Fort Phil Kearny
Encyclopedia
Fort Phil Kearny was an outpost of the United States Army
that existed in the late 1860s in present-day northeastern Wyoming
along the Bozeman Trail
. Construction began Friday July 13, 1866 by Companies A, C, E and H of the 2nd Battalion, 18th Infantry, under the direction of the regimental commander and Mountain District commander Col.
Henry B. Carrington
. The post was named for Maj. Gen.
Philip Kearny
, a popular figure in the American Civil War
. The fort should be distinguished from the similarly named Fort Kearney in Nebraska
, which was named for Kearny's uncle Stephen W. Kearny
. Today, the fort and the nearby Fetterman and Wagon Box battle sites are maintained by the State of Wyoming as the Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site.
The fort was located along the east side of the Bighorn Mountains in present-day northern Johnson County, approximately 15 miles (24 km) north of Buffalo
. Along with Fort Reno
and Fort C. F. Smith
, the fort was established along the Bozeman Trail in the Powder River Country
at the height of the Indian Wars
to protect prospective miners traveling the trail north from the Oregon Trail
to present-day Montana
.
Fort Phil Kearny was the largest of the three stockaded fortifications along the trail. Its eight foot (2 m) high log walls enclosed an area of 17 acres (69,000 m²). The walls measured 1,496 feet (456 m) in length, tapering in width from 600 feet (180 m) on the north to 240 feet (73 m) on the south. Construction of the stockade required more than 4,000 logs. In 1867, the building construction required over 606,000 board feet
of lumber and 130,000 adobe bricks.
The fort was under continuous construction and was nearing completion in December 1866, when its garrison was due to be re-designated the 27th Infantry. At its peak strength the garrison numbered 400 troops and 150 civilians: 9 officers, a surgeon, and 329 enlisted men of five infantry companies of the 18th/27th Infantry, including the newly recruited Company K, 27th; one officer and 60 men of Company C, 2nd Cavalry, and 150 civilian quartermaster and contractor employees.
The fort, known to the Indians as the "hated post on the Little Piney", played an important role in Red Cloud's War
. The area around the fort was the site of the Fetterman massacre and the Wagon Box Fight
. By 1868, the Union Pacific Railroad
had reached far enough west that emigrants could reach the Montana gold fields through present-day Idaho
, rendering the dangerous Bozeman Trail obsolete. All three forts along the trail were abandoned as part of the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
. Shortly after, it was burned by Cheyenne
Indians.
Fort Phil Kearny, including the nearby sites of the Fetterman massacre and the Wagon Box Fight, was designated a National Historic Landmark
in 1960.
has been furnished to depict the period quarters of an officer's wife and a non-commissioned officer’s quarters. Visitors can also tour the nearby battlefields which are located within a five mile radius of the visitor center and include interpretive trails.
In 1966, NBC
televised "The Massacre at Fort Phil Kearny" on the anthology series Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
, with Robert Fuller
in the role of Captain Fetterman. Other stars were Richard Egan
, Phyllis Avery
, and Carroll O'Connor
.
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
that existed in the late 1860s in present-day northeastern Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
along the Bozeman Trail
Bozeman Trail
The Bozeman Trail was an overland route connecting the gold rush territory of Montana to the Oregon Trail. Its most important period was from 1863-1868. The flow of pioneers and settlers through territory of American Indians provoked their resentment and caused attacks. The U.S. Army undertook...
. Construction began Friday July 13, 1866 by Companies A, C, E and H of the 2nd Battalion, 18th Infantry, under the direction of the regimental commander and Mountain District commander Col.
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Henry B. Carrington
Henry B. Carrington
Henry Beebee Carrington was a lawyer, professor, prolific author, and an officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War and in the Old West during Red Cloud's War...
. The post was named for Maj. Gen.
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
Philip Kearny
Philip Kearny
Philip Kearny, Jr., was a United States Army officer, notable for his leadership in the Mexican-American War and American Civil War. He was killed in action in the 1862 Battle of Chantilly.-Early life and career:...
, a popular figure in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. The fort should be distinguished from the similarly named Fort Kearney in Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, which was named for Kearny's uncle Stephen W. Kearny
Stephen W. Kearny
Stephen Watts Kearny surname also appears as Kearney in some historic sources; August 30, 1794 October 31, 1848), was one of the foremost antebellum frontier officers of the United States Army. He is remembered for his significant contributions in the Mexican-American War, especially the conquest...
. Today, the fort and the nearby Fetterman and Wagon Box battle sites are maintained by the State of Wyoming as the Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site.
The fort was located along the east side of the Bighorn Mountains in present-day northern Johnson County, approximately 15 miles (24 km) north of Buffalo
Buffalo, Wyoming
Buffalo is a city in Johnson County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 3,900 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Johnson County...
. Along with Fort Reno
Fort Reno (Wyoming)
Fort Reno was a wooden fort constructed in 1865 by the United States Army on the Great Plains frontier in the Dakota Territory in present-day Johnson County, Wyoming...
and Fort C. F. Smith
Fort C. F. Smith
Fort C. F. Smith was a military post established in the Powder River country by the United States Army in Montana Territory on August 12, 1866, during Red Cloud's War. Established by order of Col. Henry B...
, the fort was established along the Bozeman Trail in the Powder River Country
Powder River Country
The Powder River Country refers to an area of the Great Plains in northeastern Wyoming in the United States. The area is loosely defined between the Bighorn Mountains and the Black Hills, in the upper drainage areas of the Powder, Tongue, and Little Bighorn rivers.During the late 1860s, the area...
at the height of the Indian Wars
Indian Wars
American Indian Wars is the name used in the United States to describe a series of conflicts between American settlers or the federal government and the native peoples of North America before and after the American Revolutionary War. The wars resulted from the arrival of European colonizers who...
to protect prospective miners traveling the trail north from the Oregon Trail
Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail is a historic east-west wagon route that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon and locations in between.After 1840 steam-powered riverboats and steamboats traversing up and down the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers sped settlement and development in the flat...
to present-day Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
.
Fort Phil Kearny was the largest of the three stockaded fortifications along the trail. Its eight foot (2 m) high log walls enclosed an area of 17 acres (69,000 m²). The walls measured 1,496 feet (456 m) in length, tapering in width from 600 feet (180 m) on the north to 240 feet (73 m) on the south. Construction of the stockade required more than 4,000 logs. In 1867, the building construction required over 606,000 board feet
Board foot
The board-foot is a specialized unit of measure for the volume of lumber in the United States and Canada. It is the volume of a one-foot length of a board one foot wide and one inch thick....
of lumber and 130,000 adobe bricks.
The fort was under continuous construction and was nearing completion in December 1866, when its garrison was due to be re-designated the 27th Infantry. At its peak strength the garrison numbered 400 troops and 150 civilians: 9 officers, a surgeon, and 329 enlisted men of five infantry companies of the 18th/27th Infantry, including the newly recruited Company K, 27th; one officer and 60 men of Company C, 2nd Cavalry, and 150 civilian quartermaster and contractor employees.
Red Cloud's War
Red Cloud's War was an armed conflict between the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho and the United States in the Wyoming Territory and the Montana Territory from 1866 to 1868. The war was fought over control of the Powder River Country in north central present day Wyoming...
. The area around the fort was the site of the Fetterman massacre and the Wagon Box Fight
Wagon Box Fight
The Wagon Box Fight was an engagement on August 2, 1867, during Red Cloud's War between the U.S. Army and Lakota Native Americans in the vicinity of Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming.-Background:...
. By 1868, the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
had reached far enough west that emigrants could reach the Montana gold fields through present-day Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
, rendering the dangerous Bozeman Trail obsolete. All three forts along the trail were abandoned as part of the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
The Treaty of Fort Laramie was an agreement between the United States and the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota, and Arapaho Nation signed in 1868 at Fort Laramie in the Wyoming Territory, guaranteeing to the Lakota ownership of the Black Hills, and further...
. Shortly after, it was burned by Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
Indians.
Fort Phil Kearny, including the nearby sites of the Fetterman massacre and the Wagon Box Fight, was designated a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1960.
Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site
Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site includes a visitor's center with exhibits, videos, a bookstore, and self-guided tours of the fort grounds and outlying sites. The tour marks the archaeological remains of the fort's buildings. A cabin built by the Civilian Conservation CorpsCivilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...
has been furnished to depict the period quarters of an officer's wife and a non-commissioned officer’s quarters. Visitors can also tour the nearby battlefields which are located within a five mile radius of the visitor center and include interpretive trails.
In 1966, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
televised "The Massacre at Fort Phil Kearny" on the anthology series Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre is an anthology television series, sponsored by Chrysler Corporation, which ran on NBC from 1963 through 1967...
, with Robert Fuller
Robert Fuller (actor)
Robert Fuller is an American former television Western actor and current rancher. In his five decades of television, he's best known for starring roles on the popular 1960s western series Laramie as Jess Harper, and Wagon Train as Cooper Smith, as well as his work for his lead role, Dr...
in the role of Captain Fetterman. Other stars were Richard Egan
Richard Egan
Richard Egan may refer to:*Richard Egan , American film actor*Richard Egan , American businessman, co-founder of EMC Corporation, one-time Ambassador to Ireland*Richard Egan , American ragtime composer and performer...
, Phyllis Avery
Phyllis Avery
Phyllis Avery was an American television and film actress.-Early life and career:Avery was born in New York City to Evelyn and author Stephen Morehouse Avery. Her father hailed from Webster Groves, Missouri, near St. Louis. Her first role was as Marjorie in the 1951 film Queen for a Day based on...
, and Carroll O'Connor
Carroll O'Connor
John Carroll O'Connor best known as Carroll O'Connor, was an American actor, producer and director whose television career spanned four decades...
.
External links
- Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming Division of State Parks and Historic Sites
- Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site - Fort Phil Kearny/Bozeman Trail Association
- 1868 photo