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Before the Little Bighorn: The Army's First Major Defeat on the Plains

Wyoming PBS

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A decade before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, a lesser known fight in Wyoming became one of the most significant battles of the Plains and Indian Wars.

In this episode of Wyoming Chronicle, we visit Fort Phil Kearny and the Fetterman Fight battlefield with historians Sharie Shada and Dave McKee. They explain why the fort was built, how the Fetterman Fight unfolded, and what's new at the recently expanded visitor center.

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⏱️ Key Timestamps
00:00 The Fetterman Fight and Fort Phil Kearny
01:19 History of the Fort
02:28 Why Fort Phil Kearny Was Built Here
03:23 The Fort’s Wood Supply
04:23 The Fetterman Fight
05:17 Visiting the Battle Site
06:40 Remembering Multiple Perspectives
07:22 The Plan Behind the Battle
08:24 How the Fetterman Fight Unfolded
11:53 The Story of Bugler Metzger
12:29 What Happened After the Battle
13:15 Expanding the Fort Phil Kearny Visitor Center
14:28 Rethinking How the Site Is Interpreted
17:03 Telling the Whole Story of Fort Phil Kearny
18:18 Exploring the Wagon Box Fight Site
23:35 The End of Fort Phil Kearny
24:49 Rethinking the Fetterman Monument

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#Wyoming #History #AmericanHistory #PlainsHistory #WyomingPBS

17 Comments

@lewisgeyer1440 2 days ago

A great segment. Thank you!

@kp6215 2 days ago

My great grandfather cared for the welfare of the indigenous feeding them from supplies he transported for the army from Volga, Dakota Territory with the tribes naming a lake for my great grandfather, Byron Pay ( Lake Byron).

@Paul11B2P 1 day ago

Interesting episode 🇺🇸

@sheilam4964 1 day ago

"Families sitting on the hills watching", puts new meaning to the words, "till death do us part". They were with their loved ones, proud of their bravery & sacrifice and were together till the end.

@air4334 1 day ago

Thoroughly enjoyed this Wyoming History segment. Don't stop !!!

@R390A-URR 1 day ago

I visited Fort Fetterman and the fight sites after reading several books about the Bozeman Trail, and Red Cloud’s War. It was very interesting and nice that the general area hasn’t chan ged much. The nearby Wagon Box site is also worth visiting.

@larrypatchett3474 1 day ago (edited)

Nice work folks. The part about the families of the warriors watching was new to me. We lived in Casper when I was in 4th grade and learned about those battles. I seem to remember a field trip to the Fetterman site but that seems unlikely given the distance from Casper. I do remember that old road seen in some of the video. So I know I was there at some point. More good work from Wyoming PBS. I won 5 Heartland Emmys telling Colorado history stories with Colorado PBS12.

@markchoate9021 11 hours ago

Excellent video...

@CplSkiUSMC 1 day ago

Michael Punke's "Ridgeline" is an excellent book about this battle. Although it is fictionalized, it holds with the facts that we know about the battle and fills in imagined details to bring the story to life. In his book, Michael gives us perspective from both sides of the conflict and leaves the reader with confused feelings about which side was "right" in history's eye.
The battle is often called the "Fetterman Massacre" but we tend to think of a massacre as the slaughter of defenseless people. In truth it was a well executed maneuver known in military terms as a baited ambush. Sand Creek was a massacre, the Fetterman battle was an overwhelming military victory. For native tribes, this was a fight to resist the invasion of their homeland. As we helplessly watch Wyoming being bought up today by insanely rich outsiders and our way of life being destroyed, we can begin to understand why the tribes chose to fight for their home and their existence.

@DenverHR2025 5 hours ago

Maybe you forget that the 1851 treaty allowed travel access through these lands as the Bozeman trail.

@izzywatashi371 1 day ago (edited)

The little known 1855 Battle of Hungry Hill, Oregon's own ill fated (we'll teach those natives a lesson!) debacle, featured a Picket's Charge.

@The_FloridaMan 1 day ago

It was not the biggest defeat since 1812. Look up Dade Massacre in Florida in the Seminole Wars.

Also the Civil War...

@corderic5505 1 day ago

j ai déjà plusieurs vidéos et livres sur le massacre de Fetterman et la bataille de Wagon Box

@johngaither9263 18 hours ago

Calling the 80 dead cavalrymen the worst defeat since 1812 ignores the whole civil war. In that war losing 80 men was a light skirmish. The significance of both Fetterman's and Custer's defeats stem from their shock effect exploited by the newspapers. The security of the USA was never in question. Even Red Cloud admitted the futility of fighting the Whites when he told any Indian Chief who would listen that "The whites are as many as the grains of sand on a beach". After his trip to Washington to meet President Grant.