| Russell Minnis
8th American History Rossville Jr. High Plains History Project 2004 |
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| The great leader of the Lakota Sioux, Red Cloud was born by the Platte River. As a young boy he was raised by his Chief Smoke. He ended up killing one of his uncle's primary rivals. The death of his rival earned Red Cloud great prominence within the Lakota nation for his leadership in territorial war. | |
| Red Cloud orchestrated the best war against the United States of America than any other Indian leader. He began his war path at the Bozeman Trail, after he had a vision of all the white men taking over the reservation land they gave them. Red Cloud started out asking the government peacefully to abandon their forts along the Bozeman Trail. Red Cloud's peaceful attempt was a failure so he started his war. | |
| One by one the forts on the Bozeman Trail fell in bloody, agonizing defeat. After the the government realized that all of their forts had been utterly destroyed by the Lakota Sioux, Red Cloud's tribe, they became infuriated and decided to begin a war against Red Cloud and his tribe. Red Cloud knew the government would soon attack, so he must prepare. The single most memorable thing that Red Cloud ever did was winning the Fatal Fetterman Fight. The troops that were led by Fetterman reached the Peno Valley, an enormous force of Indians rose from the high grass. Arrows along with some bullets flew as the ambushers unleashed their mighty and unstoppable wrath. | |
| People think that a troop named Grummond was probably one of the first soldiers to die. He reportedly went down swinging his saber and may have even severed the head of one Indian. The only two civilians there were James Wheatly, and Isaac Fisher them and a few of the soldiers dismounted and formed an effective rear-guard action for a while. Most of the cavalrymen retreated part way back toward the infantry they dismounted and made their last and final stand. | |
| Fetterman and what remained of his foot soldiers were unable to either advance or retreat to the fort, so they formed a defensive circle farther up the slope. That means there was only three very small groups of soldiers trying to fend off a very vast army of Indians that was superior in every way. On an estimation the Indian group shot off about forty thousand arrows during the fight. Wheatly and Fisher both had sixteen-shot Henry repeating rifles and thus were better armed than the soldiers. The cavalrymen had seven-shot Spencer repeating carbines, but the foot soldiers had to make their last stand with cruddy obsolete Springfield muzzleloaders. | |
| The soldiers lower on the slope probably died first, most likely in the last stage of the fight. Fetterman and his soldiers continued to fire until they ran out of ammo. After the United States had lost many of their men to Red Cloud's tribe they had a peace conference, agreeing to his terms. The peace did not last long. Red Cloud, after making the peace treaty, lived the rest of his life in peace. Red Cloud never bothered the government again, and for that, lost his status as a great Indian chief. | |
Revised: February 08, 2004 |
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