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What happened in the Fetterman Massacre of 1866?

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Plains Wars View of the army camp at Hidden Wood Creek during Lieut. Col. George Armstrong Custer's Black Hills expedition, 1874; photograph by W.H. Illingworth.

The Fetterman Massacre, which occurred on December 21, 1866, was a significant conflict during the Plains Wars and represented the worst U.S. military defeat in the region up to that time.12

The event took place near Fort Phil Kearny, a military post established to protect the Bozeman Trail, a route that cut through sovereign lands of the Oceti Sakowin (Sioux) and their allies. A coalition of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors, led by the Oglala chief Red Cloud, sought to halt this encroachment.12

On the day of the massacre, Capt. William J. Fetterman led approximately 80 soldiers from the fort to relieve a wood-gathering party. Ignoring warnings about Indigenous tactics, Fetterman pursued a group of warriors—including Crazy Horse—who were acting as decoys. Fetterman’s men were drawn into a well-laid ambush and were completely annihilated, with no survivors. This defeat intensified anti-Indigenous sentiment in the eastern United States and eventually contributed to the government's decision to abandon the Bozeman Trail in the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie.21