Trail Ridge. In
less than thirty minutes, Fettermans command was annihilated by hundreds of Indians.
The Army had suffered its worst defeat to date on the Plains.
In January, reinforcements were rushed to Fort Phil Kearny, and the
garrison suffered great hardship from lack of supplies and extreme cold. Carrington had been transferred, and the new
commander, Henry Wessells, worked to improve both morale and garrison conditions. In the spring, supply wagons once more arrived,
and the Bozeman Trail forts continued to function, even though there was no civilian
travel on the trail.
Small Indian attacks continued, but there was no large engagement
until August of 1867.
On August 1, Cheyenne forces attacked a haying party near Fort C.F.
Smith, but were held off by the firepower of new Springfield rifles the soldiers had
received earlier in the summer. The next
day, August 2, several hundred Sioux warriors launched an assault on a camp of woodcutters
and soldiers near Fort Phil Kearny. Armed
with the same rifles as the C.F. Smith soldiers, the 32 woodcutters and troops fought from
behind a barricade of wagon boxes, repulsing several attacks for five hours until a relief
The fall of 1867 saw some small skirmishes, the largest being the
Shurley Fight in November. Improvements
continued at the posts, but the expense of maintaining them and the lack of traffic on the
Bozeman Trail soon doomed them.
During the winter of 1867-1868, the government reached the decision
to abandon the Bozeman Trail forts and close the Bozeman Trail. Fort C.F. Smith was vacated early in the summer,
Fort Phil Kearny in August, and Fort Reno last. By
the fall of 1868, the Sioux and Cheyenne once more had the Powder River country to
Aftermath: Since 1868
The end of the Bozeman Trail Forts did not mean the end of conflict
in the Powder River country. The next war,
and the last, started in the spring of 1876, when a column led by General George Crook
moved up the old Bozeman Trail to confront the last free-roaming Sioux and Cheyenne bands
that refused to move permanently on reservations. Crook
would march up the trail in March, and again in June and November. On June17, the Indian forces met his soldiers at
the Rosebud, and fought them to a standstill. A
week later, the Sioux and Cheyenne achieved their greatest victory at the Little Big Horn.
By the spring of 1877, most of the Indians had been forced out of the
Powder River region, and White settlers began to use the Bozeman Trail as they came into
the area to establish ranches, farms and communities.
When many of the old soldiers came back to Fort Phil Kearny in 1908 to
dedicate a monument at Fetterman Battlefield, they found far a different land than the
frontier they entered in 1866.
Today, the Bozeman Trail route is still a major travel corridor. The site of Fort Phil Kearny stands beside
Interstate 90, offering travelers a glimpse into the past that is our history.