Fort Phil Kearny–History
Fort Phil Kearny

Named for a popular Union general killed in the Civil War, Fort Phil Kearny was established at the forks of Big and Little Piney Creeks by Col. Henry B. Carrington of the 18th U.S. Infantry in July, 1866.

The Mission of this fort and two other posts along the Bozeman Trail, Forts Reno and C. F. Smith, was three-fold: to protect travellers on the Trail; to prevent intertribal warfare between Native Americans in the area; and to draw attention of Indian forces opposed to Euro-American westward expansion away from the trans-continental railroad construction corridor to the south.

All three Bozeman Trail forts were stockade fortifications, with Port Phil Kearny being the largest. Enclosing seventeen acres, the fort wall was eight feet high, 1,496 feet in length, and tapered in width from 600 feet on the north to 240 feet on the south. More than four thousand logs were used to erect the stockade, while over 606,000 feet of lumber and 130,000 bricks were produced in 1867 alone for the extensive building construction.

During its two year existence, Fort Phil Kearny was the focal point of a violent war between the U.S. Army and the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians opposed to intrusions into the last great hunting grounds on the Northern Plains. Besides the Fetterman and Wagon Box battles, many smaller fights took place in the area.

By 1868, the Union Pacific Railroad had reached a point to the west where travellers could bypass the Bozeman Trail route by going to Montana through Idaho, thus making the Bozeman Trail forts expensive liabilities. In the Treaty of 1868, the United States agreed to close the forts and the trail, Fort Phil Kearny was abandoned by the Army in early August, 1868, and burned soon afterwards by the Cheyenne.

In 1963, Fort Phil Kearny was designated a National Historic Landmark. Today, portions of the fort site and the Fetterman and Wagon Box battlefields are included within the Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site boundaries .

Fetterman Fight.
On December 21, 1866, Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors engaged a military force commanded by Captain William J. Fetterman. Ordered to rescue a besieged wagon train, Fetterman’s men pursued Crazy Horse and other warriors acting as decoys over Lodge Trail Ridge where over two thousand Indians waited in ambush The warriors attacked the soldiers, overwhelming the separated cavalry and infantry units. All eighty one men in Fetterman’s command were killed within thirty minutes. Only the Battle of the Little Big Horn stands as a worse defeat for the United States Army and a greater victory for the Plains Indians.

“Portugee” Phillips Ride
Phillips is known for his heroic 236 mile ride to Fort Laramie following the Fetterman Fight. Riding in the deep of winter into the midst of a blizzard, he hid during the day and rode only at night as he passed through enemy territory. He pushed his horse beyond its limit and sacrificed it in the process, completing the ride in just four days, and arriving at Fort Laramie during a ball on Christmas night.

Wagon Box Fight
Indian forces attempted to repeat the Fetterman victory in the summer of 1867. On August 2, about eight-hundred Sioux attacked wood-cutters and soldiers camped at a cutting area five miles from Fort Phil Kearny. During initial stages of the battle, twenty-six soldiers and six civilians took cover inside an oval of wagon boxes used as a stock corral.

After burning another camp, Sioux warriors launched a series of attacks against the corral. Armed with breechloading rifles, the soldiers and civilians commanded by Captain James Powell held off the massed warriors until a relief force arrived from the fort. Three men were killed and two wounded inside of the corral, while Indian casualties were estimated at from five to sixty or more killed, and five to one hundred twenty more wounded.

Reprinted from Wyoming Department of Commerce brochure.