United States Army Officer. He entered the Army in 1861 and was brevetted to Lieutenant Colonel for gallantry. Following the war he was assigned as a Captain to the 27th Infantry and was stationed at Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming. On December 21, 1866, a band of Cheyenne and Sioux attacked a wood train near the fort and Fetterman took command of a relief column. However his impetuousness and lack of knowledge of frontier warfare, as well as his disregard of his orders not to venture beyond Lodge Trail Ridge, led him to follow a decoy band of warriors right into an ambush by the main body of Comanche and Sioux under the command of High Backbone. He and all 80 of his men were killed, and the "Fetterman Massacre," as the incident became known was second only to the Custer defeat in 1876 among Native American defeats of the United States Army. His remains would eventually be moved to the National Cemetery at the Little Big Horn.
United States Army Officer. He entered the Army in 1861 and was brevetted to Lieutenant Colonel for gallantry. Following the war he was assigned as a Captain to the 27th Infantry and was stationed at Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming. On December 21, 1866, a band of Cheyenne and Sioux attacked a wood train near the fort and Fetterman took command of a relief column. However his impetuousness and lack of knowledge of frontier warfare, as well as his disregard of his orders not to venture beyond Lodge Trail Ridge, led him to follow a decoy band of warriors right into an ambush by the main body of Comanche and Sioux under the command of High Backbone. He and all 80 of his men were killed, and the "Fetterman Massacre," as the incident became known was second only to the Custer defeat in 1876 among Native American defeats of the United States Army. His remains would eventually be moved to the National Cemetery at the Little Big Horn.
Inscription
77
CAPT.
CO. A
18 INF.
Family Members
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